Broken Knee Tomatoes!

[Vespertino]

My 2014 year is the year of the broken knee! Roughly 3 weeks ago I slipped on an invisible ice slick, resulting in a displaced transverse patella fracture. It will be many months to a year before I regain full use of my knee joint. But I'm going to do everything I can to get some tomatoes planted. As a result of the injury I had to scale back a lot of my gardening plans, I still don't know how much I am going to be able to accomplish, but I'm determined to TRY.

Last year I had a photo thread on my tomato growing endeavors on a teeny covered patio. Apartment living didn't give me much greenspace but I still gave it a try.

This year I moved into a house and I was looking forward to planting tomatoes in the yard. I had a pretty good germination rate, but my hubs killed some of them off when I couldn't water them myself on account of the knee injury and he wasn't very diligent keeping the seedling pots moist. So I have 85 seedlings. They were a little leggy (I don't have heating pads or grow lights, just windows) but looking good otherwise.

If all else fails I'll give my plants away!

This years grow list is:

Sungold - tough little ★★★★★★★s survived and produced through repeated herbicide drift and oppresive 110+ heat!
BBB
Sibisrky S
Caspian pink
C-Tex
Russian Queen
SCP
Moravsky Div
Egg Yolk
Dwarf Arctic Rose
Rose Quartz Multiflora
Summertime Green Dwarf
Green Zebra
Benissionante
Vorlon
Evans Purple Pear
KBX

I haven't done an accounting of how many of each I've got, so some of these may have been wiped out when my hubs failed to water some of them.

So far I've been able to re-pot the seedlings from jiffy pots to solo cups without much help, other than having the soil and certain things out of wheelchair reach brought to me. I don't have a potting bench, so I have to do this on my dining room table. Hubs was ticked at the mess and was convinced I couldn't clean it, but I knew that one can sweep up dirt just fine in a wheelchair, I even managed to use a dustpan. With my cleanup complete I couldn't help feeling a little smug.

Here are this year's tomato babies! The Caspian Pink, SCP and Sungolds had a great start, my second round of seedlings started a week later are lagging behind (I think the air around my windows got very cold) but they're perking up now.

[Doug9345]

I've had leggier plants do well. I don't do much kneeing either. What I recommend is to have various height things to set on and always carry a crutch or shovel plus a crate, or something like that, to help you get back up. It makes a huge difference.

[JamesL]

Vespertino,
What a bummer! Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!

[Vespertino]

Doug: thanks for the tip, I'm on the lookout now for things around the house I might be able to use to help get me lower to the ground and then back up again. I have a small three step ladder for getting into high cabinets, that might do the trick.

James: Thanks! I'm hoping I'll have a little more mobility in a couple weeks.

My mom is in town so I'm going to have her help me bring the tomato babies outside for a few hours to help harden them to the sun and elements. The caspian pinks are getting really tall, I might end up planting them before the others.

I have a flowerbed with irises and yuccas, I'm going to try to recruit my hubs to remove them and mom and I can transplant them to another area of the yard and use it for tomatoes. I just have to replace the sprinkler heads with drip irrigation manifolds. If I can get close to the ground I can plant and change the sprinkler heads. I'd need hubs to help me condition the soil a bit, he's not going to like that but if he wants to eat tomatoes this summer he better

[Doug9345]

I assume that you are on crutches right now. Even after you are off them I recommend a cane for a while. It gives you more balance and something to brace yourself with so that you don't reinjure it or the other leg.

[BucksCountyGirl]

Sorry to hear about your knee, Vespertino! I wish you a speedy recovery.
As for your plants, they don't look too bad/leggy to me (although I'm certainly no expert!). I look forward to seeing your updates this season. Cheers!

[Vespertino]

Doug: It's funny you mention that, I was window-shopping online for a cane. And you are correct I am on crutches right now and a leg immobilizing brace. Eventually I'll be able to put more weight on the leg and it was said to me that at some point I won't need both crutches- just one- but that it is better to swap the single crutch for a cane to allow more natural leg movement and it helps to get rid of any limp.

Kelli: Thanks! My leg is feeling better today, I'm hoping things will start looking up soon .

I took the plants outside (or rather mom took the plants outside) to help harden them. They aren't so thin that they were 100% doomed, but thin enough where they started to lean too far once the wind picked up. I had some bamboo skewers and we staked them upright. They're going great now, it looks like they just needed a hand

I was pretty frustrated with how little I was physically able to do outside. I was in my wheelchair but I still couldn't seem to get into a good position or get close enough to the ground to dig a hole in the ground with a trowel. Mom did a lot of the work, which I feel guilty about, but she says she loves tinkering around in the garden and seemed to have fun. I'm leaving the tomatoes out overnight since it's not going to get too cold tonight and then take them inside before noon tomorrow.

I'm thinking of getting a few white plastic grow bags to supplement the growing space since I won't be able to prep as much of the yard for tomatoes as I hoped.

[Vespertino]

Well, I did a full counting of my seedlings, looks like all of my Rose Quartz Multiflora and Green Zebra seedlings died off when hubs let a couple trays go dry. Luckily all other varieties on my grow list made it and I have plenty of extras.

I'm debating on whether or not I want to just start a new batch of RQM & GZ seedlings now, or if i want to wait until fall. Rose Quartz Multiflora should do just fine on account of it being a cherry variety so it should be heat-hardy. I was really looking forward to growing that one, it's a shame none of the babies made it. I'm not so sure about green Zebra- I have some extra Summertime Green Dwarfs I might grow them in it's place this year.

I gave my FIL a couple sungolds, a KBX, Moravsky Div, and a Sweet Carneros Pink. I hope he doesn't kill them, he's the kind of guy who thinks he knows everything even though he does no research. Not that I'm an "expert", but I gave him some basic advice on getting them started and it was all news to him. Hopefully he'll have some luck and the tomatoes will survive

[BucksCountyGirl]

Sorry to hear about your seedlings
Rose Quartz Multiflora was on my shortlist of varieties to choose from this season, but I am trialing Sweet Linda instead. Good luck with whatever your decide to do regarding a re-start

[Vespertino]

Let me know how you like the Sweet Linda cherry tomato. I had picked Rose Quartz Multiflora because I wanted a reddish cherry to grow along with my sungolds, the RQM had such a lovely color and got good marks for flavor.

I tried to dig around in my garden as the knee will allow, and I followed Doug's advice and used a step stool to sit on and help me get lower to the ground. I was prepping a spot for one of my dwarfs and found that I have green clay soil under the first 4-5 inches of topsoil. It was quite green, but no funny smell and there were lots of worms in it. I'm trying to do a little research on the green clay soil, but I'll probably end up mixing in some organic matter to break it up.

[Vespertino]

Disaster strikes!

Knowing it was going to be windy today I created a makeshift tent/wind cover for my tomato babies using a clear plastic painting tarp and two outdoor chairs on either side of the tomato trays. I weighed the corners down with pots and such. Earlier in the day the wind didn't seem so bad and this setup worked just fine. To my dismay the wind kicked up tenfold over the course of the day- to the point where my wind-cover was almost no protection at all- the wind was plastering the tarp against the tomatoes, crushing the tops of the tallest ones. There was also wind getting underneath the tarp, it was enough to snap branches!

Luckily I noticed this before all was lost, but on my gimped leg I wasn't very fast. I lost 5 plants right off the bat, with 1/3 of the plants so severely damaged they probably won't make it. The second third have lost of a lot of leaves & branches but *might* bounce back, the last third had minimal damage and should be just fine. The ones that suffered the worst were my tallest ones- including one VERY glorious caspian pink once so vigorous it was almost crying to be planted outdoors- now it only has it's terminal branch left.

If anything, this is why you sprout extras!!! Even still this was a close call, I almost lost the extras soo!

I'm considering setting up PVC hoop rows in their future planting pace for wind protection so I can throw a cover on in the first sign of trouble.

Now the babies are in the garage, hubs won't let me put the trays on the floor because they were outside and a little damp and yucky. Hopefully the wind won't be so bad tomorrow and they can hang out in the sunshine and recover.

[Redbaron]

Oh Noes!

[BucksCountyGirl]

Oh no! So sorry to hear I hope that the rest of your babies make it. Shame about the Caspian Pink...I've heard great things.

Best of luck to you!

[Vespertino]

Thanks, all!

I'm hoping some make it, but it's a wait-and-see scenario. Hubs compromised on me putting the tomatoes back on the living room floor by the windows if I placed a garbage bag on the floor. I've attached a pic of the poor babies that suffered the most damage, with the exception of the 5 that were DOA.

On the bright side I got a couple more seed shipments in. I'm opting to use grow-bags for some extra veggies since I'm not in shape to create raised beds for them in my yard. So far I've got sugar an snap peas, zephyr f1 sumer squash, basil (geneovese, thai and citrus), and curly parsley seeds planted in a new batch of peat cups.

Sometime this week I'll be starting delicatesse cucumbers, edirne purple striped eggplant and crapuadine beets! I just need to do a little research on the container sizes for them.

Even though the knee is still gimped I can limp over to a chair and pot some seeds, I'm banking on my knee recovering enough to do light gardening tasks by the time the seedlings need more care.

[Vespertino]

With hub's help I got 15 planted today! One of my two KBX started to wilt after transplanting, it may or may not perk up after watering. But I have an extra one- I think it's my last, and it's a small one, but better than nothing! They're a teeny bit tight so I'll have to do a little pruning to make sure one tomato plant doesn't eat it's neighbor. Since I've got clay soil under the top 5-6 inches I added a mix of dolomite lime, organic matter (leaves, mulch, etc), organic fishy plant food, and worm poop and tried to work it into the soil around the planting cavity. Added a little sprinkle of epsom salt for good luck. I haven't put mulch down yet but I'll get around to it another day.

In this bed now lives summertime green dwarf, rosella purple dwarf, moravsky div , sibirsky S, sungold x2, benissionante, egg yolk, SCP, BBB, caspian pink X2 (one might not make it since it lost most of it's leaves in the wind storm), KBX X2 (one might not make it) and C-tex.

I have room around the corner for another two, but it's a small spot, I will probably plant a dwarf and my other sibirsky.

I have a second bed next to the house I need to do some work on, I have yucca and irises that need to be relocated before I can plant tomatoes in it. That will hopefully happen next week.