Tomato Basics & Care Guide: How to Grow Terrific Tomatoes
It's easy! Just follow these basic, simple tips and you'll be well on your way to spectacular feasts.
Tomatoes are an easy crop to grow as long as you have a good amount of space, a nice warm sunny spot in your yard and great soil for the tomatoes to grow in. Grow some cherry tomaoes for nice small juicy tomatoes, or even a different type of tomato you have never had like the Green Zebra! You will not be dissappointed by your harvest if you follow some simple directions. Hopefully Mother Nature will be on your side in your growing season!
Plant tomato seedlings
- in a spot that receives full sun (min. 6 hrs. a day).
Don't locate your tomato garden
- near black walnut trees (Juglans nigra) because these trees produce a chemical that wilts tomatoes (as well as potatoes and eggplants). Never mulch tomatoes with bark, wood chips, or hulls from a black walnut tree.
Tomatoes require consistent moisture
- keep it consistent produce excellent, flavorful, uncracked fruit
- To help maintain consistent moisture, mulch around tomato plants and avoid overhead watering or watering in the evening. Moisture consistency also helps prevent blossom end rot.
- Add a mulch around your plants after they are well established—at about 4 weeks.
- An Aquapore Hose is another good investment.
Staked tomato varieties
- these can be planted 2½ to 3 feet apart and caged tomatoes should be 30 to 36 inches apart.
- Remember, tomato plants require good air circulation to stay healthy. Planted too close together, tomatoes can develop blight, fungus, and other diseases.
Start seedlings indoors
- 6 to 8 weeks before the last expected frost in your area.
- Or, if you want to get a jump on the season, set your plants out a week or two earlier with the protection of a plant protectors.
If your seedlings become too leggy
- set them in the ground with the stem buried lengthwise in the soil.
- New roots will develop along the entire length of the buried stem, making your plant stronger and stockier.
Don't overfertilize your tomatoes
- too much nitrogen will make great, green foliage, but produce little fruit.
- For best results try Vegetable Food an organic plant food designed especially for vegetables.
Watch for insect pests
- such as the tomato hornworm- this is a 3- to 4-inch caterpillar who will voraciously munch the leaves of your tomato plants. You can simply remove the caterpillars by hand.
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Tags
tomato planting, tomato seedling, vegetables
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