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Question by James Davis: How to grow tomatoes? Questions for a FAQ?
I’m making a FAQ about how to grow tomatoes and would like to widen my perspective with answers to many commonly asked question about growing tomatoes. I’m looking for people to help me answers basic to advanced questions like: How do you set up a watering schedule? When do tomatoes start flowering (days from seed)? How do you know if a tomato is ready to be picked? How do you feed tomato plant? What is an organic fertilizer for tomato plants when fruiting?
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Answer by La Dolce Vita
Is it too early too be thinking about your tomato plants? Not if you’re the competitive tomato gardening type who wants the earliest and sweetest tomato on the block. Unfortunately, growing great tomatoes doesn’t just happen. Sample some of the science experiments on sale at your grocer’s this winter, if you don’t believe it. Start early with some time tested tomato growing tips to insure you bragging rights this year.
1. Don’t Crowd Seedlings.
If you are starting tomatoes from seed, be sure to give the seedlings room to branch out. Close conditions inhibit their growth, so transplant them as soon as they get their first true leaves and move them into 4″ pots about 2 weeks after that.
2. Provide lots of light.
Tomato seedlings will need either strong, direct sunlight or 14-18 hours under grow lights. Place the young plants only a couple of inches from florescent grow lights. Plant your tomatoes outside in the sunniest part of your vegetable plot.
3. Put a fan on your seedlings.
It seems tomato plants need to move and sway in the breeze, to develop strong stems. Provide a breeze by turning a fan on them for 5-10 minutes twice a day.
4. Preheat the soil in your garden.
Tomatoes love heat. Cover the planting area with black or red plastic a couple of weeks before you intend to plant. Those extra degrees of warmth will translate into earlier tomatoes.
5. Bury them.
Bury tomato plants deeper than they come in the pot, all the way up to a few top leaves. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. You can either dig a deeper hole or simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow toward the sun. Be careful not to drive your pole or cage into the stem.
6. Mulch Later.
Mulch after the ground has had a chance to warm up. Mulching does conserve water and prevents the soil and soil born diseases from splashing up on the plants, but if you put it down too early it will also shade and therefore cool the soil. Try using plastic mulch for heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers. (See Tip #4)
7. Remove Bottom Leaves.
Once the tomato plants are about 3′ tall, remove the leaves from the bottom 1′ of stem. These are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems. They get the least amount of sun and soil born pathogens can be unintentionally splashed up onto them. Spraying weekly with compost tea also seems to be effective at warding off fungus diseases.
8. Pinch & Prune.
Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They won’t bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant. But go easy on pruning the rest of the plant. You can thin leaves to allow the sun to reach the ripening fruit, but it’s the leaves that are photosynthesizing and creating the sugars that give flavor to your tomatoes.
9. Water Regularly.
Water deeply and regularly while the plants are developing. Irregular watering, (missing a week and trying to make up for it), leads to blossom end rot and cracking. Once the fruit begins to ripen, lessening the water will coax the plant into concentrating its sugars. Don’t withhold water so much that the plants wilt and become stressed or they will drop their blossoms and possibly their fruit.
10. Getting Them to Set Fruit.
Determinate type tomatoes tend to set and ripen their fruit all at one time, making a large quantity available when you’re ready to make sauce. You can get indeterminate type tomatoes to set fruit earlier by pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer
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Some of those are very generic. When they start flowering for example would depend of the variety. I suggest you google “growing tomatoes” to get ideas…there are hundreds of websites with FAQ’s on tomatoes.
I would say watering in the morning every other day for about 15 min if using drip system or moisten soil about 6 to 12 inches down and the soil should even out the moisture after a while. Flowers should develop around a month after seed sprouts depending on the strain. Tomatoes are ready to pick when they are red on the plant for the best taste texture and all around quality. I personally would use an organic fertilizer for my plants in every stage. When plants are still growing in size I would use fish mix i use bio bizz but only use until plants reach a decent size because to much nitrogen will produce less tomatoes. When blooming i use plenty of home made organic compost as a top dressing and use Fox Farm organic big bloom works great. hope this helps you out.