Tomato Diaries

Another year, another tragedy. Here I was, thinking that tomato growing couldn’t get any worse than last year. How naive.

This year, nothing has even sprouted. I put my growing tray outside with just two seeds per plot- an adjustment made to avoid the overcrowding issue from last year. Crisis averted. Not. My new patio gets a lot of sunlight, so I thought it would be best for the seeds to sprout outside. That’s where plants are supposed to grow, right? I thought that was kind of their thing. The natural breeze should be helping them develop stronger roots and require less hands-on strength training from me throughout the season. So in theory, these plants should be doing better. Why aren’t they?? I have two hypotheses.

1. It’s been extremely hot. As soon as I planted the seeds, it hit 85-90℉ for almost three weeks. Maybe that’s not best for baby tomatoes? I don’t know. When I would check on them, they were really hot, but not in a complimentary way. I worried that keeping a plastic lid over the tray (to help retain humidity) might actually be boiling the air around them, so after a week, I removed it. But then every time I checked on them, the soil was dry no matter how often I watered them. Plants need livable-temperature water to survive, so I do think it’s possible that the immediate heatwave created suboptimal conditions for their growth.
2. Another possibility I’m considering is that I am the Tomato Reaper and should not be allowed near the plants. But how did this happen? Before last year, I had thriving tomato harvests. For two years in a row, I had so many tomatoes that I was giving them away. How did I devolve into such a prolific killer? Can it be reversed? And if the killing is an accident, is it still murder? I think so. I think it’s less bad, but still bad.

I’m going to leave the grow tray out and continue tending to the dormant seeds in the hope that someday they’ll sprout. Like a tragically unstable mother meticulously caring for a doll after the death of her child. But that metaphorical doll will go in a metaphorical papoose while I keep working to bring real life to this garden. This morning I planted two red cherry tomato seeds and two tri-color cherry tomato seeds in little planters under a grow light inside. I did not pay attention while I was planting them, so they are both labeled with question marks, but with any luck those mysteries will sprout and I will at least have a couple of tomato plants this year.