Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable garden plant. Even gardeners who have space for nothing else often put a tomato plant in a pot on their porch or in a flower bed. Tomatoes are easy to grow, but here are some tips to make them even more successful.
There are a few things you should know before buying tomato plants. They are either determinate or indeterminate. Determinate plant tomatoes ripen all at once and then no more tomatoes are formed. If you are planning on canning tomatoes, you want determinate plants. Indeterminate plants continue growing and producing throughout the season. These are good for extended use, but you’ll probably still get enough to can, freeze or give away.
The tags in the plant pot may not say whether the tomato is determinate or indeterminate. You may have to ask. Better yet, look at a mail order catalog, which does tell you, and make a list of which varieties of tomatoes you want to buy before you go to the nursery.
The plant tags might have letters like V, F, N, T, A, St., and TSWV on them. These are various diseases to which that variety of tomato has been bred to be resistant. This doesn’t mean that you should avoid buying tomatoes without any of these letters listed. Some of the best tasting tomatoes haven’t been bred for disease resistance and with a bit of care and a little luck, you’ll have healthy tomato plants.
When you get the plants home, take a few days to acclimate them to being outdoors. Keep them in shade and protected from the wind for a few days, gradually exposing them to a little more sun and wind each day until they can withstand the conditions in your garden.
Most plants are planted at the same soil depth as they were in the pot in which they were purchased. Tomatoes, however, should be planted much deeper. Remove the bottom few leaves that grow from the stem and sink the plant in the hole up to just below the “canopy” of leaves. Roots will form all along the stem making for a sturdy plant.
Adding a scoop of compost, crushed eggshells and a sprinkle of dried non-fat milk to the hole will help the plants throughout the season. Eggshells and milk provide calcium to help prevent blossom-end rot, a condition where the bottom of the tomatoes turn black and mushy.
Another help in preventing blossom-end rot is to make sure that watering is consistent throughout the season.
Leave plenty of space between plants so air can flow between them. This helps to prevent fungal diseases.
Use good, strong tomato cages so the plants don’t flop over onto the ground. Mulch around the plants with straw, leaves or pine needles to prevent bacterial, viral and fungal diseases from splashing up from the soil.
Extended high temperatures cause tomato blossoms to stop forming fruit. A spray called Tomato Blossom Set ensures that fruits form even in high temps.
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