What is your best tomato or squash gardening tip?
Question:Or any kind of vegetable tip, really. I am a brand new gardener. I am LOVING IT! But, I do not have a mentor. So, would you please share your secrets?
Answers:
The trick to planting tomatoes is to start early, or to buy them yourself at a local garden center. Tomatoes need to be started indoors about eight weeks before the last frost date for your area. Once all chance of frost has passed, transplant outside.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders, and require space! Plant them eighteen inches apart (at least) as they get leafy pretty quickly, and spread out. You will also need a tomato cage of some sort.
Also do some companion planting. I plant basil near all my tomato plants as they improve the flavor. Panting carrots nearby also helps. The presence of onions repels many pest because the onion smell confuses them, and by planting garlic, you repel the red spider mite.
If you smoke, don't handle tomato plants until you've washed your hands. Along that same line, never handle wet tomato leaves.
Tomatoes should be watered as close the the base as possible, keeping the leaves dry. Use a soaker hose.
Some research suggests that by using red, you get bigger tomatoes. That's why you'll see red planters, red cages, and other red stuff for your tomato plants.
My best tip for tomatoes is to put a little Epsom salt in the bottom of the hole you dig for the plant. The magnesium helps the tomato plant to establish a strong root system and makes a bigger, stronger plant.
If you don't cage or stake your tomato plants, put newspaper under the forming fruit as the vine sprawls so it doesn't lie on the ground. This helps prevent rot and slugs from ruining the tomatoes.
I start tomatoes early in the year inside. As soon as they sprout I gently ease them out of the soil, then replant them into a hole in the growing medium made by a pencil. I put them deep enough that their leaves touch the soil. As soon as the first true leaves appear, I pinch off the "sprout" leaves, then I repeat the first step. It's not unusual for me to replant my tiny tomatoes (started late Feb/early March) up to 10 times, each time getting the stem into the soil as deep as possible.
I've discovered this creates a very strong plant. Once transferred into the garden it takes off. The plants I transferred about a month ago are now about 1 1/2 feet high, with stems about 3/4 inch thick, covered with blossoms.
Also, to keep cutworms and birds from destroying the new plants I give each one a collar about 2-3 inches high made of paper towel or toilet paper rolls. Works wonders.
The best tomato I've found is an heirloom Amish variety called Brandywine. It produces huge (up to 1 and 1/2 lb tomatoes) that are good for eating, canning and freezing. I am able to save my own seed from the tomatoes because they're nonhybrids, and right now I have about 30 tomato plants started from seed that I saved from my crop of 2004. I cherish these because my Mom and I put up bushels of tomatoes from my garden-about 70 qts and she helped me with the canning and seed saving. She passed away before my next garden produced tomatoes. So, those seeds are a reminder of a special time and a special lady.
Being pretty new to gardening myself,I can tell you what worked for us sofar, the red really does work we used red mulch under the tomatoes and they love it, also be sure not to water from the top of the plant, water every other day and the basil that was mentioned is a great idea because it keeps other bugs away! The thing we discovered was that compost makes plants shoot out! a compost heap is easy to start,the website is below. Good luck and I hope you enjoy as much as we do! Nana
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