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I’m a big vegetable
gardener. In fact, I just expanded the veggie garden just last weekend (oh my
back hurts!). Why the big expansion? Well, I just never seem to have enough
room for tomatoes! Harvesting and eating fresh tomatoes every day while they
are in season is one of my very favorite things.
I grow both hybrids and
heirloom varieties for different reasons. While the heirlooms tend to have
better flavor and color, some of the hybrids are a bit easier to grow and give
you more reliable production. A favorite hybrid variety I plant every year is
‘Celebrity’. This is a heavy and reliable producer of medium sized
good-flavored fruits. Plants are resistant to many of the diseases common to
tomatoes and are easy to grow. ‘Sun Sugar’ is one of my favorite cherry type
hybrids that produces super sweet yellow fruit by the bucket loads. Of the
heirlooms, my favorite varieties include ‘Porter’, which produces pinkish-red
plum sized tomatoes, ‘Green Zebra’, which produces loads of sweet green and
yellow striped fruit, and ‘Roma’, which is great for making pastes and sauces.
Now, there are thousands
of tomato varieties to choose from, each offering their own unique benefits.
You just have to experiment with different types until you find the ones you
like best.
Here are a few
important tomato growing tips:
- Tomatoes need full sun. At least 6 hours a day of
direct sunlight is best.
- Tomatoes require consistent moisture; so make sure
you place them in a spot that is easy to water. Good aeration and
consistent moisture will help reduce disease problems.
- Raised beds or containers work best for tomatoes
because they require good drainage and soil aeration.
- Amend your beds with organic compost, humus, and
well-composted manure. Use mulch as moisture conserving top-dressing.
- Work in an organic fertilizer into the soil when
you're prepping the area. Use products like organic vegetable
food, alfalfa meal, or cottonseed meal. 1 or 2 lbs per 100 sq. ft. At
planting time, apply a root stimulator such as liquid seaweed and also add
Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate).
- When planting transplants, be sure to place them
deeper in the soil then where they were growing in the pot. Bury a couple
of inches of the main stem under the soil. The plant will
produce additional roots from the stem.
- Cage your tomatoes to provide necessary support.
- Apply an additional fertilization when the first
fruits have developed about a quarter of their mature size. Use a 4-1-2
ratio fertilizer, and reapply every two weeks thereafter.
- Avoid getting water on the foliage, and water in the
morning to avoid fungal diseases.
If you
haven’t already set out transplants, now’s the time to do so. Garden centers
should be flush with tomato plants, usually 4” pot size, and have a good
selection of different varieties to choose from. Enjoy!
As gardeners, many of us are already a step ahead when it comes to reusing and
recycling in our landscape and homes. As environmental concerns become more a
part of our everyday lives, there are lots of little things we can each do to
help make the world a little “greener”.
Be sure to bookmark our calendar page for eco-friendly and organic programs offered throughout the year.
Leslie
Finical Halleck is a horticulturist and general manager for North Haven Gardens
in Dallas, Texas.
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