Young plants have had a hard life so far

One of my favorite stories told by my grandmother in order to inspire me, when I had had a particularly hard day or a run of bad luck in life, dealt with her "hard times" growing up. She would say, " You don't know how lucky you are. When I grew up we had to walk barefooted  two miles each way to and from school and it was uphill both ways." She would explain that living through adversity would make me stronger and a better person when I grew up. That story reminded me that my poor little tomato plants have had a really tough time at a very young age and  all have made it through the adversity. They have suffered through two hail storms, six inches of rain in a three day period, and high winds gusting up to 45 miles per hour and they have all survived. I am confident that this adversity will make them stronger when they grow up.

The plants are all reaching the three foot level of the frame and all have been safely secured to the first level. They are blooming prolifically and several have set small tomatoes. I am in the process of training them by removing the bottom leaves and removing all the suckers up to the first set of blooms. This training process (pruning) is important to insure that the first tomatoes to set will reach maturity and that the plant will grow upwards on the frame. I will discuss pruning more thoroughly later.