indoor greenhouse: tomatoes

I’m trying something new this winter – growing black cherry tomatoes indoors in my basement greenhouse. To this date, the only expenditure in this experiment is electricity and a few plant supports. Everything else was already purchased or recycled.

As I mentioned in my frugal Friday post, I transplanted my tomato seedlings this week into bigger containers. Initially, I planted the tomato seeds in the plastic 4″ pots I purchased last winter from Amazon for my 2024 transplants. I’ve reused the pots several times this year, and I’m impressed by their sturdiness. Once the tomato plants were big enough, I transplanted them into 32 oz. yogurt containers. I had difficulties poking holes with my razor blade in a few of the containers. The store-brand containers worked the best.

I’ve been collecting vinegar and gallon milk containers this year with the plan of repeating my winter sowing experiment. Now, I’m not sure I will, though my experiment was impacted by the drought in Virginia and the deer. Always the deer….

I dug into my collection and came up with tall plastic containers for the tomatoes. I also had a few water bottle containers from our trip to PA. I had a harder time poking holes in the vinegar containers, but I succeeded. To plant the tomatoes as deeply as possible, I put the transplants in the bottom of the container and filled in with dirt.

Next I set up my 3rd greenhouse which had lived on our back porch this summer. Unlike the other 2 greenhouses, I did not purchase enough grow lights for the shelves, making this the perfect set up for tall plants. Since my husband wasn’t available to help install the grow lights, I jury-rigged 2 other grow lights which have built in timers. I’m not sure if they are supplying bright enough lights for the tomatoes.

Finally, I set up a fan to blow on the plants, and put the plastic cover on the greenhouse. The breeze from the fans should help pollinate the flowers to produce cherry tomatoes. Originally, my plan was to pollinate with a brush, however, I couldn’t figure out what to do with the brush. Pollinating the amaryllis was so much easier!