With the danger of front nearing it's end in most parts of the United States, it's time to start planting tomatoes in your garden. A good rule of thumb is when the night temperatures no longer go below 55 degrees, and full leaves have emerged on native trees.
Tomatoes can be grown in a standard garden, raised beds, patio containers or even hanging containers, as long as the plants will receive a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. If space is an issue, consider tomato cages or towers for the plants to climb on.
Soil :
Get your plants off to a good start with healthy soil filled with bacteria, fungus, earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms. Compost is an excellent soil amendment. It's a good idea to test your soil's ph before amending the soil. Cheap "do-it-yourself" ph test kits are available at your garden center. Tomatoes grow best with a ph of 6.5, but will tolerate a range of 5.8 to 7. If your soil tests too acidic, it can be normalized by adding lime, or if too alkaline add some agricultural sulfur.
Location:
Select a different location in your garden from the previous year's tomato plants. This will keep your soil from becoming depleted and also helps reduce the chance of disease and insect problems. Also avoid planting tomatoes where your potato plants were the previous year, as potato blight diseases can linger in the soil and will affect your tomato plants as well.
Planting:
Place the tomato plants in the ground deeper than they come in the pot. I have had great success digging a furrow and laying the plant horizontally, burying it up to it's first true leaves. For example if the plant is 6 inches tall, leave only 3 inches of the plant above the ground. By doing this, the plant will product more roots as the soil is warmer nearer the surface. When the plants are about 3 feet tall, remove leaves from the bottom 1 foot of the plant to avoid fungus problems. Tomatoes grow in harmony with marigolds, parsley, chives, garlic, onions, carrots and peppers.
Watering & Fertilizing:
Water new plants deeply and water on a regular basis while plants are young and more fragile. A fertilizer should be applied once a month. A good natural fertilizer is dried composted manure mixed with bone meal.
Mulching:
Your plants will benefit from mulch to conserve moisture, hold the ground heat in the soil, and help control insect and fungal diseases. My personal favorite mulch is grass clippings (non-chemically treated grass only), but there are many good mulching materials available.
I'll be putting my tomato plants in during the long Memorial Day weekend. Good luck with your tomato plants, and I wish you a great harvest!
