It’s time to plant some tomatoes.
It’s tomatoplanting time. If you are looking for exceptionally delicious tomatoes, consider Ruby Crush and another cherry tomato, BHN 968.
Ruby Crush is the rodeo tomato for 2021 and offers a sweet, grape-style fruit. It is a determinate variety, which means it grows quickly to a relatively small full size and then concentrates on producing fruit.
BHN 968 is a cherry tomato that also begins producing fruit quickly. The flavor is more tart than Ruby Crush, but it is very flavorful, and I can’t decide which tastes better. I suggest you follow my lead and grow a few plants of each so you can enjoy the different but equally tasty flavors.
Ruby Crush and BHN 968 will be the first tomatoes in your garden to mature fruit. They both can tolerate hot temperatures and grow through infestations of spider mites.
For something special, grow the Ruby Crush and BHN 968 in containers. Because of their determinate structure and small size, they do well in containers that are 5 gallon or larger.
I especially like how tomatoes perform in whiskey barrel halves. Try the plastic version. They sell for about $10 and offer all the advantages of a wood barrels without the elaborateness of the wooden structure.
Weed control, insect treatment and irrigation are all easier for plants grown in a large
container. Use Osmocote supplemented by soluble fertilizer to provide nutrients. Use of a tomato cage is not as important for small tomatoes as it is for the larger varieties, but I find it to be useful.
If you are interested in growing larger tomatoes, several proven selections are on the retail market. When I say proven selections, that refers to varieties that can produce desirable fruit within our short growing seasons, in our challenging soils and amid pests.
We want a tomato variety that can grow to a reasonable size and produce tomatoes before temperatures become to hot to produce fruit. The spring growing calendar is basically April 1 through June 30. Just like cherry tomatoes, grow the larger varieties in full sun and in well-fertilized soil.
Some of the proven selections are Tycoon, HM8849, HM 1823, Celebrity, Valley Cat, Red Deuce and Red Snapper. Tycoon, Celebrity, Valley Cat and BHN 968 are nematode-resistant. Use those in sections of gardens infected with nematodes.
Some San Antonio gardeners have reduced the speed and extent of spider mite populations by using a preventative spray every week of 2 tablespoons of seaweed extract per gallon of water. Daconil is a fungicide that is usually effective in stopping the spread of a fungus on an infected plant. For detailed information on using agricultural fiber mounted on the tomato cage to discourage white flies, thrips and other insects carrying virus infections, visit plantanswers.com.
Use a Bt product such as Thuricide or Dipel to control caterpillars. Often it is easier to find hornworms and other caterpillars and just pull them off by hand. They grow to a large size quickly.