VARIETIES: I have successfully planted and harvested all types of large tomatoes, plus cherry tomatoes, and Roma tomatoes. These instructions are tailored for any of those species.
WHERE TO LOCATE: These plants need four to eight hours of direct sunlight each day. With 3-4 hours the plants will be smaller but still bear a decent crop. Anything over four ½ hours you will be amazed at the results. The soil needs to be kept moist but arrange drainage so that the plants don’t sit in water or where it’s too wet. Key is moist not wet.
SEEDS OR SET? This is a beginner’s site so go to the hardware store, super discount store, garden nursery or local drug store and buy plants which have already been started. They usually have pre-grown plants for sale suitable for your climate. These, even when cheap, produce the same as more expensive plants. However, they often stock them before the last frost. Check out the last frost date for your area and don’t buy until you reach that date. I always look not for the biggest plants but the healthiest. This year the tomatoes plants for larger tomatoes I bought were around 12 inches tall and fairly bushy, not too gangly. My cherry tomatoes were only four inches high but very bushy, healthy young plants. If you buy plants that are already too large they will have become root bound in the containers and will not produce as well. Once you have a successful season and are feeling good about your skills you might want to buy a planter set and grow the small plants from seeds yourself. I’m not that ambitious.
HOW TO PLANT: Assuming you start with 12 inch plants dig your hole about 16 inches deep and around 6-8 inches in diameter. With scissors trim off any branches which have sprouted in the lower 6 inches of the plant leaving three to four branches towards the top of the plant. Set the plant, still in its container aside for a few minutes. At the bottom of the newly dug hole toss in a handful or two of fertilizer. For this purpose use 5-5-5 granules commonly available in a box. Do not use Miracle Grow. Return 4-5 inches of dirt to the hole on top of the fertilizer. Peel the lower half of the peat contain away from the lower half of the container the plant was grown in, including the very bottom. Take care to damage the roots as little as possible. Don’t have a heart attack if you do lose some small amount of the root tissue. It will grow back. If they are in plastic containers remove the pot completely. Fill the hole, now 8-10 inches deep, with water. Set the plant down into the water. You will have the four inches or so of the root ball (and what’s left of its container) as well as about 5-6 inches of the lower stem in the hole. With your hands push the loose dirt back into the hole to fill the hole. You should have a little soupy, muddy mess at first. However, pat the dirt down with you hands. Don’t smash it, just pat it down so that the plant can still stand upright until the dirt adjusts and compacts on its own.
Why do all this? Your plants will grow better and bear better if they have a good root structure. The area of the stem of the plant where you removed the small branches and the portion covered with dirt will send out more new roots. The normal root ball will be deeper in the soil giving it a better chance to grow and give it a head start. You may provide supplemental nutrition if needed but the handful of fertilizer you dropped into the hole will be a bomb of nutrition waiting for the roots to find it. You will know when that happens because the plant will grow explosively. One day, suddenly, one of the plants will be six inches taller than the others and you will know that it was the first one to reach the pocket of food. It won’t burn the roots. Your watering will gradually disburse it into the soil and the roots will find it and intake the nutrition from a safe distance. If you over fertilize from the top of the ground it could leak down into the soil onto the roots and harm the plant. This way the plant takes it in as it needs it. Why no Miracle Grow for this? It’s too water soluble and will simply pass away into the soil after a few waterings. The 5-5-5 granules will gradually dissolve and last all Summer.
Normal directions say to plant your tomato sets 18 inches apart. Plant these 36 inches apart. These are going to be the Godzilla of tomato plants. Expect them to be 6-9 feet tall and bear more than a bushel of prime tomatoes each.
After the plants reach 15-18 inches remove all branches in the lower six inches of the plant. They will not bear and will just take nutrition from the rest of the plant. Once they are 36 inches or so remove all branches from the lower 12 inches of the plant. Don’t twist them off. Use scissors or a sharp instrument.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TOMATO PLANT: All plants bearing full size tomatoes need to be supported either with long sticks or wire cages. I also support my cherry tomato plants. You will not believe how tall your plants will be using the tips above and how heavy they will be with tomatoes. I place the wire tomato cages around the plants the day I plant them. However, they will soon outgrow the cage. Also, once the tomatoes form they will be heavy enough to bend the wire cages to the ground. So I also buy two to four long plastic tomato stakes (6-8 feet). Once the plants outgrow the top of the basket I place one on all four sides of the plant. As the stems grown I tie them to the closest stake. I suggest tearing strips from an old white T-shirt and using them to tie the branches as they grow. If you don’t do this the branches will break from the weight and you will have less tomatoes. There are bush tomatoes but I even support them. I don’t like tomatoes on the ground as snails will come out at night and slime them and eat holes in them.
HOW TO NURTURE: Water daily. Water the ground around the plants. Do not sprinkle the plants or you are more likely to have a fungus problem. Saturate the ground close to the plant when you do water. If you have a decent rain you will not need to water that day. You can stick your finger into the ground to determine if it’s damp enough after the rain. You will not need to add fertilizer again. However, when the plants first start to blossom, even before the blossoms open add a tablespoon of lime (the chemical, not the citrus fruit) sprinkled close around the plant. This is readily available in small quantities from any garden nursery or big box hardware store. The lime will prevent blossom rot. It will also make the tomatoes sweeter. The cherry tomatoes you grow will be so sweet right off the vine that you will find yourself eating them like candy. Yum!! Lime is basically calcium. It is the opposite of an acid. After you place the lime, sprinkle it down with water. Don't deluge it. Just sprinkle it so that it dissolves into the soil and will not be washed away by your normal waterings. Do this again in about two weeks. It's okay to do this in late afternoon or early evening. If you are having blossoms which do not make tomatoes add more lime.
WHEN TO PICK: It’s really hard to wait until they completely ripen and are only partially red. However, it’s best to wait. Again cut the large style tomatoes off with scissors. Large tomatoes are held on by a large stem and if you twist it off you will damage the plant. Cherry tomatoes can be hand picked just by pulling them off. Green tomatoes may be picked close to the first frost. Place them in a brown paper bag and set in a spot that is room temperature. They will continue to ripen.
PESTS: Everything that creeps, crawls or flies will want to eat your nice tomatoes. Below are a few suggestions to control them.
Reader's tip: Chester Burley of CT writes that he uses marigolds. 'Plant marigolds thru out your garden.' This is a nice earth friendly way to avoid insects and other pests in your garden.
FUNGUS: Tomato plants are especially susceptible to fungus. It will start on the lower leaves and lower stalk. The usual causes are either over watering, watering from above, watering in the evenings or late afternoons, or extended periods of rain. Leaves will develop white spots which quickly turn brown as the leaf dies. There are many cures for this. The easiest is to take one tablespoon of baking soda (usually kept in the fridge to absorb odors) and mix with one pint of water. Pour into a small spray bottle (such as women spray their hair with to dampen it for a trim). Spray directly onto the affected area as well as the lower stem. Don’t forget the bottom of the leaves. The Alkali in the baking powder will kill the fungus on contact and usually after a couple of applications. However, it won’t otherwise harm the plant.
ANTS: I simply don’t like ants in my garden. They will infest the vegetables once they ripen. They are attracted to your garden site as soon as you dig it up. I guess they feel you have done a lot of the work to start a new nest site. I prefer commercial ant spikes to destroy the colony. Just push one or two in the ground and the ants will carry the poison back to the colony where they all die.
APHIDS: There are many types of products available to spray on the plant and kill these harmful pests. I prefer to use ‘lady bugs’. My garden shop and nursery in Reno always stocks several mesh bags full. You can get 1,000 of these little critters at a time. Sprinkle them on all of your plants, not just the tomatoes. They love to eat aphids as well as a variety of other pests common in a garden. Any left over can be sprinkled on your rose plants where they will feast on the aphids. An effective alternative is Sevin Dust. Place a cupful in the bottom of a woman’s hose and bounce up and own over the plants. The fine mesh of the hose will cause the dust to come out in a fine small cloud. Very effective. Don’t sprinkle until the leaves are white. That’s too much. Just enough to see the white spots on the leaves. However, once they start to bloom I would not put Sevin on the leaves. You will kill the little bees and other insects trying to pollinate the blossoms.
WORMS: There are some varieties of worms which will chew on your tomato plants. If the lady bugs don’t take care of them sprinkle around the plants with Sevin Dust. This commercial pesticide will quickly kill the pests. However, if you have turned your Lady Bugs loose it will kill them also.
BIRDS: Once your tomatoes begin to ripen birds will want to peck out a hole in each one. They won’t eat the whole thing but who wants to eat tomatoes with pecked spots on them? I prefer to string twine between two sticks (five feet or so tall). From the twine hang old CDs from other pieces of twine. The silver CD will spin in the wind and scare the birds off.
STORING YOUR EXCESS TOMATOES: There are many fine books and web sites on canning tomatoes in Mason jars and they keep just fine. However, last year my son, George, and his wonderful wife, Anwyn, taught me to use a food dehydrator to save them. The tomatoes re-hydrated wonderfully and that is now my preferred method of storing tomatoes for the winter.
CONTACT ME: Your questions will be answered personally using the ‘Contact’ link below. New ideas gladly accepted. Comments automatically posted to this site.
RECIPES FROM YOUR GARDEN: Click on the recipe below using the above as an ingredient and it will pop up for you.
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