Planting your tomatoes and keeping them safe from frost

5 Comments

1. 

   Buddy May 31, 2014

   You should choose a sunny spot to place the plants. Place tomato plants in a site receiving full sun (7 hours or more daily) Tomatoes need lots of warm sunshine to taste good.
   Bury about 75% of the plant. It’s okay to bury some of its leaves. New roots will emerge along the buried stem, giving the plant a development boost; a new transplant needs to focus on root production.
   You will need to give each plant about 2 gallons (about 7.5 liters) per plant per week.
   Shake your plants gently once or twice each week for about 5 seconds once flowering begins. According to the National Gardening Association, shaking the tomato plant increases fruit production.
   fruit to appear 45 to 90 days after transplanting. Tomato plants usually have small green fruit to start. Wait until the fruit is of good size with a bright, deep coloring. This means that the fruit is ripe and ready to pick. The texture of the fruit can also determine if it is ready to pick. Ripeness is usually determined by a slight softness. Be careful not to squeeze too hard and bruise the fruit. Also, be careful of allowing it to become overly ripe, which results in a very soft tomato.
   Hope this helps, I have 4 planted at home, and we just love having them!

   Good Luck!

2. 

   Needtoknow May 31, 2014

   Depends whether in garden or in pot, where you live, how much rain. Ok, if in garden and not much rain, every other day and as late in evening as possible, to allow water to soak. This prevents the water in ground from steaming plants during hot days. It’s a no brainer if it rains a lot. If in pot, just keep soil moist, do not over water, no matter where it is planted. Over watering causes your tomatoes to burst when they ripen. Hope this helps and good luck with them.

3. 

   ellie May 31, 2014

   I water my plants every evening especially if we have had no rain. For the first couple of weeks I do this to give them a good healthy start after that I water them once or maybe twice a week…don’t forget to water only after the sun has gone down……….don’t water in the middle of a sunny day….good luck.

4. 

   sptfyr May 31, 2014

   Water every other day until it sets fruit then only once a week. You know you have watered to much if your fruit cracks.

5. 

   gardengallivant May 31, 2014

   I use the old Root zone test: The easiest way to predict water loss is to feel the soil. The soil in the feeder root zone (4-6 inches) should be moist. After watering, poke a hole in the soil and put your finger in. If the soil feels dry and warm, you need more water. If it is cold throughout the depth of the root zone, it is probably moist enough. Test the root zone moisture before and after watering for a given amount of time or volume to know roughly how much to water next time, assuming conditions don’t change drastically.
   Another method is place a flat pan of water out in the same conditons the plants get. After you have saturated the soil, the evaporation from the pan will give you an idea of how much water is available to your plants. As the level drops you know how much water your plants lose to evaporation. (Evapotranspiration Rate)
   If the pan loses 1 inch you must water 2 inches to keep the soil moist and replace the plants loss.
   Calculate the volume
   If a garden can use an inch of rain/water per week1in = .0833ft
   Length: 3ft. x Width: 5 ft. x Height: 0.083 ft.= 1.25 cu ft
   1.25 cu ft x 7.48gal/cu ft = 9gal
   1 inch of water will penetrate 6-10 inches into a good loam soil but only 4-5 in clay, or 12 inches in sandy soil.

   Drip emitters supply water at a rate of 1/2, 1, or 2 gallons per hour at a pressure of about 20 pounds per square inch (psi). They limit the flow to this level.

Comments are closed.