Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary: Wood Shavings & Nitrogen Tie-Up 🍓 Why Mulch Strawberries? Mulching suppresses weeds and keeps the berries clean by lifting them off the dirt, preventing rot in wet weather. 🌲 The Nitrogen Myth: Fresh wood shavings or sawdust will pull nitrogen out of the soil as they break down. To prevent this, you … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Starting Direct-Sow Crops Indoors 🌿 Dill Transplants: People might laugh at starting dill indoors, but transplanting whole “plugs” (bunches) of dill into the garden gives you a massive head start over direct-seeded dill (which takes forever to germinate in cold spring soil). 🥬 Lettuce Colors: Indoor-grown lettuce (under grow lights) will often … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Planting Fresh Pumpkin Seeds 🎃 Straight to the Soil: Unlike tomatoes, pumpkin and squash seeds do not need to be fermented to remove a gel coat. You can plant them immediately after scooping them out of the fruit. 💧 The Float Test: Fresh seeds from a grocery store or storage pumpkin can … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: The Mylar Greenhouse Hack 🌑 The Shade Problem: If your greenhouse is built too close to a fence, house, or tree line, the shaded side will stay cold, and the plants will become leggy trying to reach for the sun. 🪞 The Mylar Solution: Hang highly reflective Mylar film (commonly used in … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Troubleshooting Stalled Eggplants 🍆 The Root of the Problem: If your eggplant or pepper seedlings stall and stop growing, it is almost always an issue below the soil line (poor root development). 🪴 Potting Up: Don’t leave seedlings in tiny 6-cell plug trays for too long. They need to be moved into … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: The “Bottomless Cup” Tomato Hack 🥶 The Spring Dilemma: What do you do when your indoor tomatoes are completely root-bound, but the outdoor/greenhouse soil is still too cold for deep planting? ✂️ The Hack: Cut the bottom off the plastic nursery cup! Plant the cup directly into the soil, leaving it slightly … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Preventing Pepper Blossom Drop 🌶️ The Cold Shock: Peppers and eggplants absolutely hate cold nights and drastic temperature swings. If you move them to an unheated greenhouse too early, the stress will cause them to drop all their blossoms and stunt their growth for weeks. ✂️ Pinching Indoor Blooms: If your peppers … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Troubleshooting Crispy Seedling Leaves 🍂 The Symptoms: If your indoor tomato seedling leaves are curling tightly and the edges are turning crispy and black (but the rest of the leaf stays green), it is rarely a disease. It is usually an environmental or cultural issue. 🪴 Pot Size Matters: The most common … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Planting Grocery Store Shallots 🧅 The Supermarket Hack: Planting grocery store shallots is a great way to save money, as actual shallot “sets” from seed catalogs can be very expensive. 👅 Why Are They Bitter? Extreme chemical bitterness in onions (not just spicy heat) is usually the result of commercial growing conditions, … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Preventing Late Blight on Outdoor Tomatoes 🛡️ Prevention is Key: If your outdoor tomatoes turn black and mushy in the summer, that is Late Blight. Once it hits, it’s usually too late. You must plan ahead to keep the foliage dry. ☔ The Rain Roof Method: You can successfully grow delicate greenhouse … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Fixing Stalled Baby Cucumbers in Cold Soil 🥒 The Stalling Problem: When outdoor cucumber vines set tiny fruit that refuse to size up, it is almost always a root issue caused by cold, soggy soil or extreme spring temperature swings. ⛰️ The “Ridge Method” Fix: To combat cold outdoor soil, plant cucumbers … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Mid-April Greenhouse Planting Risks & Rewards 🍅 Early Tomatoes: Planting tomatoes directly into the cold greenhouse dirt in mid-April (Zone 4) is risky. Growers use heavy frost blankets, plastic film, and 1.3-gallon (5L) jugs of hot water placed near the plants at night as thermal mass to keep them alive. 🦆 … Read more