Tomatoes

Tomatoes are tropical and so must not be planted out in your garden too early.

Some in our area feel comfortable setting the transplants out in mid-May but we prefer to wait until the May long weekend just to be safe. There is nothing more heart wrenching than pushing the season and getting just one night of frost that kills all of your tender seedlings on the spot.

Once you get your tomato seedlings from us you should start to slowly get them used to the outdoors. This is called Hardening Off.

When you set your seedlings into the garden it is a great idea to actually bury the stems up to the first pair of true leaves (ie the first leaves that look like the ferny tomato plant leaves, not the tiny 2 roundish leaves at the very bottom of the stem that first came out of the seed.) This encourages stronger and fuller root growth, which not only gives them an advantage to pull nutrients from the soil but also gives them a better ability to tolerate dry conditions should the summer get hot and drought-like.

Tomatoes do require support in the garden. For vine types (Indeterminate) you can use a trellis, line or poles to allow the plant to grow upwards. Some tend to leave the plants sprawled on the ground but we much prefer growing these plants as vertically as possible on trellises. This keeps the fruit off the soil to minimize rotting and allows us to grow more plants in less space. It also makes harvest much easier to manage.

Roma Bush types (Determinate) do well with a tomato cage or several stakes to help them stay upward and prevent side sprawl. You can tie the branches to the supports as the plant grows.

When your plants are growing it is also recommended that you pinch out the little side suckers that grow out of the joints of the stems to keep the plants from getting out of hand and to concentrate the plant’s energy on the larger stems which will provide the most and best fruit.

It is important to keep your tomato plants evenly watered throughout the season.

DON’T OVERWATER! … but also don’t let soil dry out fully between watering.

Do not top water with a spray hose if at all possible as this leads to the wet leaves being susceptible to several fungal diseases which are often incurable. If you can use drip hoses that lie on the soil surface then this is the best possible scenario. You call also carefully water with a regular hose by keeping the water low to the ground and trying not to spray the foliage.

Believe it or not, many pro tomato gardeners are now strongly recommending NOT watering your tomatoes after the end of July to encourage the fruit to ripen and to have a sweeter more intense flavour. We started applying this approach last summer and have been happy with the results.

Here is Gino with a great tip using saranwrap…