How to Grow Tomatoes ?

The tomato is probably the most popular vegetable grown by the home gardener. (Technically, the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable). Their popularity is probably due to the fact that they are easy to grow, require little care and when ripened on the vine, taste so much better than those from the store.

How to Grow Tomatoes ?

 I don't know if it is true, but I'm told that store tomatoes are picked green and then placed in a warehouse with some type gas applied to make them turn red. If this is true, what you are getting from the store is a green (unripe) tomato with a red skin. Yukkk!

Since tomatoes take awhile to grow, they are generally started from seed indoors six weeks before planting in the garden. To do this,

place seeds 1/4" deep in small pots filled with planting mix and keep in a warm place (around 70 degrees). Keep moist but not soggy. Placing a plastic bag over the pots until the sprouts break the soil will hasten germination. Be sure to remove the plastic as soon as the sprouts appear.

Place the seedlings in a sunny window away from drafts. Tomatoes need plenty of light and they love the sun. You can fertilize with a weak liquid fertilizer solution after they are about 3 weeks old.

How to Grow Tomatoes ?

When you are ready to put the plants in the garden, make sure the night time temperature is not too cold. Tomatoes are very sensitive to cold nights. They will either die or simply not grow until it warms up. Harden off the young plants before planting in the garden by placing them outdoors for several hours for a week prior to placing them permanently in the garden.

Here is a trick that will not only allow you to plant your tomatoes earlier outdoors, it will also increase your yield and give you earlier ripe tomatoes. A week prior to moving your plants outdoors, select a sunny location where you want to place your tomatoes and cover the ground with black plastic. The plastic will speed the ground warming process and your tomatoes will love the warm soil. Some garden shops are selling a red colored plastic for this purpose. I have tried it and it does work.

When transplanting, make sure you dig a hole large enough to accommodate the roots without crowding. Water the plant prior to removing from the pot.

How to Grow Tomatoes ?

Here is another trick when transplanting that will give your tomatoes a strong, healthy root system. Remove all the lower leaves and branches from the plant. Dig a trench rather than a hole and plant the tomato horizontally with just the top foliage exposed out of the ground. Your tomatoes will grow new roots all along the stem where ever it is under dirt and produce a vigorous plant.

Water the new transplant thoroughly after planting and stake the plant to keep the leaves up off the ground. If the foliage is allowed to lay on the dirt, your new tomato will be exposed to disease and pests, especially snails and slugs.

For larger tomatoes, cull (remove) some of the smaller tomatoes from the plant. Most varieties grow tomatoes in clumps of three or four tomatoes together. Each clump usually has one or two large and one or two smaller tomatoes. Remove the smaller tomatoes and just leave the one or two larger ones if you want monster tomatoes. Of course, if you want quantity rather than large, leave them on.

There are many tips and different methods to growing tomatoes, but if you follow these basics you will have a great harvest of beautiful tomatoes all summer long.