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TOMATOES the BOUNTIFUL fruit!
Growing Terrific Tomatoes:
Tomato plants are found growing in over 90% of gardens or containers. Nothing compares to the taste of a warm tomato picked fresh from the vine, eaten before you even get to the house with it. I happen to be guilty of these samplings!
Tomatoes are easy to grow: You need a spot where there will be at least 6 hours of direct sun. There are many different varieties out there to choose from, and you might be wondering about why they are different, and which one to pick from. Tomatoes are classed as either determinate which means they produce one large crop of tomatoes, or indeterminate which means the vines continue to grow all season, producing tomatoes up until frost. If you are planning on canning or freezing you probably want a determinate variety so you will have a big harvest at one time. Heirloom tomato varieties are pretty popular; they usually have a fantastic flavor, but are unfortunately not resistant to diseases. Hybrids have been bred to be more disease resistant, crack resistant, and to produce tomatoes under a wide variety of weather conditions.
Soil Preparation: Work the soil for your tomato patch well. Turn it over, and add some compost, and some gypsum. Gypsum/calcium is very important to prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes. Mix in some store organic fertilizer. This will improve the flavor of your tomatoes because it’s putting back trace elements parched from the soil over many growing seasons.
Selecting the variety to plant: It is always best to plant more than one variety. Tomatoes set fruit at different nighttime temperatures. Some set at 60 degrees, some at 65 degrees, and on and on. A variety of types will also give you a steady supply of different flavors, and if you should get a disease on one type you may not on the others, so in all you are protecting your crop with having more varieties. The tags on tomato plants will tell you how many days to harvest. You can also use that 'day to harvest' as a way to judge the size of tomato you will be growing. Fun Fact: The more days = the larger the tomato.
Planting: Space tomato plants somewhere like 5 to 6 feet apart. I know it seems to be a lot, but they will be happy and thus grow large, plus the plants need good air circulation. Grouping them in a small batch actually decreases the yield your family will enjoy. Plantings should be deposited around 1st of May. Tomato plants are sensitive to cold nights. Too many cold nights may stunt them to a point of dying or producing very little fruits. Also FYI: Plant some basil plants near tomatoes; it will improve their flavor. Plant tomato plants deeper than what they are growing in their pots if started indoors. Remove the lower leaves and plant them up to 1/2 of the height of the young plant. All of the stem that you have buried will turn to root and you will have a much stronger tomato plant giving you more tomatoes. Use 1 teaspoon of Osmocote (Steins) Time release fertilizer deposited into the bottom of the hole, and you’ll not need to fertilize 3 months.
Tomatoes require consistent moisture to produce an abundant crop, of uncracked, unblemished fruit. After tomatoes have been growing about 3 weeks, put mulch around the tomatoes to conserve moisture, and minimize the weeds. Watering only with a soaker hose to the base. NEVER WATER OVERHEAD. . .tomatoes leaves should not get watered directly as it could lead to fungus diseases. A good deep soaking should last from 5 to 7 days. There is no need to water daily, unless you are growing them in containers.
Growing tomatoes in containers: Yes, they can be grown in containers, but the containers have to be large enough. You need a really BIG container; a 10-gallon pot or more would be good. You will need to fertilize and water more often. During hot windy days it will be every day.
Tomato pests: If you go out and find a really large green worm like caterpillar 2-3 inches with a big horn on it's head - that is the dreaded Tomato Hornworm. They can eat your foliage faster than you can imagine. To check for them (and they do blend in really well), look for black droppings on the leaves. The worm won't be far away. Pick them off and destroy them. Sometimes aphids are a problem, but not as much.
Verticillium and fusarium wilts are soilborne diseases that cause yellowing of the leaves, wilting and premature death of plants. These diseases persist in gardens where susceptible plants are grown. Once they build up, the only practical control is the use of resistant (VF) varieties.
Early blight: is characterized by dead brown spots that usually start on the lower leaves and spread up the plant. Upon close inspection, you can see concentric rings within the spots. Although early blight is most severe on the leaves, it sometimes occurs on the stems and can cause severe defoliation. Certain varieties (Roma and Supersonic) are more tolerant of early blight than others.
Septoria leafspot is characterized by numerous small black spots on the leaves. The centers of these spots later turn white and tiny black dots appear in the white centers. The disease starts on the bottom leaves and may become severe in wet weather.
Blossom-end rot is a dry, leathery brown rot of the blossom end of the fruit that is common in some seasons on tomatoes. It is caused by the combination of a localized calcium deficiency in the developing fruit and wide fluctuations of soil moisture. The problem is especially bad in hot weather. Soil applications of calcium seldom help, though foliar calcium sprays may minimize the occurrence of the problem. Make sure the formulation is designed for foliar application or severe damage could result. Pruning causes stress to the plants that may increase the incidence of blossom-end rot. Some tomato varieties are much more susceptible to this condition than others. Mulching and uniform watering help to prevent blossom-end rot. Once the blackened ends appear, affected fruits cannot be saved. They are best removed and destroyed so that healthy fruit setting later can develop more quickly.
Poor color and sunscald occur when high temperatures retard the development of full red color in tomatoes exposed directly to the hot sun. Sunscald occurs as a large, whitish area on the fruit during hot, dry weather. It becomes a problem when foliage has been lost through other diseases such as early blight or on early varieties that normally have poor foliage cover as the fruit ripens.
HARVESTING TIME: Tomatoes should be firm and fully colored. They are of highest quality when they ripen on healthy vines and daily summer temperatures average about 75°F. When temperatures are high (temperatures of 90°F or higher), the softening stages are accelerated and color development is retarded, reducing quality. For this reason, during hot summer weather, pick your tomatoes every day or two, harvest the fruits when color has started to develop and ripen them further indoors (at 70 to 75°F). On the day before a killing freeze is expected, harvest all green mature fruit that is desired for later use in the fall. Wrap the tomatoes individually in paper and store at 60 to 65°F. They continue to ripen slowly over the next several weeks. Whole plants may be uprooted and hung in sheltered locations, where fruit continues to ripen.
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If you talk to the animals they will talk to you, If you do not talk to them you will not know them. And what you do not know you will fear. What one fears,one destroys. ~Chief Dan George. (1899 - 1981)
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