I really wanted a garden this year. I figured that with a garden, I could help cut down on the expenses we had when it came to groceries. Groceries have gotten so high this year, along with the rising cost of gas, I thought it was a great idea.
So I pestered my other half to dig up part of his beautiful lawn so that we can grow potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, green peppers, and some butternut squash. He did till up and help me work at the ground and get ready to plant vegetables. I was so proud of the garden and was on my way to the local WalMart with money in hand to buy my plants and plant food.
When I got there, all the plants that they had were by a company called Bonnie Plants. And the prices were out of this world! Almost five dollars for one single tomato plant. Depending on the size of the pot, and the size of the plant, you were expected to pay from just under two dollars to almost five dollars per plant. Not a flat of four or six or eight like we are used to buying, but just one plant.
Thankfully there was a van parked there, with the Bonnie Plant logo on the side. I located a man with a shirt with the same logo and started pommeling him with questions. My biggest concern was why so much money for one plant?
Bonnie plants are hybrid plants. I was told by the representative that these plants will produce and yield high quality and high amounts of fruit or vegetables all year long. I picked up a tomato plant, a beefsteak that was about $3.50 each. I asked him what I should expect from this plant. We all know that beefsteak should produce a nice large tomato with lots of meat inside and a minimal amount of seeds. I like beefsteak and thought these were the best to make salsa from scratch with. I was told this one plant will produce between 150 and 200 tomatoes during the course of the summer. I was also told that as long as these are kept watering, they would produce fruit until we get a frost. I thought that was wonderful, as I didn’t want to have to be in a rush to have to make that much salsa at a time. The representative also told me that all of the Bonnie plants were hybrids and I should expect high yields from any of them.
So I purchased only 5 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 patio tomato plant, 3 zucchini, 2 butternut, 4 green peppers, 3 cucumbers, and the only two yellow summer squash that they had. All together I spent almost $80 on the plants alone. I then had to purchase my carrots, lettuce, radishes and other seeds and plant food.
After spending an entire day getting my garden in, I was tired and dirty. But I was a little concerned as I spent a large amount of money for just a few plants. I knew my other half was not happy at the cost, and I kept reassuring him that we will have plenty of vegetables to put up for this winter. Having a garden is nothing new to me, and I was ready for it.
I watched for a long time as I watered them and cared for them and weeded. I saw blossoms come, then blossoms go. I watched as the green peppers did nothing at all. They just sat there and seemed to get smaller. I did see where the squash plants were all growing fairly well, but not as well as I expected, as did the tomatoes.
Finally I had a tomato, small and hard and green. And the first thing that came to my mind was fried green tomatoes! I watched as it slowly grew, and I was waiting for it to get nice sized, and before it even reached half the size it should have, it turned red. I was disappointed, but ready to watch the few others that were starting to grow.
My tomato plants may have, between all four, as one died, produced if I was lucky 80 tomatoes. They weren’t what I was expecting, as none of them reached the size of a beefsteak. They were about maybe two inches across the widest part, hard, and covered with blemishes. When I had four tomatoes ripe, I took them in and made my first batch of salsa. We were waiting so long for this. The tomatoes were very sour. They were meaty like they should have been, but they were not the size expected.
I finally was able to see a cucumber, and waited for it to get large enough to pick, but it never did grow to the size of cucumbers that I have had in the past. Before it reached a good size, it turned orange and spongy. So I decided I couldn’t let them get the size that I wanted, and would need to pick them earlier. The biggest I was able to let one grow before it turned yellow or orange was about 4 inches long. My cucumbers however did produce about twenty small cucumbers, and as with the tomatoes, I had lost one plant.
My green peppers never did grow and eventually died completely without even getting a hint of a blossom.
I was able to grow one of the summer squash, and off that plant I was able to pick one squash that was of normal size. This plant did not produce only but a few buds and I thought maybe it was because it did not have a second plant for it to pollinate with. This one plant that was left died shortly after I picked the one squash that it did produce.
As for my butternut squash, the one that did not die, is still growing, and currently has two squash on it that are about the size of a medium gourd and is still firm on the vine and not ready to pick. The one that I did pick got about the same size before it came loose from the vine, as they should pick easily when fully ripe. These vines grew great, had blossoms every few inches and if I had the vegetables to go with the amount of blossoms, I should be swimming in butternuts, but am not.
As for the zucchini, I started with three plants, and one died almost immediately. The other two had lots of blossoms and quickly grew vegetables. There were many little green zucchini on the vines, and I was glad to have them. But the tiny little zucchini did not grow, and many of them rotted on the vines. I was able to pick one normal sized zucchini off one of the plants, and shortly after, the plant completely died. The second plant continued to grow, and produced 3 more zucchini, that fell off the vine before they reached maybe 5 inches. Shortly after these were off the vine, it too died.
I am not sure what happened with these plants. I watered and nurtured them, kept them taken care of, and I was let down and disappointed by them. The tomatoes are still alive and I have a couple more that are green, and frost time is just around the corner.
I have asked many of the farmers and their wives around this area how they made out with their plants. All had reported the same. The plants either died almost immediately, or shortly after bearing one or a few vegetables. They also reported the same with their tomatoes as I have. They were small in size, and bitter, even for a tomato. Most said theirs were blighted too. I had several that had bought some other plants at a grocery store, and reported that the grocery store plants actually produced more and better vegetables than the Bonnie plants.
All in all, taking in consideration that I was not the only one with the same problems with the Bonnie plants, I would not recommend them to anyone. The high cost and low yield did not appeal to me or to my wallet. I am not sure if this is an area problem or if it was this way with other areas. I plan on buying plants from a nursery that does not handle Bonnie plants next year.
