Growing Awesome Tomatos - 10 Tips For Growing The Best in the West

 

 

It's that time of year when gardeners all around are longing for the ground to be warm enough to begin planting.    At our house the memories of the how much work it was to can or freeze the bounty have faded into the mist.  As we prepare the seed boxes we fantasize of the moment that we are able to pop that first sun warmed juicy tomato into our mouth.  Why is it that what we were so done with just a few short months ago has been romanticized into an quasi religious experience?

 

     As we pour over our garden plans, plotting where each little sprout will reside for the summer, the tomato is our centerpiece, our Garden Alter if you will.  All other equally delicious, nutritious, and beautiful vegetables pale in comparison to our fixation on where the tomatoes will be planted this year.

 

Here are 10 simple tips for your best tomatoes ever from one of my favorite garden magazines, Organic Gardening .

 

1. Choose a bright, airy spot.   Plant tomatoes where they will get at least 10 hours of light in summer. And leave room between plants for air to circulate.

 

2. Rotate even a little.  Alternate your tomato bed between even just two spots and you diminish the risk of soil borne diseases such as bacterial spot and early blight.

 

3. Pass up overgrown transplants.   When buying tomato seedlings, beware of lush green starts with poor root systems. They will languish for weeks before growing.

 

4. Bury the stems.   Plant your tomato seedlings up to the first true leaves. New roots will quickly sprout on the stems. More roots means more fruits.

 

5. Water deeply but infrequently.   Soak your tomato bed once a week, or every five days at the height of summer. Water directly on the soil, not on the leaves.

 

6. Pinch the suckers.   Prune off these non-fruiting branches. This directs the tomato plant's energy into growing bigger, better fruit.

 

7. Stake them high.   Use 6-foot stakes for indeterminate varieties like the 'Brandywine' tomato. Put in the stakes when transplanting to avoid damaging roots.

 

8. Add compost and trim.   While the first fruit is ripening, encourage new growth and continued fruit set by scratching compost around the stem, and trim some of the upper leaves.

 

9. Plant again.   Three weeks after you plant tomatoes in your garden, put in another set so all of your harvest doesn't come at once.

 

10. Pick ripe, but not dead ripe.   Heirloom tomatoes that are too ripe can be mealy. Harvest them when they're full size and fully colored.

 

For more information about growing tomatoes, check out Organic Gardening Tomato Growing Guide.

 

For Tomato, Peppers and other starts visit our friends Kelley & Arti's Plants in Concord. 

Backyard growers and sellers of tomato, pepper, herb and other edible seedlings. Supporting local, sustainable food sources, edible landscaping, and alternatives to industrial food.