The tomato experiment, part 3: the saga ends

The last time I wrote about my late-blooming tomato plant, we were getting ready to transplant it again in a bigger pot. It was leaning over a lot and I could see the roots above the soil. We had some five gallon buckets that were given to us by my friend, Golie, so we used one of them to put the plant in.

Q helped me do this by drilling holes on the bottom of the bucket for drainage. Then, he added more soil. He also found some old wire fencing behind the house to use for staking up the plant. We continued to water it and made sure it got plenty of sun.

Things were going really well for a while. On warm days, it stayed outside a lot. But when we got really cold days and snow, I had to keep it inside for several days at a time. We found a neat spot for it in the craft room. It sat on top of a counter by the window so that it would get sunshine.

But then, Q discovered a problem. It was a tiny problem, but an overwhelming one nonetheless...

Tiny white bugs started invading my plant! Q did some research on it, and found a nasty solution made from red pepper that we could spray on it, but I chose not to do it. I didn't want to mess with it anymore. I could tell by the look of it, that it was just going down hill.

I continued to water it and keep it by the sun the best I could. A couple weeks ago I really gave up on it. I started to get busier making Christmas gifts and such that I really didn't want to deal with it anymore. Oh well...

This is how my plant looked like yesterday before I took it out to the trash can:

Looks pretty pitiful, eh? It made me a little sad, especially after we tried so long to keep it alive. We really wanted to have some ripe tomatoes this winter. I guess my "green thumb" only works in the summer time! I can't wait to plant some seeds this coming spring.

So, this ends the saga of my tomato experiment. I learned a lot doing it, and it was fun while it lasted.;)