Pot Luck

Growing Tomatoes? Start Eating Bananas!

I went with "Sweet Million" cherry tomatoes this year. I hear these little cluster tomatoes ripen fast and taste like candy. Last time I planted tomatoes, I chose Celebrity, Beefsteak slicing tomatoes and one Brandywine heirloom. And I waited and waited and waited for a tomato to ripen on the vine so I could eat it. This year I am going for quantity.

If you are planning on planting tomatoes, start saving your banana peels. When I first heard about this practice, I thought wrapping a banana peel around each tomato plant before sticking it in the ground sounded like wacky organic gardening voodoo. But when I looked it up on the garden sites, I discovered that lots of organic gardeners were using both banana peels and egg shells as their tomato-plant starter fertilizer.

One gardening site recommended 16 egg shells and two banana peels per plant! Suddenly, I felt like my tomato plants were underprivileged, with just a little half a peel wrapped around each one. Too late to dig them back up I guess.

KEEP THE HOUSTON PRESS FREE... Since we started the Houston Press, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" program, allowing us to keep offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food and culture with no paywalls.
Robb Walsh
Contact: Robb Walsh