Ketchupophobia
I'm a beginning gardener, and I fear tomatoes.
People who grow tomatoes seem like Master Gardeners. Someone who pulls a tomato out of their harvest basket might as well say, "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair."
My lone and level garden stretches far and away, devoid of tomato vines and stakes.
But tomatoes are a bountiful crop and are wonderful to give to people who need some produce in their lives. They're high in vitamin A, vitamin C, lycopene, and potassium, not to mention that they're tasty on pasta or in salads or chopped into rice.
This year, I'm screwing my courage to the sticking place. I'm a scuba diver, hiker, and surfer.
This year, I'm growing tomatoes in my Obama Garden. My recent research on growing tomatoes is below the fold. Please comment on anything I got wrong, and I will fix it.
Thanks,
TK
Determinate and Indeterminate Tomatoes
First: there are two kinds of tomatoes with regard to when they bear fruit: "determinate" or "indeterminate."
Determinate tomatoes are bush or tumbling plants, often more suited for container gardening, that grow to be 1 to 3 feet tall. They produce flowers on their vine tips, stop growing, and then develop all their fruit quickly and all at once. They require less care than the other kind.
Indeterminate tomatoes, also called cordon tomatoes, are the traditional lanky tomato vines that grow 6 to 20 feet long. They grow longer and produce new flowers and fruit all season long. You can control the growth of these tomatoes by training them on a trellis and pruning sideshoots. You must pinch off any sideshoots that grow between the main stem and any leafy stems, and you must pinch off the top in mid- to late-season. That directs the energy into ripening fruits rather than growing taller stems.
Site and Soil
Tomatoes like heat, so plant them in a spot protected from the wind but in full sun. Next to a sunny wall is often good, as they soak up the heat reradiated from the wall.
They like moderately rich soil, so create a well of compost in the ground for each transplant. In containers, use generous amounts of compost.
Water them well. Tomatoes need a steady supply of moisture and won't produce well unless they're kept moist.
When to Plant
Planting too late is a lot better than planting too early. Soil temperatures of less than 50F or any sort of too-cold night will shock the poor little plants. One book said that seedlings planted in June in the Northeast will grow faster and outproduce plants that were set out earlier.
"Harden off" your seedings for up to two weeks before transplanting them. This means acclimating them to the outdoors. For a tender little seedling that hasn't ever been in a breeze, the outside world is a scary place.
Place your little seedlings outside for 2 hours in a sheltered, shady spot at first, like under a tree, then for longer amounts of time each day. After two or three days, introduce them to the sun for two hours, then put them under the tree for the rest of the day. Gradually increase their direct sun time, too. Take them in at night or whenever the weather turns cold or windy. Keep them watered. Transplanting on an overcast day is ideal.
Tips
Mulch early and often to conserve water. Red plastic mulch may increase yields. Water often.
If you're container gardening, when you plant, insert a watering system. An easy one is to take a 1- or 2-liter bottle, leave the cap on, and drill about 15 small holes in the top (near the cap) of the bottle. Then cut or drill a larger hole in the bottom of the bottle. Plant the bottle, cap-down, in the container with your tomato plants, about 1/2 or 2/3 buried. Fill the bottle with water through the one large hole with a watering can or hose. The water will slowly leach through the small holes into the soil.
Harvesting
If you're growing indeterminate tomatoes, pick fruits as they ripen to encourage the plants to bloom and bear more fruit. Twist the fruits to remove them gently, or cut the stem close to the tomato.
If you're growing determinate tomatoes, you're going to be very busy for about a week. Pick every day.
Seed Savers Tomato Page
Burpee's Tomato Top Page
Please comment on any tips you have or anything that I got wrong. I'll edit the main post with corrections.
TK Kenyon
ADDITIONAL INFO FROM TOMATO MAVENS:
" Make sure your soil has some lime worked in if you live in an area that does not have enough of alkali in the soil. This will help prevent blossom end rot. Use of fertilizer low in nitrogen, but high in superphosphate, such as 4-12-4 or 5-20-5, will also do much to alleviate the problem of blossom end rot. In emergency situations, foliage can be sprayed with calcium chloride solutions." by funluvn1
"Put some crushed eggshells in the planting hole This will accomplish the same end - supplying calcium to prevent blossom end rot." by RunawayRose
"Watch water. They need lots of water, but if you overwater them the fruit splits. Also, if you fear tomatoes, try growing cherry tomatoes. They're REALLY easy to get a good crop from." by heart of a quince
Good tips
"I live in NE Ohio.
I have always found them pretty easy to grow, actually. I plant mine along the side of my house - it's about 2 feet from the side of the house and 2 feet from the driveway - the radiating heat DOES help a lot.
Lots of water is also vital. Try not to let the leaves get wet unless it's hot and sunny out and the water will evaporate within a couple hours.
Some other tips -
For larger tomato varieties (not cherry tomatoes), I always snip off the last few flowers on each cluster - leaving no more than 3 or 4 tomatoes per cluster. They are less likely to rot and grow larger.
Plant them DEEP! Tomato stems root prolifically, so plant them deep, all the up to the lowest leaves.
Prune to just a few major vines, plucking out the little "suckers" that grow at the Vs off the main stem.
I grow only organically, so I only use compost for fertilization - chemical fertilizers are a no-no if you want really good tasting tomatoes.
Half-way through the season I cut off the top 2-3 feet of the larger plants (they are often 4=6 tall by this point) - and let a couple suckers grow up into larger vines - this gives me a late season crop from plants that might otherwise be slowing down.
by G35Guy
"Don't pick when the plant is wet in my zone 4-ish, it tends to kill the plant - some kind of really fast moving fungus that gets spread, I think. If I absolutely have to pick after a rain, I always wear leather gloves, but I try to avoid picking at all. Other than that, tomatoes are easy." by Ophelia
A few tips
For container (or even garden) growing of tomatoes mix 1/3 dirt with 1/3 compost with 1/3 aged manure.
Start seedlings indoors at least 3 weeks ahead of planting out and if you have room you can start much earlier and pot them up.
When you plant the tomato plant it deeper than the soil line by up to 2/3rd of the plant. It will put out more roots and bring in more nutrients and have a sturdier stem. If you want to plant it deeper than the lowest leaves allow be sure to snap them off the stem, this will encourage more roots.
Shake the plant once a day for 5-10 seconds once flowers begin appearing when the wind is calm. This spreads the pollen.
When you water, water deeply but don't drown them. 1-3 inches a week is what tomato plants like but if you water them lightly each day then all those roots you developed don't get fed so it's better to give them a lot of water 2 times a week. More often if there's wilting.
Tomatoes are subject to fusarium wilt so I use cinnamon on the surface of potted plants to deter fungi.
We're all one heartbeat away from Forever. kasandra.us
by KS Rose