Rant: I stopped babying my sad little tomatoes and they finally gave me 14 ugly ones in one week

Seth Anderson · 2026-10-10T20:45:06.51341+00:00

For three summers in a row I fussed over my tomato plants in Seattle, watering every morning, staking them up, wrapping them in plastic when it got cold at night, and I got maybe two mealy cherry tomatoes total. Last June I got busy with work, basically ignored them for 10 days, and came back to find the stems had flopped over and one plant was growing sideways out of a crack in my raised bed. I thought they were done for, but then the stress must have kicked something into gear because a week later I picked 14 tomatoes off those sad sideways vines. They were lumpy, cracked at the top, one had a weird flat side, but they tasted way sweeter than anything I grew before. I still do the neglect thing now on purpose, kinda like how my grandpa let his pepper plants suffer and they always did fine. So is it just me or do some plants actually want you to leave them alone?

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Rant: I stopped babying my sad little tomatoes and they finally gave me 14 ugly ones in one week | Crappy Garden Winners - Topic Shares