I'm no farmer

[CapLock]

I've tried for three years to have a garden. Can't till up the yard so I've put everything into containers. Main crop that I'd like is tomatoes. Last year the wife and I had grand ideas of canning tomatoes, salsa, and spaghetti sauce. We were lucky to have enough for a few salads in reality.

Any of you do well with tomatoes here? If so what is your secret?

[davsel]

I've had poor luck with containers - dry out really fast in this climate. Bury the containers to ground level.
Catch some stocker rainbows at your local pond and bury a head and guts under each new plant. Give them plenty of water.
Works for me.

[J]

Use big containers, and a potting soil that has lots of mulch/compostables in it. Put half an inch of straight mulch on the top after planting to keep the roots and real soil cool. I use half whisky barrels that you can pick up from home Depot. A big container is going to resist heat changes and water fluctuations better than a small pot. You can plant a few in a big container and have better luck that a few small containers.

Put them in a place that gets only a couple hours of direct sunlight (3-5 hours Max during peak summer), with indirect light the rest of the day. You won't get big fruit this way, but you should get a good yield of small to medium fruit and the plant won't fry in the colorado sun.

Over watering is easier to do than underwatering. stick your finger in the soil about an inch and a half (2 inches including mulch), if there is any moisture in the dirt wait another day. When you do water, water a bunch to get the water down deep in the soil, to promote deep root growth. This ends up being every 3 days or so for me unless it's particularly hot and dry, then every 2 days. Once every other week use a spray in fertilizer that attaches to your hose with the watering. Expect the leaves to droop in the middle of the day during high heat. If they don't bounce back during the night, they need more water. But many people think the heat droop is the same as an underwater droop.

Keep on the small bugs... They will kill the fruit. A very diluted dish soap and water mixture in a spray bottle is a good solution. Spray down the fruit and leaves if any sign of bugs.

[davsel]

Hunting is less dangerous than farming

[Zundfolge]

You don't have to be a farmer to survive after the apocalypse ... you just have to be better armed than one of the nearby farmers.

[TheGrey]

I think your best bet is to watch the sales at Sprouts. At least twice a year (sometimes more) they have roma tomatoes on sale, 2 lbs /$1. When they do this, I buy 50 lbs and take them home and can them. Growing tomatoes in this climate is tricky; growing enough to make it worthwhile to can is nigh impossible. I tend to wash the romas and toss them into my gigantic turkey roaster with onions and peppers, roast the whole batch for a few hours and blend them into roasted tomato sauce which I then can. My advice? Try growing heirloom slicing tomatoes instead. Good luck!

[BushMasterBoy]

Our secret is the warmer weather. Besides the shooting range, only good thing about it. We already have a nice edible lettuce.

[Zundfolge]

Growing tomatoes in this climate is tricky; growing enough to make it worthwhile to can is nigh impossible.

Even down here in The Springs the growing season for tomatoes is just too short to get a big crop (which is why we've been growing mostly cherry tomatoes in several varieties and some "weird" varieties like indigos and green zebras). If you want to grow lots of 'maters you need to consider investing in a greenhouse (and make sure you're getting indeterminate varieties, not determinate ... many "container" tomatoes are determinate and are only going to produce a single crop).

I have a friend who has a cabin up north of Woodland Park, he built a greenhouse out of one of those cheap kits and it worked great (until the first hail storm destroyed it).

[CapLock]

Going to move the pots into a more shaded area. Right now they are all in the garage out of the snow. The pots I'm using now are probably 10 gallon pots. Any bigger and I'd have a hard time moving them if needed. Thanks for the good ideas.

[TheGrey]

Even down here in The Springs the growing season for tomatoes is just too short to get a big crop (which is why we've been growing mostly cherry tomatoes in several varieties and some "weird" varieties like indigos and green zebras). If you want to grow lots of 'maters you need to consider investing in a greenhouse (and make sure you're getting indeterminate varieties, not determinate ... many "container" tomatoes are determinate and are only going to produce a single crop).

I have a friend who has a cabin up north of Woodland Park, he built a greenhouse out of one of those cheap kits and it worked great (until the first hail storm destroyed it).

I've admired those greenhouses; I'm always concerned about the damn hailstorms taking them out. We really don't have adequate space for them anyhow, but it's nice to dream about having a greenhouse!