We all want to get started early in the spring planting our tomatoes, but we need to know when to plant them. But it doesn't pay to start them at the wrong time. Too early and you end up with leggy transplants that won't get a good start. Too late and you will miss the prime growing season for tomatoes. Here is a look at the best time to plant your tomatoes.
Tomato Gardening Tips
Tips and techniques for growing tomatoes in a traditional vegetable garden.
We all know that keeping your tomatoes well watered is critical not only for the best production from your tomato garden, but it also helps ward off diseases like blossom end rot as well. But keeping the garden watered can be a time consuming task, not to mention a lot of work. Here is a look at some watering tools for the garden that will help keep your tomatoes well watered and your body well rested.
Tomatoes are just about the most common crop grown in home gardens. They are fairly easy to grow, but one that tomatoes need special attention is the fact that they won't support themselves. For that many gardeners turn to a tomato trellis or cage, or even some of the newer tomato spiral stakes.
One of the first things to do when starting a new garden, and probably every spring is to do a soil check. One of the most important things to check after nutrient levels is the soil pH. Here's a good article that discusses exactly what soil pH is, and more importantly, how to correct the soil pH in your yard. For those interested in growing tomatoes, the soil pH you'd like to get to is around 6.0 to 6.5.
Once you've put in all the effort to grow your tomatoes, most gardeners don't want to let the plants just sprawl all over the garden. Growing tomatoes need support, and you can either buy tomato cages, or you can invest in making tomato cages. Here's a few tips on how to make your own tomato cages and supports.
If you want to get the jump on spring and get going on early spring tomatoes, then the best time to start is in the winter months. Even before the snow melts there are things you can do to start getting ready for the last frost and getting those tomato plants out. Here's a few items to start working on ahead of spring.
Many gardeners these days are interested in using organic techniques in their garden. Many see organically grown vegetables as better overall for both your health and the health of the ecosystem. But it's not necessarily as simple as to no longer use chemicals and pesticides in your garden. Growing tomatoes organically still demands fertilization and pest control. Here's a a look at some tips to get the best organically grow tomatoes.
Here's a quick list of five tips for growing great tomatoes. Almost anyone can grow tomatoes in their garden, which helps explain why it's the most popular crop in most gardens today. Anyone who has sliced a fresh tomato for a sandwich, or sneaked a Sweet 100 tomato from the garden knows that fresh garden tomatoes are the best. Here's a list of tips for getting the best tomatoes you can from your garden.
In our zeal to get those early spring tomatoes out, one of the best things we can do is start our own tomato seedlings at home. Once we've gotten them to start, we may want to move them to something larger to keep them growing well and to help harden them off. This article gives some pointers on successfully transplanting tomatoes to peat pots to give them room to grow.
There are a number of ways to support the growth of your tomato plants. While cages are a popular option, another great way to keep your tomatoes off the ground and looking good is to use a trellis. Of course with that comes the need to occasionally prune the tomatoes to make the best use of the trellis.
We want to make sure we do a proper job of fertilizing our tomatoes. Like most things in the garden, you can overdo it. Too much of the wrong types of fertilizer can either burn the plant or end up giving us all sorts of leafy growth but no fruit. Not enough and our tomato yields can suffer. Of course it's best to test the soil first and see what is actually needed. This article gives a quick overview of what's in fertilizers, and what combination can work the best in your tomato garden.
One job in the garden that sometimes seems like a lot of work is pruning and staking the tomatoes. But it's generally accepted that these practices will increase yield more fruit that if the tomato plants are left to sprawl around the garden. Here's a look at the advantages of pruning and staking tomatoes.
Depending on how we are growing our tomatoes, we may find that keeping them properly pruned is a key to maximizing the yield of these tomatoes. It's often useful when growing them on tomato stakes or supports, along with in cages on on trellises if you want to keep them under control but still yielding the most in total tomatoes for your harvest.
One question that comes up in most gardens is when to water the garden. While the answer will differ when you are watering container grown tomatoes, especially those growing in hanging tomato planters, or upside down in something like the upside down tomato garden, but there are some tips to be had. Here's an article we found that gives a good overview of when to water your tomatoes.
When spring is near we all want to get the jump on starting those new tomato plants in the hope that maybe this year we can get some tomatoes out of the garden earlier than normal. However, all to often we are disappointed by the onset of a late frost or even a killing freeze. Here are a few ideas on how to keep Jack Frost from stealing those early spring tomatoes away from us.