How to grow great tomatoes
The first step in getting a bountiful harvest lies in planting them right
Everybody’s favorite
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warm-season garden star? No matter where you Tomatoes. We plant them, live, the main factor we nurture them, we rejoice in planting is the soil temperature. with every yellow blossom For tomatoes, and, in harmony, we curse peppers and other warmseason the dreaded tomato horned crops, the soil temperature worm when it inevitably appears. should be at least 60 degrees. Peppers actually
In our recent Gardening prefer it a little 101 webinar, viewers warmer, 65 to 75. had so many questions You can invest in a soil about tomatoes we thermometer, or just wait couldn’t answer them all. until we’re having warming So here’s the information daytime and nighttime you need to create a tomato temperatures, which generally heaven in your garden, arrive in May. whether it’s in your
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backyard or in containers I plant primarily in on the patio or balcony. containers. Can I use the same container and soil I previously planted tomatoes in for planting something different?
The secret recipe
The secret to growing good tomatoes starts with
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how you plant them, which You can use the is deeper in the ground same pots, if they’re than you might think. in good shape, but you’ll
Trim off the lower leaves need to replace the soil. on the plant, leaving the top
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third in place. Then dig a I’m just starting a hole deep enough to bury garden this summer the plant all the way up to in planter boxes. Should I those top leaves. rotate next year or can I
Actually, dig it a little plant the same veggies? I deeper than that, because plan on planting herbs, tomatoes, before you plant anything, cucumbers. you’re going to toss in a
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handful of organic vegetable The basic guideline fertilizer, a handful for crop rotation of bone meal, a handful of is to avoid planting worm castings, a couple of crops from the same family pulverized egg shells and (such as the solanaceae two or three uncoated aspirin family, which includes tomatoes, tablets — yes, aspirin! peppers, eggplant — into each hole. You and potatoes) in the same also can add a fish head, if spot year after year. Generally, you’ve got one. waiting three years
Cover the additives with a to plant those crops in the bit of soil and add the plant. same place again is recommended, Fill in the hole, burying the so you avoid plant so only the leafy top is building up soil-borne above ground, and create a pathogens that thrive on water well around the base that particular plant family. of the plant. Water gently, but thoroughly, and wait for You can grow the same the magic. plants, just not in the
Roots will develop where same places they were the lower leaves were, creating last season. Grow tomatoes a strong, extensive root where you grew your system that will support a herbs, herbs where you robust, thriving plant. grew your cucumbers, and cucumbers where your tomatoes were.
Let’s pick some tomato questions
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How early can you plant tomatoes outside in the East Bay, specifically Moraga?
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Should I remove my tomato plant’s suckers
— the leaves or little shoots that grow where the branch meets the stem?
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Yes. They won’t produce tomatoes, and they take up valuable resources from the parts of the plant that do.
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Do you advocate putting a tomato plant on its side for a few days before planting to stimulate horizontal development of roots?
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Rather than just putting plants on their side and later planting, try digging a small trench that extends from the planting hole and gently bend the leggy stem into the trench and cover with soil. leaving the crown of the plant exposed above ground.
The leggy stem portion will grow vertical roots at the same time roots are extending from the root ball at the base of the plant.
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Will my tomato, eggplant and pepper plants from last summer survive and give vegetables this year? I have hot peppers from last year
that have a lot of peppers on them.
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If you lived in the tropics your tomatoes, peppers and eggplants could well last for more than one year. But generally in Northern California, winters are too cold, and we need to pull the plants out when they stop producing and replant when the weather warms in early spring.
Occasionally, a plant, such as your hot pepper, will over winter. You can certainly experiment with keeping it going for another year by harvesting the fruit and then applying compost and a bit of organic fertilizer, but not till after the danger of frost.
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I’ve been told to cut back drastically on water to get tomatoes to ripen. Is this true of indeterminate tomatoes? My second harvest of tomatoes were much smaller and tough skinned, and I wonder if they needed more water.
more intensely flavored tomatoes. Dry farming works with either determinate or indeterminate tomatoes, although you’ll want a variety that has a strong root system. Organic farmers in the Central Valley have experimented with many varieties and found that the hybrid Early Girl and the new variety, New Girl, do best.
Dry farming is a bit more involved than just cutting back on water. You need to prepare the beds
Q beforehand, adding a lot of I get “volunteer” tomatoes compost and other amendments every year. into the soil to make Should I just thin them it very loamy. After planting, out and go? cover the beds with straw or other mulch. Water as usual until the first fruit sets, then shut off the irrigation. This should force the plants to put down deeper roots to get the water they need. Your plants could end up looking pretty sad, but the fruit will be amazing.
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I was going to pull my tomato plant, but it started producing again. What’s going on?
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The method you’re describing is known It’s just Mother Nature as dry farming, which produces taunting us. smaller, fewer and Many tomatoes continue to produce long after the summer season has waned. If you like green tomatoes and don’t have a need for the bed, there’s no reason you can’t keep them growing, but the tomatoes won’t have enough sun and heat to ripen on the vine. Those that you ripen off the vine won’t taste as good as those you harvested in the summer. Bite the bullet, pull the plants and put something else in the bed.
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Sure, gardeners like to take advantage of freebies, and with volunteer tomatoes, you never know what you’ll get — maybe even a brand-new hybrid. But you shouldn’t count on them for your main tomato production. For one, they might not taste very good.
Let them grow, if they aren’t taking up valuable space, but plant some varieties that you know will be tasty and will produce. (Then start contemplating caprese salad recipes for summer.)