You'll become a tomato connoisseur when you grow various types with differing colors and flavors. The ultimate homemade support, this cage welded from rebar will last a long time and becomes a sculpture in a pretty garden. Use
6- to 8-inch long strips of nylon stocking as soft ties to support
tomato stems on the stake. Criss-cross the stocking strips to hold the
tomato stem without rubbing the stake. When
grown in a large pot with good-quality soil and regular care, a tomato
in a pot will surprise you with the number of delicious fruit it
produces. Sometimes tomatoes in pots do better than those in the ground
because of perfect soil and improved air circulation. This
plant is watered well and without waste by a soaker hose. You should
cover soaker hoses with mulch, but these had to be left uncovered so
that you could see them in the picture. Tomato
blossoms can be temperamental. If it's too cool (below 55˚) or too hot
(above 90˚), the flowers of most varieties will pause from setting fruit
until the temperature is back where they like it.
Don't
let your tomatoes sprawl on the ground like this because they are much
more likely to get leaf diseases and other problems. This cluster of tomatoes shows several stages of ripening. The
cornerstone crop in home gardens, sun-ripened tomatoes deliver the
taste of summer in every bite. Just a few healthy plants will
produce buckets of beautiful fruit loaded with flavor and nutrition.
Tomatoes run on warmth, so they are best planted in late spring and
early summer except in Zone 10, where they are a fall and winter crop.
Choosing varieties can be confusing because there are so many, but it’s a
good idea to plant some of each for variety and length of season. Our
article "VFN What?"
explains a few basics about important variety characteristics.
Varieties resistant to diseases are always a good choice because of all
veggies tomatoes tend to get the most diseases.
Soil, Planting, and Care
Devote
a prime, sunny spot to tomatoes, which will grow into a tall screen of
green foliage studded with ripening fruits in mid- to late summer.
Tomatoes need at least 8 hours of sun to bring out their best flavors,
and you will need to stake, trellis, or cage the sprawling plants to keep them off the ground. Decide on a support plan before you set out your plants.
- Space robust, long-vined, indeterminate varieties about 3 feet apart.
- Stocky determinate plants can be grown at tighter 2-foot spacing.
- A single patio tomato will fill an 18-inch-wide container.
You can combine fast-maturing varieties with special season-stretching techniques
to grow an early crop, but wait until the last frost has passed to
transplant main-season tomatoes. Tomatoes take up nutrients best when
the soil pH
ranges from 6.2 to 6.8, and they need a constant supply of major and
minor plant nutrients. To provide the major nutrients, mix a balanced
timed-release or organic fertilizer into the soil as you prepare
planting holes, following the rates given on the label. At the same
time, mix in 3 to 4 inches of compost. The compost will provide minor
nutrients and help hold moisture and fertilizer in the soil until it is
needed by the plants.
To quickly increase the root mass of tomato plants, we recommend deep planting,
so that two-thirds of the plant's stem is buried in moist soil. Cover
the ground with 2 to 4 inches of mulch to suppress weeds and keep the
soil evenly moist. Straw and shredded leaves make great mulches for
tomatoes, or you can use weed-free grass clippings, applied in 1-inch
layers every few weeks. Do not apply grass clippings any more thickly or
they can mat down and prevent water from passing through. If summer
droughts are common in your area, use soaker hoses or other drought-busting techniques to help maintain even soil moisture – the key to preventing cracked fruits and blossom-end rot. For maximum efficiency and eye appeal, place soaker hoses around the plants and cover with mulch.
As
summer heats up, some tomatoes have trouble setting fruit. Be patient,
and you will start seeing little green tomatoes again when nights begin
cooling down. Meanwhile, promptly harvest ripe tomatoes to relieve
stressed plants of their heavy burden. If you live in an area where
summertime temperatures are typically in the 90s, be sure to choose some
varieties bred for their ability to set fruit under high temperatures.
By
late summer, plants that began producing early in the season will show
signs of exhaustion. It will take but a few minutes to coax out new
growth by pruning away withered leaves and branches. Then follow up with
liquid fertilizer and treatments for leaf diseases or insects, if
needed.
Troubleshooting
Humid
conditions create ideal conditions for fungal diseases like early
blight, which causes dark spots to first form on lower leaves. Late
blight is a more devastating disease that kills plants quickly; the only
way to control it is to protect against it by spraying the leaves with
an approved fungicide such as chlorothalonil or copper and to keep the
garden clean of tomato and potato debris. Of all crops, tomatoes
are the most likely to get problems, but many hybrids have been
developed that resists the worst or most prevalent diseases. Check your
variety description in our catalog to see what diseases it might be
resistant to. Often diseases tend to be worse in one region of the
country and practically non-existant in another, which is why it's
important to have varieties suited to your area.
In mid-summer, big green caterpillars called tomato hornworms eat tomato foliage and sometimes damage fruits as well. One or two hornworms can strip a plant of most of its leaves.
Harvest and Storage
As
tomatoes begin to ripen, their color changes from vibrant medium-green
to a lighter shade, with faint pink or yellow stripes. These "breakers,"
or mature green tomatoes, can be chopped into salsas, pickled, or
pan-fried into a crispy appetizer. Yet tomato flavors become much more
complex as the fruits ripen, so you have good reason to wait. The exact
signs of ripeness vary with variety, but in general, perfectly ripe
tomatoes show deep color yet still feel firm when gently squeezed. Store
picked tomatoes at room temperature indoors, or in a shady place
outside. Never refrigerate tomatoes, because temperatures below 55°
cause the precious flavor compounds to break down. Bumper crops can be
frozen, canned, or dried for future use.