Disaster averted

I've been pretty negligent in posting recently and, consequently, I have a lot of writing saved up. For ease of reading I will break it into a few posts, rather than posting one monster. Work has been crazy and, after spending so much time writing and editing the CMC's newsletter I didn't have much energy left over for other journalistic pursuits!

The disaster I allude to in my post title involves my tomato plants. Calgary experienced a recent spate of beautiful weather (followed promptly by a few inches of snow). A great opportunity to get the plants out on the balcony for a few days right? Well, yes, except for the fact that, since splitting our tomatoes into two pots I have not yet bought another tomato ring. And, of course, as I was moving it it slipped and the main stalk snapped about an inch and a half above the soil.

I was pretty sure the plant was done for, gone the way of my cucumber experiment but, once again thanks to the wonders of the interweb, I learned I might be able to save it. Apparently, by wrapping the stem tightly (like you would cast a broken bone) and leaving it for a few days the tomato can heal the break.

As you can see I wound some fabric around the break (holey underwear is good for something!) followed by some tape and, a week later now, the plant seems to have survived. Sadly, I had to remove all of the baby tomatoes from the vine so the plant could use its energy for healing, so if you have a recipe for green tomatoes let me know! My mom never grew tomatoes because they are difficult to grow, but after this experience I'm pretty sure they can withstand anything.



My healed plant (though I haven't taken the wrap off yet, I'm afraid it won't be totally healed).



And below you can see, my tomato plant that didn't suffer a minor catastrophe is doing okay too, though the tomatoes are so heavy they are weighing down the branches. I'm almost afraid I will have another break to repair. Still no signs of red yet.