Dolly is growing it for Vaishnavi

I was sure that I was done buying tomato plants twice this season. But the third time is a charm - you can take my word for it. Yesterday, we brought home a grown (defined as something taller than 4 inches) Early Girl tomato. The selection critera were: as woody as possible, as few branches as possible, healthy (disease free), as tall as possible and ideally, with some flowers. The winner was about a foot tall, had poor posture (which I will address with aggressive staking) and three yellow flowers.

This morning, hubby and I drove to landfill to bring it some fresh compost and mulch. She is now in the ground, watered and well. All this preparation is to welcome Vaishnavi to San Diego on May 3. Generally speaking, Early Girls deliver a ripe fruit some 40 days from flowering. If that does pan out, Vaishnavi can step out to the garden, harvest her tomato and eat it in her salad. I think she is going to like it :)