Tomatoes: Why I Luv Growing Them

This year has been a rough growing year. I've never had issues with growing tomatoes from seed but this year has been a game changer. The weather has been completely wacky going from a balmy 70 degrees to 90 degrees in a day. Everything has been confused. Then the rain! So a couple of my tomatoes started to dampen off while I was hardening them off. The stems right above the soil line started to narrow on both of my Mary Robinson bi-colors and one of my Great White tomatoes. Unfortunately, one of my Mary Robinson tomato plants shriveled and died. I was so mad that I was determined to save the lone bi-color and my Great White. Last year, one of my Yellow Brandywine tomato plants had a bit of trouble after transplantation so I trimmed off all of the damaged and dying leaves and left the plant alone. Within a couple of days, new leaves showed up and the tomato plant completely bounced back with no problems throughout the season. So I thought I'd see if I could cut my current problematic tomato plants above the point where the stem started to narrow and re-root them in water.

I placed both tomatoes in water with a little sprinkling of Epsom salt. In a couple of days, more leaves started to sprout and everything started to green up. It's been a week and this is what I've found...

This is the Mary Robinson Bi that I desperately wanted to save.

ROOTS!! The Great White is also just starting to sprout new roots now. I think by next week, I'll be able to pot them up! This is exactly why I love growing tomatoes. I may not like eating tomatoes and I'm constantly in search of tomatoes that don't taste too strongly like tomatoes, but I really love growing them. No matter what, you can bring these guys back from the brink of death. Tomatoes are super resilient. Seriously, it's hard to kill tomatoes. LOVE THEM!