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| :-( |
Fact: Mother Nature conquers all. Today our post was supposed to be a continuation on yesterday's topic: cucumbers. However, mother nature had other plans. Today we had a lot of rain and wind due to a tropical wave. I arrived home and, as usual, headed to our balcony to check on our container garden. I open the door and find myself before a disaster. Our cherry tomato plant had its trunk broken in half. The tomato was at least 3 feet tall with some large green tomatoes. So needless to say we're very sad.
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| The plant broke at the stake height |
A slightly broken tomato trunk can be saved by splintering it; much like you would do with a bruised finger. This one, though, is damaged past the point of splintering. One error we commited when planting this tomato was that we did not provide a supporting structure or large stake to tie down the plant. Tomatoes can get very tall and top heavy so providing some support is recommended. We had a small 1 foot stake which actually contributed to the problem (see picture). Lesson learned!
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| Will it survive? |
However, we're not giving up hope. Tomato trunks can generate roots so we're going to try and save it. What we did was cut off the lower branches to maximize trunk area and minimize water requirements. We followed our standard procedure for planting tomatoes which includes inserting crushed eggshells (for calcium) and matches (for phosphorus) in the hole. Then we planted the trunk as deep as possible to stimulate root growth. We'll know in a few days if the plant survives.
I hope you all learned from our mistakes and take our advice on how to plan for growing tomatoes. Join us next time for more on cucumbers. I hope.
The best way to save the plant is, trim off a inch at the broken end, remove some leaves at the bottom, stick it into a container with some water, place it indoor, change the water every day, the plant will start rooting in a few days time, when there is plenty of roots transfer to the ground and give it some shade for another few day then you got a new tomato plant with fruits. for the 4 inch plant in the ground it should still be able to grow some new shoots soon if not remove it from the ground.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymax for following our blog. The main tomato plant will survive since it had two trunks and only one broke so we're not too worried about it. We will take your suggestion into consideration in trying to save the broken trunk.
ReplyDeleteGet well tomatoes. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good wishes anonymous poster
ReplyDelete