Tag Archives: growing tomatoes in pots

Piglet’s Plot in February

Posted on February 23, 2013 | 46 Comments

This year I plan to photograph the plants in my humble vegetable garden on the 19th of each month. This will give me a better idea of what’s growing when, and how well. Hopefully, it will act as a record for next year and I can learn from my successes and failures.

Raised vegetable garden 190213

The broad beans (or favas as they are called in Portugal) planted from seed on the 24th October are growing well. The favas flowers are now forming into tiny bean pods – but only just!. I bought the loose seeds from our local hardware-come-garden shop for just 30cents – a bargain. If I’d bought in the bean seeds in posh packets they would have cost me three euros plus!

Favas (Broad beans)

The baby broccoli and cauliflowers planted in December are almost ready to pick. For some reason the broccoli heads never grow very big before running to seed. Any suggestions please?

Broccoli 19/02/13

Cauliflower 19/02/13

And here’s the next batch planted on the 21st January

Baby cauliflowers and broccoli planted in January

VEGETABLE EXPERIMENT POT OR PLOT?

This year due to limited growing space I decided to try something new and see which plants adapt well to growing in containers. Although I grew some veg in containers last year, with varying degrees of success, the plan this year is that when I plant for example peppers, cucumbers or aubergines in my raised garden, I will plant a sample one in a pot at the same time. This will enable me to make a direct comparison. Yes Mr. Piglet, I know it seems my time could be better employed, but sometimes I get bored and need a challenge!

The green peppers, aubergines and cucumbers below are my first guinea pigs! All purchased as seed plugs from our local markets.

Green Pepper Experiment 19/02/13

Aubergine Experiment 19/02/13

Cucumber experiment

Last year the tomato plants grew so well in the raised garden bed the area resembled a “tomato plant jungle”. After the disastrous start to the season when I killed most of my container grown tomato plants due to over-watering, this year I need to be more careful and learn from my mistakes.

I’m not sure how well plum tomatoes grow in pots; they probably grow too tall – we will see.

Plum Tomato plant in pot

My main focus this year will be growing cherry tomatoes because not only are they expensive in the shops here in Portugal my little granddaughter loves them. Last summer one of her favourite activities was to lead me to the vegetable garden and pick cherry tomatoes. When we were in the house she kept asking for “a-baul-li-air” and we could not understand what she wanted. This is not a French word, nor Franglish so we were all puzzled. Enlightenment dawned recently when she saw a picture of a tomato in a book, pointed and then excitedly exclaimed “a-baul-li-air“! So lots of cherry tomatoes this year for her next visit are a must!

Cherry tomato plant in pot

GROWING FRUIT TREES IN POTS

This peach tree grown from a stone was donated by a friend a couple of years ago. It is now about three years old. To encourage it to fruit we are going to take a cutting from his fruiting peach tree and graft to mine (watch this space).

Peach tree in pot

My lime tree continues to battle on. I’ve now transplanted from the ground to a largish pot because once again the root system was competing with a mature hedge. New shoots are appearing but the poor tree is still plagued by the citrus leaf miner which I can’t seem to eradicate. My solitary orange tree is also affected.

Lime Tree growing in pot

GROWING FRUIT, AND FRUIT BUSHES IN POTS

These dead looking sticks are raspberry canes. I have three in the ground, planted last autumn, and five in pots. I will plant three of these in the ground and then repot the other two in giant containers.

raspberry canes

Mr. Piglet built me a frame to train the tayberry and blackberries against. Unfortunately, I’m unable to plant these directly in the ground due to the proximity of the Melaleuca hedge.

Tayberry bush growing in pot

Physalis growing in a pot

Finally we have the strawberries!

The strawberries continued to produce a small about of fruit throughout the winter. I thought the strawberry runners would sap their strength how wrong I was!

Strawberries growing in a container

Also, but not worth of a photograph

Rhubarb in pot: either dormant or dead!
Fig tree: dormant
Orange Tree: lots of tiny new shoots. Should I feed or wait until the blossom develops?
Medlar: Mass of blossoms turning to fruit!

Whats growing where

Plan of my Vegetable area 19/02/13

What vegetable plants are for sale at the markets in February?
Aubergines, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, squash, cabbages, lettuce, onions (they look like chives), broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, spinach, strawberry plants, fruit trees and bushes, seed potatoes.

Weather
The weather in February is warm during the day, up to about 19C in this south-facing sheltered corner of my garden and at night temperatures can fall to about 5C. We do not have frosts but we do suffer with strong salt winds and high humidity. We have had plenty of rain so far so I’ve only had to water my containers on a couple of occasions.

→ 46 Comments

Posted in Garden Diary, Growing fruit and vegetables in Pots, Growing Fruit, Veg and Herbs

Tagged Algarve, container gardening, favas, gardening, growing fruit bushes in pots, growing peach tree in pot, growing peppers in pots, growing strawberries in February, growing strawberries in pots, growing tomatoes in pots, Growing Vegetables in the Algarve, Portugal, postaweek, protugal, vegetable gardening in february

Portugal: Growing Fruit and Vegetables – September

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 45 Comments

August passed with a blink of an eye and before I realised, it was September. Unfortunately, I failed in my personal challenge to record my “August” gardening “ups and downs” along with photographic evidence. Fortunately I made some notes, which I’ve recorded below, but photographs are like hen’s teeth (non-existent)

A bug called citrus leaf miner attacked my lemon and lime trees so I attempted to treat with a spray consisting of
100ml (2 cups) of vegetable oil
25ml (1/2 cup) of washing up liquid

I then added 1 tablespoon of the above concoction to one litre of water and sprayed all the leaves once a week for four weeks.

Citrus leaf minor

The concoction proved unsuccessful and the leaf miner still rules supreme!

In fact, my garden is proving to be a real haven for all types of bugs and diseases and treating them is like trying to climb a greasy pole. Attempting to grow my own fruit and vegetables in containers and in my little raised vegetable area is proving to be quite a challenge and battle of wills. Thank goodness for my tenacious spirit!

The lettuce and corn salad seeds, planted in early August, despite my devoted attention to their needs failed to germinate. Bah humbug! Eventually I conceded defeat and purchased some lettuce plugs from the local market. My other purchases included a couple of sage plugs and cucmbers for 10cents each, and dare I say one zucchini. The stallholder laughed at my requests and I responded a Portuguese shrug and a smile. The poor guy has long since given up hope of selling me the normal minimum quantity of ten plants per variety.

On a positive note, my successes in August included: one orange and several red peppers, french beans, cucumbers, lettuce, cherry and plum tomatoes, chili peppers, lemons and some strawberries.

September
August merged seamlessly into September, the drought continued and the bugs, despite my best efforts continued to thrive and multiply.

The latest visitor to take up residence bored its way into several of the tomatoes, growing in pots. Once discovered I quickly disposed of these and then wished I’d cut open one of the tomatoes to discover who had moved in. I’m still none the wiser as to their identity – any clues please?

An insect bored into my tomato

The cherry tomatoes, both in pots and in the raised bed yielded an abundance of sweet ripe tomatoes. However, the variety (breed unknown) shown here, just refused to ripen. I even placed banana skins close by, to encourage the ripening process. Well that was a waste of time as the banana skins eventually shrivelled to nothing and my tomatoes were still a yellowy-green. Patience is not always my strong point so I picked several pounds of the greenest tomatoes and made green tomato chutney. If it’s successful I will share the recipe at a later date.

Tomato jungle

On impulse I bought a packet of seeds labelled something like “mixed salad leaves” Yay! these did germinate and resulted in an interesting, if not strange tasting assortment of salad leaves to go with the lettuce.

Mixed salad leaves growing in a shallow container

The first crop of aubergines from the plugs I planted on the 16th of June are now ready for harvesting.

Beringela or aubergine

A quick snapshot of my raised veg garden below reminds me the parsley which self seeded survived the summer and continues to grow well. Why do seeds grow best where they self-seed?

Leeks, parsley and orange peppers

The leeks planted in June have struggled for survival during the hot dry summer months. They’ve survived but they resemble oversized spring onions rather than leeks.

Strawberry runners

My strawberry supply ceased in early September and the established plants sent out runners which I potted up while they were still attached to the mother plant.

Potatoes grown in pots

I planted potatoes in pots on the 24th of June and we harvested the first pot (enough for two servings) beginning of September. I felt really pleased with myself until I discovered that you should not plant potatoes and tomatoes near each other because they are both prone to blight. I later identified one of my potato plants had blight, which in turn spread to several of my tomato plants which then had to be destroyed.

Cucumber grows well in pots

I have a couple of pots of cucumbers and apart from battling with Downy Mildew or Anthracnose the cucumbers are delicious! Blogger, Growing Up in the Garden , suggested keeping downy mildew at bay with a 50/50 milk/water solution. Use a spray bottle to apply solution to the leaves, removing those that are too far gone. So far so good and it has definately helped.

I also planted a couple of baby cucumber plants in the hope I can continue to grow my own cucumbers in a sheltered position during the winter; we will see!

Overall considering August and September were so dry and hot they proved quite productive. However, next year I will not grow orange peppers as they take far too long to fruit and then turn orange.

→ 45 Comments

Posted in Garden Diary, Growing fruit and vegetables in Pots, Growing Fruit, Veg and Herbs

Tagged gardening, growing lettuce in containers, growing potatoes in containers, growing tomatoes in pots, growing vegetables in containers, Portugal, postaweek2012, Western Algarve

How did I kill my tomato plants?

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 66 Comments

There’s certainly never a dull moment when you attempt to grow your own fruit and vegetables, especially on Piglet’s plot! One minute they are all fine and the next…

Tomato plants before feed

Before we returned to France I went to our local plant and hardware shop to buy liquid fertilizer for my fruit and vegetables. After performing various charades my efforts were rewarded with the usual Portuguese shrug from the shop assistant. I finally made him understand “I need food for my vegetables – liquid “food” which I dilute”. I carefully listed, in Portuguese, all my fruit and vegetables and he assured me an organic fertiliser called BrioSint was the correct product.

The shop assistant wrote down the dosage, one tampa per 10 litres of water, and I was all set.

I diluted the fertilizer as per his instructions and fed all my fruit and veg. On my next visit to the same shop a few weeks later I double-checked I’d understood his instructions with the shop assistant who could speak English. “No, I should not be watering the plants I should be spraying the leaves and I would soon have “muito grande lettuce, spinach. peppers, bom tomates etc”.

Mutter, mutter…mutter

I found a new spray bottle, made up the feed and sprayed the leaves as directed. I then went to France for a couple of weeks secure in the knowledge all my fruit and veg were fed and my friends would take care of the watering.

A month later

When I returned to Portugal the leaves on my tomato plants had turned yellow and were beginning to curl. The tomatoes were also a strange green. Perhaps they’d been over watered I thought? However, on closer inspection I noticed the veins on the tomato plant leaves were almost purple. I returned to the shop clutching the product and sample leaves.

Mutter, mutter…mutter

I struck lucky, the guy who spoke English served me. Yes, it was definitely the correct product and yes I did spray it on the leaves. However, he blamed the demise of my tomatoes on the cold. I accepted this and returned home.

Mutter, mutter…mutter

It was then I spotted a self-seeded tomato plant growing beside my compost heap which had escaped the fertiliser. It was perfectly healthy so the notion of it being too cold, was a red herring in my opinion.

Self-seeded tomato growing by the compost heap

Now on a mission, I returned to the shop with more samples of dying tomato leaves, plus a healthy one to stress my point. Poor guy, you could almost see him groan when he saw me walk into the shop. After an hour queuing in sweltering heat, it was my turn to be served and I related the story, showed him the dying leaves and the a sample leaf from the healthy tomato plant. Exasperated, he shrugged his shoulders.

There's definitely something wrong, but what?

There’s definately something wrong, but what?

He was at a loss as to the problem. When I expressed my doubts as to spraying the leaves, he again confirmed this was correct. He asked if I’d sprayed them in sunlight? Maybe, I don’t know. He never mentioned this before!

The guy in the queue behind me came to my rescue, thought I’d probably over fertilized and advised me to water the plant in future rather than spray the leaves. It’s strange though, because the other plants I’d sprayed such as the peppers and strawberries were fine.

Mutter, mutter …mutter

I returned home to watch and wait. Hopefully with no additional feed the problem would resolve itself. However, it was not to be.

The veins are tinged with purple and blue

The edges of the leaves started to turn blue so I decided to destroy all the tomato plants and start again.

Groan, curse…mutter, mutter…mutter!

I related my tale of woe to a friend who felt so sorry for me, he donated several of his tomato plants and seedlings. Bless him!

Did I kill my tomato plants? Any suggestions as to the cause gratefully received!

Update 17/06/12
I think my tomatoes may have had Curly Top Disease which can occur on Coastal Tomatoes and Peppers.

→ 66 Comments

Posted in Garden Diary, Growing fruit and vegetables in Pots

Tagged container gardening, feeding tomatoes, gardening, growing fruit and vegetables in portugal, growing fruit and vegetables in pots, growing tomatoes in pots, postaday2012, yellow tomato plant leaves

Container grown veg, fruit and herbs – success or failure?

Posted on October 17, 2010 | 19 Comments

What happened to these tomatoes?

As summer draws to a close and my experiment to see which fruit, vegetables and herbs would grow successfully in pots comes to an end – I look back on the highs and lows. I’m not keen on the word failures but secretly I have to admit to myself there were several.

For example, one batch of tomatoes I planted from seed which initially showed great promise as young robust tomato plants, when the tomatoes developed my initial elation diminished as they bore not the slightest resemblance to the picture shown on the seed packet. I have never seen such deformed tomatoes! They tasted OK, but ended up in a Bolognese sauce.

Not one to admit defeat, I grew another batch of tomatoes. These, to my relief, were perfectly formed plum tomatoes. I was delighted. However, disaster struck while I was away on holiday and an army of caterpillars burrowed their way into the tomatoes and destroyed the whole crop. As you can imagine I was not a happy Piglet. It’s now October so the saying “third time lucky” will have to wait until next year!

Courgettes proved to be another disaster, a couple grew quite happily while others just withered and died. See my post on Poorly Courgettes

So which fruit, veg and herbs grew most successfully in pots?

Radish, lettuce, French beans, chilies, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, basil, mint, parsley and coriander.

Rhubarb – the jury is still out as my solitary baby rhubarb plant fights for survival!

Lemons – there are currently four baby lemons, each about a centimeter long fighting for survival in yhe salt air and winds straight off the Atlantic Ocean. OK, I am an optimist!

We will see what next year brings forth…

Which fruit, veg or herbs have you had the most or least success with?

→ 19 Comments

Posted in Growing Fruit, Veg and Herbs

Tagged gardening in Portugal, growing herbs in pots, growing tomatoes in pots, growing vegetables in containers, growing vegetables in pots

	Adventures (@in_expa… on Tales from France – you…
	Redneckprincess on Tales from France – Tete…
	celia on Tales from France – Tete…
	Eha on Tales from France – Tete…
	anniedm778 on Tales from France – Tete…
	Piglet in Portugal on Tales from France – Tete…
	Kim 24/7 in France on Tales from France – Tete…
	Spinster on Tales from France – Tete…

Tag Archives: growing tomatoes in pots