Tomato, The Queen of the Garden

There is very little cooking in South India without Tomatoes. The ever tasty Tomato Rasam is to be tasted to be believed. Since Tomatoes are common ingrediants, they can be happily consumed as much as we grow. So Tomato was the choice after Okra.

Again, I prepared the starting containers about half a dozen, sowed a pinch of seeds in each of them. Little did I realize that a small pinch contained about three to four seeds! and all of them grew! The seeds germinated in aournd four days. It was a joy to see tiny little baby leaves showing thier heads above the soil. soon the containers became crowded. I continued sprinkling water twice daily, I moved the containers from shade to sunlight, a place sun light falls for about four hours.

The true leaves came out in the second week. The tomato seedlings which looked a lot fragile, survived! They braved the rains and the sun, and are now ready to be transplanted. There are a little over a dozen seedlings. I thought of separating the seedlings into individual peat pots, that I have started to make, but the seedlings look ready enough to plant them in the larger clay pots.

This week I plan to expand the garden by adding a dozen clay pots and plant the tomato seedlings.