Growing cherry tomatoes

Growing Cherry tomatoes

Seeds - One may buy from the gardening shop.

Setting up pots - Keep the garden soil in sun for a day or two as it re-energies the soil. Mix soil with fine organic compost in the ratio of 2:1/ 3:2. I have used pots of size 1 ft * 1 ft to grow okra. If you have dried cow manure use that too that takes care of some pests naturally.

Sowing - Sow the seeds just below the soil. It’s better to put more seeds to have good probability. Water it well and cover the top for a day or two / provide some shade. One may transplant to other pots once it grow to roughly 4-6 inches.

Watering & Placement - Tomatoes ikes moist and well drainage soil and good sun exposure. So if soil gets dried up quickly, water it more, may be two times a day - morning and evening.

Fruit- First the yellow flower, post that fruit may come out 2-3 months after sowing. In gurgaon, I generally grow in the month of Sep-Nov, and harvest from Feb-May. For a small family, if you grow 15- 20 plants, it will take care of your needs for 3 months. I generally grow these over normal sized tomatoes, as it's easy to grow in pots. 

You may need to put a tomato cage or tie the plant with some twigs to take the weight of it's fruits.

Fertiliser - Fertiliser is not bad if used moderately (see it as the chocolate powder you mix with milk 😊). Plants require sufficient nutrients, if you give less they may not grow properly, you give it more and they may taste worse and may attract insects. I sometime use NPK 18-18-18 over and above organic compost (Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) but in very low quantity, 2/4 small size particles sometimes in 15-30 days, and if I see growth is generally fine then I do not use these.

Note - Fertilise only mature plants not the saplings. Or at least a feet in height, start with one tiny particle of npk.

I have also sprayed whey every 3-4 weeks - mix with water (4whey:6water,), not only this provides some nutrients it also prevent white mildew pest on leaves.

Pest control - First of all, try not to use the inorganic solutions, they are nothing less of poison. I have seen two problems in okra, 1. Curly leaves which can be treated by spraying Epsom salt mixed in water (a teaspoon in a litre of water), it provides Mg with other nutrients  2. Mealybugs (white small bugs that looks like a 60s joint family 😊 ) it can be treated by spraying cold water in the evening/ light liquid dish soap/ Neem oil/ mix. of these. These are not harmful btw, even if there are some that’s fine. We have good rains in September/ early Oct here in Gurgaon this year, and it took care of them naturally.

Nutrition Facts - it's rich in vitamin A and C.