learn how to grow tomatoes

 

 

Articles and Tips for Growing Tomatoes

Learn How to Grow Tomatoes

Learning how to grow tomatoes is pretty simple, actually. You'll be pleasantly surprised to find that tomatoes are easy to grow, too. As long as you take the time to stake your tomato plants, your tomato plants will grow big and strong and produce beautiful tomatoes.

Before you get started, you need to figure out how much room you are going to have for growing your tomatoes. Some varieties of tomato plants will continue to grow as high as you let them grow. While other varieties will only grow to about 3 feet tall. The sales person at the garden supply store will gladly point out the appropriate type for your garden.

Once you have your seeds (or transplants), it's time to start planting. This is a crucial step in that you need to make sure that each plant is going to have enough area. Your tomato plants need to have direct sun light for at least seven hours a day. For best results, try to keep 18 to 24 inches between your plants. This will allow each plant the potential for growth assuming you use stakes or a cage to help your plants grow upwards. If you do not plan to use stakes or a cage, you will want to double the amount of room between each plant so that it can sprawl on the ground. If your plants are too close together they will not produce as much fruit and will have more issues with disease.

Now that your plants are in the ground, it's time to feed them. When you are at the garden supply store, look for fertilizer that is specially designed for growing tomatoes. Or, better yet, every two weeks you can shovel some compost around your tomato plants. If you go with the store-bought fertilizer, try to stay away from lawn fertilizer.

The two most important aspects of growing tomatoes are sunlight and water. Tomato plants LOVE water. Tomatoes need calcium and one of the main ways they get that is through their roots as the absorb the water. One consequence of low water intake is called blossom-end rot. This looks like a dry brown spot on the bottom of your tomato. One way to help conserve the moisture is to use mulch around your plants. Also, when watering your plants, try to avoid watering the plant's leaves. Instead, water directly at the base of your plant.

As your tomato plants mature, you shouldn't remove leaves or branches from your plants once they have started to produce fruit. It is a common misconception that fruit needs direct sunlight to ripen. This is simply not true. If the fruit gets too much direct sunlight there is the possibility of your fruit yellowing on the side with the overexposure.

It will be time to pick your tomatoes once their color is even and they are nice and glossy. Their texture should be somewhere between soft and firm.

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Growing Tomatoes in Home Gardens

Tomatoes are tender, warm weather plants that need a long frost-free growing season.

Varieties: Look for varieties that mature in 70-75 days or less. Be aware that seed catalogs give the number of days to maturity by counting from the time the plants are set out in the garden, not from seed germination. Check varieties for the initials VFNT. If all four initials are listed, the plants will be resistant to Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, nematodes and tobacco mosaic.

Transplant the tomatoes on a cloudy day if possible and water thoroughly. Put one tablespoon of tomato food (5-10-10) in the bottom of the hole and cover with soil. Don't allow plant roots to touch fertilizer. Tomatoes need ample water, but be careful not to overwater. Plants need 1 inch of water per week. Too much water can stimulate heavy leaf growth and cause blossoms to drop. A good way to keep the moisture level consistent is to mulch after ground has warmed thoroughly, usually the first of July.

Culture problems: Tomatoes will not grow well in heavy clay soil because it lacks air. To change the composition of heavy soil, add organic material such as peat moss, compost, or manure. Work to a depth of six inches. Warning: Be extremely careful with manures. They may have been sprayed with weed killers like 2,4-D that will carry through the soil to the plants.

Fertilizers: Soils vary greatly all over the Inland Northwest, but one factor remains fairly constant regardless of location: young plants need phosphate and very little nitrogen.

Night temperatures: Must be between 55° to 75° for successful fruit set. If nights drop below 55°, blossoms drop off before they can be pollinated. Large beefsteak-type tomatoes demand a lot of pollen, so they are the hardest type to set fruit. Tomato-set hormones will help when nights are too cold.

Pruning tomatoes: Be careful about pruning plants too severely, especially in August. If a plant is left unpruned, it can keep fruit from becoming sun-scalded.

Prevention of common tomato problems: Rotate crops, plant resistant varieties, encourage air circulation, keep plants vigorous. Avoid overhead watering or watering late in the day. Don't handle or work around plants when wet to prevent the spreading of diseases.

Blossom end rot: First appears on bottom of tomato, caused by uneven moisture supply that results in a lack of calcium in the plant. The problem may be very severe where the soil has a high salt content, is sandy, or has poor drainage. Staked or pruned plants are more likely to suffer. Apply a two-inch mulch under plants.

Cracking: Keep moisture supply as consistent as possible. Again, mulching helps.

Catfacing: This is not a disease. It is caused by cool weather and abnormal development of the pistil of the tomato flower at blossom time.

Blossom drop: Caused by cool night temperatures in our area.

Curling of leaves: Very common. Too much pruning may promote curling. Pronounced rolling and purplish leaf veins could be curly top of tomato, or western yellow blight, a virus caused by leafhoppers in beets and spinach. Avoid planting near these vegetables.

Early blight: One of the most common and harmful diseases, it is caused by fungus and appears first as a simple brown spot surrounded by yellow that spreads outward. Lower leaves are affected first and later wither. To help keep in check, mulch to reduce splashing and use a good tomato-vegetable dust that contains a fungicide. Space plants for good air circulation to prevent humid conditions favoring blight.

Late blight: Irregularly-shaped, greasy, green-black spots are found at edge of leaves at first; gray mold sometimes is seen on bottom of leaves. To prevent blight, use an organic fungicide. Seriously-diseased plants should be destroyed and discarded. Remember to rotate your crops.

Leaf spot: A fungal disease in which leaves start showing small spots with light centers. They may turn yellow and drop off. Rotating crops helps keep this in check.

Bacterial wilt: Occurs suddenly, and often is not accompanied by yellowing of leaves; stem centers will turn brown.

Wilts indicate something has "stopped up the plumbing" of the plant. Most often, lower leaves wilt first.

Fusarium wilt: Plants show wilt on only one side at first; brown ring goes all the way up the stem.

Verticillium wilt: Leaves show large yellow blotches before wilting; brown ring will be seen only in the lower twelve inches of stem.

Walnut wilt: Don't plant tomatoes near walnut trees or where walnut trees used to grow. The toxin can live in roots for a long time. Destroy wilt-infested plants as soon as you spot them.

Tobacco mosaic: A virus with symptoms of curling and stunted leaves. Don't let anyone smoke in the garden as they may infect the plants. If you do smoke, wash your hands with soap before handling plants.

Herbicide damage: 2,4-D herbicide drift occurs frequently. Symptoms include downward bending of leaves and of growing points. New leaves do not expand fully, twist at margins and are narrow. Plants exposed to small amounts of herbicide damage will outgrow injury. Water thoroughly and often.

Insects: The most common tomato pest is the Tomato Hornworm, which is the caterpillar stage of the Sphinx (or Hawk) Moth. They can be controlled by handpicking or by spraying the plants with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) when the pests are spotted on the plants. Bt is a product that contains bacteria that parasitize caterpillars but are harmless to humans. It is widely available at garden centers.

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Planting Site and Soil Preparation for Growing Tomatoes

Tomatoes need at least 8 hours of direct sun each day. The area should be well drained, and free from the competition of tree and shrub roots.  If possible, plant tomatoes in an area where tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes have not grown for at least two years.  This will help to control soil-borne disease problems. Preparations for any crop should begin with a soil test.  Test kits and soil sampling directions can be obtained at your county cooperative extension office (listed in the phone book as Rutgers Cooperative Extension under county government).  The soil test will indicate the pH of the soil, the level of major nutrients, and recommend the appropriate amendments.  In the absence of a soil test, add about 3 to 4 pounds of a 5-10-5 fertilizer per 100 square feet or a 2 inch layer of well rotted compost. If you haven’t limed your soil in a few years add 5 to 10 pounds of limestone per 100 square feet.  This will keep the soil’s pH in the range of 6.0-6.5 which is optimum for tomato growth.  Incorporate lime and fertilizer into the top 4 to 6 inches of the soil.  Adding organic matter such as compost, peat moss, rotted leaves, and manure at this time will improve the soil’s nutrient and water holding capacity.

Variety Selection

There are thousands of tomato varieties from which to select.  Choosing among these varieties is partly a matter of personal taste and experience, although there are also some important cultural considerations. Seed catalogs usually list a number beside each variety.  This number indicates the number of days to maturity from the time of transplanting (not from the time of  seeding).  This is an approximation, the actual time will depend on your local growing conditions.  The number should be used as a guide for choosing early, mid-season, and late varieties. Varieties are also identified as being determinate, semi-determinate, and indeterminate.  Determinate plants produce many short branches ending in flower clusters with a very brief harvest.  They are seldom used in the garden except as early varieties, since most people want a long harvest season. Indeterminate plants are large, and will continue to grow all season long.  They may grow more than 6 feet tall if given support and produce fruit until frost.  Semi-determinate varieties are more compact than indeterminate plants but will also produce heavy crops until frost.

For the home gardener, semi-determinate and indeterminate varieties are usually recommended for long continuous harvests.

The variety name may also be followed by several letters.  These letters indicate if that particular variety is resistant to certain diseases.  The letter V indicates resistance to Verticillium wilt, F resistance to Fusarium wilt, N to nematodes, and T to Tobacco Mosaic Virus.  It is highly recommended to choose varieties with resistance to diseases, especially verticillium and fusarium which may be problems in your garden.

Planting Tomatoes

Transplants can be either purchased at a local garden center or started indoors by the gardener.  When buying transplants, it’s best to look for dark green seedlings which are short and sturdy. Avoid tall, leggy, yellowish plants. Transplants may have flowers but avoid those having small green fruit.  Plants with immature fruits usually remain small and are low yielding. Gardeners who want to start their own seedlings at home have a much wider selection of varieties  to choose from but special care is required if the gardener is to be successful.  Start your own seedlings about 6 to 8 weeks before you expect to plant outside.  Use a sterile growth media (available in garden centers), ensure adequate lighting and humidity, and maintain temperatures in the range of  70°F during the day and 65°F  at night.  If plants become elongated and spindly, increase the amount and intensity of light they receive.

Transplant tomatoes outside when all danger of frost is past.  Planting too early stresses plants due to cool air and soil temperatures.  In addition, tomatoes are  very sensitive to frost and will be killed by temperatures below 32°F. If you must plant early, protect plants with row covers, hot caps, plastic containers, or some other means. Tomatoes, unlike other vegetables, do better when the stem is slightly buried.  Roots will form along the stem, establishing a stronger root system.  Plants should be set so the soil level is just below the lowest leaves.  When planting, place rows 3 to 4 feet  apart. Tomatoes grown on stakes or in cages can be placed 1 1/2 to 2 feet apart within rows.  If plants are allowed to sprawl on the ground, allow 3 feet between plants.

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