By Elizabeth Smith
Tomatoes are one of the gardens biggest treasures and, not surprisingly, the most popular summer vegetable (actually a fruit) to grow. Tomatoes thrive in the heat as long as they have excellent soil, consistent watering, and quality feeding.
Here are a couple tips for planting out your tomatoes. Add calcium to your soil now, before they start producing, to help prevent blossom end rot. I like to use a mix of finely pulverized egg shells and powdered milk either in the planting holes when I plant my tomato starts or added into the soil around the plants as an amendment. While you’re at it, add some rock dust for all the dozens of minerals plants need and some earthworm castings to give them a great start. Don’t forget to water once in a while with some diluted molasses too.
Another tip is to cut off the lower leaves of your tomato starts and bury them up to the new set of bottom leaves. Those little hairs and bumps on the stem will produce roots if they have contact with soil and more roots means your tomato plants will be stronger and more resilient.
For supporting your growing plants, I recommend using something sturdier than a common tomato cage because when the monsoon winds kick up, a tomato cage will be top heavy with all that foliage and will topple your plant and break major stems. Try a square PVC frame, or two posts with strong twine running between them and then weave your tomato plants through the horizontal twine as they grow.
Smaller tomato varieties do much better in our intense heat than beefsteak varieties because tomatoes have so much water in them. The larger the tomato, the more prone the fruit will be to splitting when everything gets overwatered during heavy rainstorms.
There are two main types of tomatoes, determinate and indeterminate. Determinate are tomatoes that usually produce a bush and set all their fruit at once. Indeterminate tomato plants are vining and will get very big and will continue to produce fruit until frost hits. On pruning, in other parts of the country, people like to prune “sucker” branches which are the little branches that grow from in between two main branches, but here in the Southwest, we keep plants full so they can create their own shady micro-climate.
Tomato plants will usually produce until it gets too hot when the flowers won’t set as much (if any) fruit and then they will rebound again in August. Some gardeners even have more tomato plants ready to plant out in August.
Come join us on Saturday April 13th from 8 AM to 1 PM for our Spring Time Open House at the Rita Ranch Community Garden located at 7471 S. Houghton. You can contact us at: welovetogrow@gmail.com.
