Tomatoes a Guide by Sphinx

We all love to grow tomatoes, but they do have their quirks. I have, therefore, put together the most comprehensive article I can in order to answer all the different questions, and make it easier for everyone to grow any type of tomatoes successfully, with confidence, and most importantly, easily.

Since, when growing anything, problems can occur anywhere along the process, we will cover all aspects of how to grow tomatoes including:

• Climate and Soil
• Heirlooms and Hybrids
• Seeds and Seedlings
• Planting and Fertilizing
• Watering and Mulching
• Determinate, Indeterminate, Semi-determinate
• To Pinch out Suckers or Not
• Commom Problems & Solutions
• Prevent Diseases From Starting
• Havesting
• How to Ripen Green Tomato Tricks
• Popular Tomato Varieties

I know you’re probably ready to get started, so let’s dig in.

Continue>>>

Written by Admin on 2007/07/16 | Permalink to this article

Climate & Soil

Tomatoes like a nice warm area in full sun, and need at least 8 hours of sunlight a day, or they get spindly and produce little mature fruit.
They like soil that has a pH of 6.0 – 7.0, is fertile, deep, well-drained, and that is rich in organic matter. If the soil stays soggy where you want to plant, build a raised bed. You want soil that will hold water as evenly as possible because uneven uptake of water can cause all kinds of problems with tomatoes including: flower drop, fruit splitting and blossom-end rot. To help give your tomatoes the best-suited environment you can, till in a good amount of compost or organic matter. A general guide would be 3 inches (7.6 cm) of organic mater into the top 6 inches (15.2 cm) of soil.

You can also grow a cover crop to help build the soil. Plant a grain or legume crop, sometimes called green manure, for the purpose of chopping it down and adding it to the soil. One way is to plant hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), a nitrogen-fixing legume, in your garden bed in the fall. In the spring, cut it down and till the residue into the soil. This provides both nitrogen and an instant mulch that preserves moisture.

Lastly, many tomato diseases reside in the soil and affect peppers, eggplants, potatoes, and other crops in the nightshade (Solanaceae) family. To break the disease cycle, and to help get rid of the disease-causing organisms, rotate tomatoes with unrelated crops, such as corn, beans or lettuce.
Heirlooms and Hybrids.

Written by Day Lily on 2007/07/16 | Permalink to this article

What is the difference between Heirlooms and Hybrids?

Heirlooms, loosely defined, are open-pollinated cultivars that were introduced many generations ago, and were of such merit, that they have been saved, maintained and handed down. It is generally agreed that no genetically modified plants can be considered heirloom cultivars.
Heirlooms are often not as productive as hybrids, but they typically taste better, and you can save their seeds from one season to the next, eventually breeding a variety that is perfectly suited to your conditions. Most heirlooms are “indeterminate” types, meaning they grow long, sprawling vines and produce tomatoes continuously through the season.
Hybrids, on the other hand, are tomatoes whose breeding has been controlled, and organized for specific reasons. For example, they often have disease-resistance bred into them that heirlooms lack.
In fact hybrid tomato varieties have many advantages compared to open-pollinated varieties. Hybrids usually produce higher yields, they generally mature earlier and more uniformly, and many hybrids have better fruit quality.
It’s really up to you which you want to plant. If you want to avoid hybrids and plant heirlooms only, look at that tag, there will usually be a “F1” demarcation for hybrids. If you need or want the disease resistant tomatoes, you will have to buy hybrids.
To tell what diseases a hybrid can withstand, look at the letters after its name on the plant tag. For example, VFFNTA means the plant is resistant to Verticillium wilt, Fusarium races 1 and 2, root knot Nematodes, Tobacco mosaic virus, and Alternaria stem canker. A plant marked VFFNTA would be a good choice for you to try if diseases have killed your tomatoes in the past.

Written by Day Lily on 2007/07/16 | Permalink to this article