How do I get my patio tomatos to grow better?
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How to Grow Garden Tomatoes
The two basic methods of growing garden tomatoes are indeterminate and determinate.
Indeterminate means you allow the vines to ramble along the ground. The ideal space between tomato plants for indeterminate growing is four to six feet apart.
Of the two methods, it's easy to see that determinate growing makes your tomato plants easier to manage. Determinate growing means that you hold the tomato plant upright by staking the vine, enclosing it in a tomato cage, or training your tomato plant to grow along a trellis.
tomato-pestThere are many advantages to determinate growing. Your plants stay cleaner, take up less space in your garden, are easier to cultivate and vines are distanced from wet soil that can cause many tomato problems. Because tomato plants are a favorite victim of insect pests and plant viruses, determinate growing also helps keep tomato pests and diseases in check. Staking or enclosing your plant helps prevent the plant from falling over when it is heavy with fruit and also helps prevent heavy vines from breaking. When using stakes or cages, tomato plants may be planted closer together, from 1 ½ to 2-feet apart in rows three to four feet apart.
Plant tomato transplants into your garden after all danger of frost has passed. As a rule of thumb, when the trees in your neighborhood are filling up with leaves, it's a good indicator that your tomato plants are ready to be transplanted into your garden. Before transplanting your tomato seedlings, enrich the soil with some rotted manure or nutrient rich compost. Then plant your tomato seedlings in a place that gets a lot of sun. Tomatoes require at least eight hours of sun each day.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders, susceptible to many diseases, and often victimized by many garden pests. Allow some distance between your tomatoes and other plants. Giving your tomato garden its own space encourages robust growth and helps keep garden pests and diseases away from your plants.
Deep planting of tomato seedlings allows them to generate a better root system, resulting in an over-all stronger tomato plant. Plant as much of your tomato seedling underground as possible. Pinch off the bottom leaves to gain more stem to plant underground. The more stem you plant, the better root system your plant will generate and the stronger it will be.
Mulching around your tomato plants prevents them from coming into contact with wet soil, reduces the risk of diseases and helps control invasive weeds. Even so, be sure to keep mulch about one inch away from the tomato stem or your tomato may "damp off", causing you new tomato growing problems.
If you use stakes, be sure to add them to your vegetable garden at the same time you transplant the plants to avoid disturbing the roots. As your plants grow, use twine to tie your plants to the stakes.
Prone Tomatoes
One tomato planting alternative is to plant a large transplant horizontally instead of vertically. Your transplant will need to have branches at least four inches long. Cut off any stems that will be buried as well as any that are less than four inches long. Dig a shallow trench, just enough to cover the main stem. Place your transplant into the trench, cover it, and let your tomato "lay down on the job!"
Tomato Container Gardening
Even if you live in a small space, enjoy fresh produce with tomato container gardening. Although a tomato garden in a container may be small, it can still produce high quality fruit.
tomato-potAlthough, tomatoes are most commonly grown directly in the vegetable garden, growing small varieties in containers or hanging baskets makes a colorful decoration. Tomato vines can be trellised and add an attractive display to porch, deck, or patio. Additionally, keeping these ruby-red gems close by the kitchen is very convenient for the cook!
Another advantage of growing tomatoes in containers is that your plants will be removed from pests and pathogens. You also control the fertilization needs of your container grown tomato, thus enabling you to add a companion plant or two to a larger container. Grow a tomato plant with a basil plant, a parsley plant and pepper plant for a wonderful start (or finish) to a salad!
When tomato seedlings grow a second set of leaves, it's time to transplant them into their permanent home. Small varieties like cherry tomatoes need a container that holds two to three pounds of potting mixture, while larger varieties need five to seven pounds of potting mixture for healthy tomato growing. Use larger receptacles like half-barrels to grow larger varieties of tomatoes in containers. Plant just one tomato plant per pot or bucket. Be sure that your container has holes in the bottom for drainage. Before you add soil to your pot, place rocks in the bottom for drainage. Then pot your tomato plant and watch it grow!
Tending Tomatoes
Tomatoes do well in temperatures of 55 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. When weather forecasts are cool, be sure to cover your plants or bring potted plants indoors.
Regular pruning of your tomato plant helps to produce larger and more abundant fruit. Between the central stalk and a main branch, you'll see smaller branches growing in a "V". These are "suckers". Nipping the suckers helps to control the size of your tomato and helps the plant to focus on producing strong, healthy fruit as well.
Tomatoes like their space! Keep garden tomato plants as weed free as possible.
tomato-harvestTo promote large fruits, keep your tomatoes well-watered. During hot, dry spells thoroughly water your plants once a week. Harvesting tomatoes is one of the easiest parts of growing tomatoes. To hasten ripening at harvest time, pinch stems back close to the fruit. Either let them ripen on the vine or pick them when they begin to shed their green color for their mature color (depending on variety, orange, yellow, red).
Yet, it's common to end up with at least a few green tomatoes at season's end. Green tomatoes that are showing a hint of orange or yellow will ripen quickly when placed in a brown paper bag with an apple or a pear or you can usually ripen tomatoes on a sunny windowsill if they show even a tinge of color change. Many recipes such as green tomato relishes, green tomato preserves, and fried green tomatoes also call for unripe tomatoes.
Tomato Tips
Although much of growing tomatoes depends on the cultivar you plant, there are some general tomato growing tips that are useful in nipping many tomato growing problems in the bud!
1. When growing large variety tomatoes such as big boy, remember that these heavy fruits will need support as well as the support for tomato vines offered by tomato cages and garden stakes. Make slings from discarded panty hose or old bras to hold them up and help keep them attached to the vine.
2. Never refrigerate your tomatoes. As mentioned earlier, tomatoes are a tropical plant and lose their flavor under cold conditions.
3. Did your tomato split around the top? You probably over watered it, but don't worry. It will still be flavorful and very juicy! Remember, a good tomato is more than just a pretty face!
4. Find at least two spots in your garden for tomato plants and rotate plantings between the two from year to year to help keep your tomato garden disease free every year.
5. Although it's true that the tomato plant often is a favorite victim of parasitic insects and plant viruses, some tomato disease is more prevalent in one cultivar than another. When researching a specific problem, look to the variety of tomato that has the disease.
Hi Inspired,
Few things, no less then 4 to 6 hours direct sunlight every day, water only when the soil feels dry to the depth of your first pinky finger joint, fertilize 1 week after planting and then wait for blossoms, fertilize again. Get a book that shows how to prune them for best fruit, any B&N has one. Make sure you stake them for support using something that will not bite into the plant.
get some slug pellets and use them around the plant container, better safe then sorry, physically inspect the plants every morning for slugs or other creepy gross things.
Before your tomatos show up get some STOP-ROT, it sprays on the leaves and will keep the fruit from rotting as it ripens.
I guess that sounds like a lot but it is really pretty simple. Good luck
- Inez
Try these websites. Also, some tips, is the pot big enough? Does it have proper drainage? Fertilizer? Water? Proper soil? Enough sun? Tomatoes like heat and humidity. Patience is also a virtue. Hope this helps. Good luck!
tomatoes love acidic soil you can go to your local feed & seed store or better yet call them and ask for acid loving plant food.
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