Growing Tomatoes In Hemp Protein

Every year I grow a lot of tomatoes and this year is no exception. I also think it’s important to experiment to see if I can improve on last years crop. So this years tomato experiment is growing tomatoes in hemp protein, primarily a bit of fun but who knows, it could just work out.

A few years ago I experimented with using epsom salts and garden lime in with my tomatoes. That proved to be a success and I do it every year now. To see the post Do Tomato Plants Benefit From Garden Lime and Epsom Salts click here.

Growing Tomatoes In Hemp Protein

This years tomato experiment is courtesy of my youngest son, he tried hemp protein and didn’t like it. Instead of throwing it away which is a waste, I decided to see if tomatoes are influenced at all by hemp protein. My plan was to grow 2 identical tomato plants, one in compost and one in hemp protein.

Tomato Experiment 2019 First Problem

On opening the hemp protein it became obvious that nothing would grow in it, it’s too fine and I don’t think it would hold water. So I decided to add hemp protein to the compost in one pot and use pure compost in the other.

Tomato Experiment 2019 The Set Up

I started 2 tomato seeds (gardeners delight) in identical soil and pots, both subject to the same amounts of light and moisture. One was repotted into compost and the other into the 50/50 hemp protein/compost mix. Both were repotted into the same size pots and given the same amount of water and placed together in my unheated greenhouse.

One Month Update

So 4 weeks on the one in plain compost is twice the height and a light green colour. The one in the hemp protein/compost mix is much more compact, smaller, greener and just looks healthier. They have both produced fruit (still green and small) and it will be interesting to see if there are any taste differences.

Remember although this isn’t under scientific conditions, they are both growing side by side and getting the same light, water and feed. The only difference was the original soil mix.

One Week Later

Just one week after the last update and both plants are still going strong however, the hemp mix plant is looking much healthier. It has greener healthier leaves and it also has new growth from below the soil line (a first for me). The just compost plant is much taller, leggier, has lighter leaves and less of them.

It’s a shame I live in the Northern hemisphere as i will probably run out of ambient weather before the conclusion of this test. Never the less the results so far are interesting to say the least. I hope to get ripe fruit to test before the frosts come.This should be possible as it’s the last day of June as I write this paragraph.

One Month Later

It’s been a month since the last update, mainly due to computer problems (Microsoft update failures). The experiment tomatoes have both grown quite a bit since last month and the hemp protein plant is surprising. So let’s have a look at them both and you’ll see what I mean.

The Non Hemp Gardeners Delight

This plant is doing exactly what I expected, it’s grown higher than the 4 foot cane and is producing trusses of tomatoes. During that incredibly hot spell I had problems with the soil of both these plants drying out. To counter act that I placed both pots into a seed tray so that they had a constant supply of water.

The trouble was the pots they’re in are basically too small for the plants but the seed tray seems to have sorted it out. No surprises with this plant at all, but the hemp one well that’s a different story.

The Hemp Protein Gardeners Delight

After the water problem was sorted I just left both these plants to get on with it to be honest. I watered them both daily as I do all my tomatoes and I fed them weekly again as per all of them. When it was time to take photos to update this post that’s when I spotted this interesting development.

The plant itself is doing ok, it still looks healthy and it’s producing fruit and growing taller than the cane support. It’s below the soil line that is interesting me though, and I’ve never seen this before. There is fresh growth growing up right next to the plant in the same pot and there were no more seeds added.

This growth can only be coming from the original plant and it’s flowering. My first thought was to remove it but that’s not in the spirit of experimenting. So I’ve left it and we’ll see what develops.

September The End Of The Experiment

The non hemp protein tomato has finished producing tomatoes and has in fact died off. The hemp protein tomato has finished it’s original crop of tomatoes on the original stalk. The new growth however, has been producing tomatoes for about 5 weeks now and is still relatively healthy.

Obviously it will die off once the colder weather sets in but we have been going through a warm spell so who knows? In all the years I have been growing tomatoes, I have never had a tomato plant send another stalk from the roots before. Is it because of the hemp protein?

Whatever conclusion I come to is merely speculation, I’m no expert. That said it’s never happened to me before, Will I try it again? Possibly… If only to use up the remaining hemp protein.

Growing tomatoes in hemp protein was a bit of fun, but it seems like it was worthwhile. Do you experiment with growing vegetables or fruit? If so let me know in the comments below.