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Tips for those of you who grow tomatoes... 

By: Decomposed in POPE 5 | Recommend this post (2)
Fri, 05 Jul 19 7:35 AM | 68 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Pope 5 		Msg. 35601 of 62138
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I think my garden has about 35 tomato plants, plus some volunteers from last year. The sad thing is that I'm throwing away another 50 that I raised from seed and didn't have room for. My bad. I was supposed to expand the garden this year but never did.

35 plants is respectable, though, so I've been watching videos on youtube for tips on raising them. A few of the tips were noteworthy. I'm passing them on for those of you who might benefit:

1) Once your plants are robust, cut off all branches less than four inches from the ground. It might be heartbreaking to do it, but the plants will grow taller as a result. More importantly, fewer leaves will come in contact with the soil, making them less susceptible to blight.

2) Don't water your plants from above. Most plants will sunburn if you get water on their leaves. More importantly, watering from above will splatter dirt onto the leaves. Again, this leads to blight.

3) Clip portions of branches that still come in contact with the ground. Same reason. Blight.

4) Where a branch emerges from the stalk, you'll often also have a second smaller branch. This smaller branch is called a "sucker." It can grow tomatoes, but you're better off without it. Snip it off. Strong branches are more important than numerous branches.

5) Tomato horn worms are a common malady and they have ferocious appetites. (Ironically, I have yet to find one in my garden.) You'll know you have them if you have branches with chewed up leaves or even branches with no leaves. Finding the worms is difficult UNLESS you search for them at night with a black light. Then they're easy to spot since parts of their body glow. Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-1OnAgKC9U if you don't believe it.

6) Tomatoes are self-pollinating plants, meaning that the flowers don't need the help of bees in order to bear fruit. When the yellow flowers tip downward, they are positioned properly for this. However, it's not very efficient and many of the flowers will not grow a tomato. You can help by tapping the downward facing flower pretty hard with one finger for ten seconds. According to the video, just about every flower you do this to will grow a tomato.

7) Stakes are better than cages. Most cages will not keep a tomato plant upright in heavy wind and rain. Tie the plant to the stake with cloth, not with string, and tie the plant with a loop that's larger than the stalk so as to not strangle the plant.

8 ) When transplanting your tomato seedlings to your garden, gently bend the plant so that the roots are 90 degrees from the stalk and then bury as much of the stalk as possible up to the first branch. Tomato plants grow roots from whatever stalk is in contact with soil, so you want to get as much of it in the soil as possible while not putting the original roots too far down. Bending the seedling in this manner makes for a healthier and faster-growing plant.

That's all I can think of, except that raised beds seem to be preferred by people who grow a lot of tomatoes. My garden does NOT have raised beds. Maybe next year....




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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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