Grow your own delicious tomatoes on Salt Cay. TCI

Grow your own delicious tomatoes on Salt Cay. TCI

Latest news from Salt Cay… Do you want beautiful plump healthy tomatoes like these tomatoes?


Well there is no reason why juicy tomatoes cannot grow on Salt Cay once a few minor problems are solved:-
1) Maintain the motivation to care for these little ‘guys’ and feed and nourish them like you would a baby.

2) Understand the type of soil and fertilizer.

3) Understand what diseases tomatoes are prone to and how to recognize unhealthy signs.
4) Keep bugs and chickens and the damn donkeys away from your garden.
5) Know when to water and remember to water!

FROM SEEDS… get your little containers and pop the seeds into a soilless potting mix. Basically a potting soil which is free of contaminants and there is no need for a fertilizer to be added during this seed germination stage. The potting soil can contain a little peat moss.

Sow the seeds a quarter to half inch deep and water. The seeds must be kept moist until germination. If necessary cover trays or containers with plastic bags so the seeds remain moist.

Seeds should be damp not swimming in water.

Seeds germinate between 10 and 14 days.

For optimal growth seedlings need 12 hours of sunlight.

Seedlings don’t like to be crowded, so respect their space and remember to keep them in bright sunlight…they are sun lovers by nature.

When they start sprouting four leaves give them their own bedroom…. a 4inch pot to spread out in.
Don’t forget to label the pot to save frustrating moments later down the road when the memory goes blank.

Tomatoes like a breeze …it makes their stems grow strong, so if you are starting the seedlings in the house or enclosed patio give them a little gentle fanning..Just remember you do not need the ‘blast’ mode unless you want to scrape the seedlings off the wall!

When the plants are ready to be transplanted remember that they can be put in a larger hole like the size of a basketball and buried up to the top leaves because tomatoes are able to grow roots all along the stem.

Add a little fertilizer or organic waste like crushed eggshells which provides a touch of calcium.

You do not need to mulch because tomatoes like peppers are sun lovers.

When the plants are nearly 3 feet tall the bottom leaves can be removed to prevent fungus…the bottom leaves are the most susceptible to disease.

It is the leaves that photosynthesize the fruit so prune sparingly just enough to allow the sun to shine on ripening fruit.

The little nodules between the apex of the branches can be removed since they will not bear fruit and only zap energy.

VERY IMPORTANT…The developing tomatoes must be watered on a regular basis. There is no such thing as ‘island time’ with tomatoes , trying to make up after missing a week does not work and only leads to rotting tomatoes!

Once the fruit begins to ripen LESSEN the water because this encourages the tomato to concentrate the sugars.

Rotting Tomatoes
This is cause by a calcium deficiency…suppliments will not help since the rot is uuually caused by irregularly watering the plants. Water contains calcium and diffuses the source through thre plants when they are watered in a timely manner.

Bottom line is that tomatoes like space, sunlight and careful constant water.

Waste Management Initiatives for Salt Cay TCI

Finally the Turks and Caicos citizens can enjoy a nationwide plan that has a strong possibility of bringing the management and disposal of solid waste across the Islands into the 21st century.

The company awarded the government contract and formidable task of ‘cleaning’ the nation is TCEM (Turks and Caicos Environmental Management) an affiliate of Sanitas Partners whose mission statement is “to provide environmentally secure waste solutions to national, regional and local governments across the globe.”

Example of Transfer Station on left.

Spearheading this long awaited project is CEO, James Hodge and his son Tim, President of TCEM who are no strangers to the TCI and together with a qualified and experienced team have researched and formulated a comprehensive plan to privatize the solid waste management and provide a variety of services that will benefit all the inhabited Islands in the TCI.

The plan in a nutshell?

Providenciales will be the main station and centre for the disposal of garbage collected from every island and off loaded to a super modern solid waste landfill facility.
One of the key components of the plan is to close out the old landfills on the outer Islands by barging out to Providenciales, all the containerized garbage on a regular basis.

The Islands will in a practical sense be a temporary ‘solid waste’ holding station or ‘transfer’ station.

However, each transfer station will be designed to meet the unique set of criteria for each Island and planned with input from the community to facilitate the transfer of consolidated waste in an efficient and practicable format.

In the long term these initiatives and strategy will eventually eliminate existing methane greenhouse emissions now present at the current obsolete landfills.

Another important feature of the modern landfill facility on Providenciales, is that TCEM anticipate that in the foreseeable future the landfill will be able to produce enough electricity to power almost one third of the homes in the TCI.

In real terms this means that diesel emissions from the existing system of generating electricity will be drastically reduced.

SALT CAY
From a Salt Cay point of view we need to be thinking of how these initiatives by TCEM will impact Salt Cay?

The recent money released from the Fund may need to be reallocated more efficiently. For example it seems pointless to dig another hole for the rubbish etc when we could pssibly divert the funds in such a way that will facilitate the initiatives of TCEM. Perhaps start recycling???

At a recent meeting TCEM said they could provide containers for the island of Salt Cay and will in the next few weeks be starting an 'educational program' on 'waste management' which TCEM said they would be bringing to all the islands.

Does anyone have some ideas for making the transfer station on Salt Cay efficient?

It would be forward thinking to discuss any ideas before the next DC meeting .

The Turks and Caicos Islands has made yet another positive step in demonstrating that the National slogan ‘beautiful by nature’ are not just hollow words but a small but important commitment toward a clean and healthy environment.