Garden update Oct 1 2011.
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Question by girlscanfishtoo: I’m on the hunt for Tomato growing tips……….?
I’ve herd in the past to plant to plant the tomato in the ground up to the first branch…
Does anyone have any advice on that?
Best answer:
Answer by prosopopoeia
I do plant a good portion of my tomato plants under the soil and leave only the top bushy growth plus a layer of leaves above the soil. Sometimes I lay the portion of the plant that is covered on its side, rather shallow, and sometimes I drop it straight down in a deep hole. Both methods work and I can’t say one is better than the other.
Prepare the soil with Espoma tomato tone or bulb tone and add some espom salts for adequate magnesium. That helps. I also usually grind up a few cracked eggshells in the vicinity of the planting hole, if I have any handy. Adds calcium and other minerals. I don’t know if it helps, but it has not hurt anything. I have heard of adding a bit of sulfur (even by using an old style match stick) and black pepper into the hole, mixing it into the soil. I have done this. Again, I don’t know if it helps but it has not harmed the plants.
Avoid miracle-gro and other fortified fertilizers.
Begin staking the tomatoes after they are 2 feet tall. Be certain not to push the stake through the stem of the plant (e.g., if you planted the tomato on its side). This would not kill the plant, but will weaken it some.
Water consistently.
Keep tobacco products and tobacco-stained hands and clothes away from the plants. Very harmful. Causes tobacco mosaic virus.
I don’t worry about insect pests. The harm they do is so small that it is not worth using chemicals to keep them out.
I personally prefer big tomatoes, so I look for those varieties. I have often grown 2 pound tomatoes, but I have never grown one that reached 3 pounds. Brandywine is the best tasting, but not quite as prolific as others. Mortgage Lifter and Beefmaster are prolific and very good tasting. Golden Boys are very good but a little sweeter.
I don’t particularly care for determinate tomatoes (do your own research), but to each his own. I also feel (imagine?) that early girl, better boy, champion, celebrity, goliath, and some others of the popular varieties are not as tasty. But you can have some fun determining that for yourself.
Easy.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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Start with good, healthy disease resistant plants, well drain soil, and plenty of sunlight.
Plant your plants about 2-3 inches deeper than the original pot. Place a stake next to it, depending on the variety of your tomato about a 4-5 foot pole. although you may not need to support it right now, you will indeed — down the road, and it is easier to put your stake in now than later. There are tomato cages you can but but they are some what costly.
Buy a fertilizer just for tomatoes, and follow the directions, most call for a light feed, every two weeks, be sure and water early enough in the day that you will not scorch your plants and there will be now moisture left on it by nightfall.
Good air circulation is the KEY, this involves your staking, as it grows keep the branches off the ground. Inspect daily for any uninvited pest that may have arrived. A mild soapy water mist will do the job if you catch it early.(a few drops of liquid dish soap in a spray bottle of water)
After your plant has set fruit, back off on the water. wait until they ask(almost to droop) this will cause the sugars to form in the tomatoes, thus giving you a very tasty fruit. Over watering at this stage will cause your fruits to split, or become watery and tasteless.
Happy tomato-ing, and God Bless
Grandma
Till the ground up till it’s fine dirt –dig a hole deep enough to plant your tomato in —Next place an egg in the hole ( don’t break the egg) & cover it with about 1inch of soil —remove the bottom two or three branches from your tomato plant —then bury it & mound the soil up around it covering the spots where you removed branches —the egg will provide all the minerals & nutrients the tomato will need–mounding the soil up around the tomato plants stalk allows it to grow more roots –PS–You will never smell a rotten egg it’s under the ground & it will all disapear before next spring.
Planting up to first branch makes the plant produce more roots, more roots… more uptake of water & nutrients. Just make sure that you don’t plant so deep that branch lays on the ground, easier for it to deteriorate and that produces molds and funguses.
If you want some really great tomato plants get some mushroom compost. You don’t have to use fertilizer the compost is all you need. You will have the biggest and most producing plants you ever had.