Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
882 points (100.0% liked)
Memes
1354 readers
35 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
Bro I been growing edamame. Holy fucking shit. You'll fucking cum.
yeah? our light is very poor in our back garden. the only thing that thrives, that I've found, is gerkins, so thats what we grow. tiny cucumbers, and we pickle them.
we tried regular peas and beans, and it was OK, but there was so little fruit at one time we became completely confused as to how anyone could have enough for a whole serving at any one time.
Whats your light situation like with the edamame? do you just boil/salt them and eat them like you would in a japanese restaurant?
I should do that next year. Grow a bunch of stuff for the first time hydroponically this year and it has been fun. Even though the pruning gods would murder me if they saw my tomatoes.
And if ever there is a day you can’t buy tomatoes for whatever reason, you will have them.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Not to mention the cost of watering.
I live in Ireland, we don't pay for water (or even waste water out like they do in Germany), but the rain has been non-stop this year with the gulf stream. I've also just intalled a water butt out of a 500l repurposed whiskey barrel (again, Ireland) so that also helps with not having to use the hose (they call it the hose pipe)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Gardening is a hobby. You don't do it to get cheap fruits and veggies.
The results speak for themselves though, and you absolutely cannot beat a tomato right off the vine.
You can beat a tomato off in many ways 😏
We had 1/2 acre and planted a bunch of things, ate for free. Water was from a well so not even a water bill. Best tasting veg ever. Potatoes though, those are hard labour.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
That's definitely from someone who never tasted a home grown tomatoe or waters theirs a lot too often, you can buy tomatoes but they taste like literal shit in comparison! ;)
Also you can leave them on the plant a lot longer than they last in the fridge.
So you save a lot more, since you aren't buying tomatoes every week. You just pick them as you need them.
I think the issue is they taste of nothing, and the flesh is all this mealy mush texture. People have a surprisingly low standard of what the accept as a tomato
load more comments
(1 replies)
But store-bought tomatoes are nearly tasteless...
This. I made pasta sauce with 100% produce I grew on my garden and it was by far the best I had ever tasted. Made about 2 jars and preserved the second one and was still amazing a couple of months later.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Growing tomatoes is awesome once you have the right stakes & cages, but when end rot hits ya, and ruins your entire crop, months of watching those little buds grow, it will break your fucking heart
God damn. That would be like buying a new pet like a kitten or something and then a year later finding out you can’t eat it.
1.33?
I can easily go through a tomato a day. The only thing limiting me is the cost. if I grew my own I would definitely go through at least 2 tomatoes a day.
You sound like a weird tomato version of Gaston.
Tomatoes are good man.
Sliced and put in a sandwich.
Sliced and served cold with salt and pepper.
chopped on a taco, or in a salad/wrap.
Make into soup.
cooked down into sauce.
but not fried. Fried green tomatoes are shit and taste awful.
load more comments
(1 replies)
It'd potentially eventually pay for itself and save you a $1.33 or much more over a lifetime, but actually when you factor in all the costs of the gardening supplies and water and just all the associated costs with setting yourself up to grow them it's going to take a lot longer for you to save that $1.33. Hope you like tomatoes, you'll need to eat plenty to make it worthwhile.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Growing weed saves a lot of money tbh
Too many people think growing shit also takes a lot of effort. Nah, literally just plant shit, weed once, then wait. You literally don't even have to water in most areas lol.
People think gardening or farming takes a lot of effort. It does if you want a pretty little area that's more eye pleasing. But if you just want food? Put seeds in. Wait. Food lol. Might not be the greatest harvest but any seed you'd buy at a store is hearty as fuck now.
Edit: Holy shit, yes guys. People on the internet live in the desert and even Antarctica too. My comment wasn't meant for you contrarian buttwipes lol. It was meant for anyone who doesn't live in a hellhole and has access to a little land lol. And even in those hellholes and places with shitty soil, it's just because you're trying to grow shit not meant for there lol.
Hydroponics and the accessibility to it makes things even easier. On demand veggie snacks, right in my room? Yes please.
Fuck yes. Though I grow outside.
On the other hand, I've been expanding and fiddling my system all summer long for god know how many hours. That reminds me that my nute res is almost empty...
load more comments
(1 replies)
any tips for a beginner gardener? my tomatoes are always tiny, and how do i keep bugs from eating my leaves??
Try cherry and grape tomatoes. I've grown cherry tomatoes for the past two years along with starting grape tomatoes this year and I've had much more success with them than larger varieties. I think they tend to be more disease resistant, more vigorous, more productive, and fruit matures more quickly.
Also try growing them in bags or raised beds where it's kept away from the ground where pests can get at them easier. Another thing you can do is cover the soil around them with straw mulch in order to reduce soil splash onto the plant when it's being watered--this can transmit diseases to the plant. Pick off all the bottom half foot of leaves or so on the plant when it's big enough too to reduce soil splash hitting leaves.
I stopped growing grape tomatoes. They're easy to grow but they're an indeterminate variety, and since they grow so fast they require a lot of pruning. I found a determinate variety of cherry tomato that grows so sturdy that it could potentially stand on its own without any trellis or cage until it starts fruiting, not willing to test it though.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You could look into: companion planting (some plants help or hinder others. Eg, basil and tomato are good friends); no-dig gardening (alongside having a good soil microbiome); green manure; sacrificial crops to lure pests away from your main crops; aspect and soil type.
Higher potassium and phosphates increase flower and fruit growth. Higher nitrogen increases leafy growth.
Don't grow the same type of plant in the same patch every year.
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's not about the money!!
the system depends on you only being able to do one thing effectively, and needing to pay other people to do all the things you need but can't do. When you do that, you have to go through several layers of government and corporate bureaucrats who all squeeze you for a little bit extra just because they've positioned themselves between you and what you need to live. To be self-sufficient is to cut all of these middlemen out from between you and the necessities of life. Gardening is a revolutionary act, it's propaganda of the deed writ small.
Do they think they have to sit and watch them grow?..
I’m tired of zombie tomatoes from supermarkets
once you start composting youll end up having free tomatos pop up wherever you use it. you just gotta make sure the deer dont eat them.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Tomatoes are too fickle as far as I'm concerned. I grow all kinds of stuff, but never have luck with tomatoes. The flowers don't pollinate without vibration, they need temperatures in a tight range to fruit, basically every pest on earth destroys them, just not worth it to me anymore. Which is a shame because I love them, but I'm basically over growing tomatoes.
I have like six different tomato plants growing out of jars (started as seeds) hydroponically. They take almost no effort. It's actually super easy to grow them if you eliminate nature from the process lol.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Sure seems that way. Now try chili.
view more: next ›