Growing Tomatoes - The Top Ten Tips

When you do all the work to grow tomatoes, let’s face it, you want the pay-off to be huge.  With that in mind, I set off to ask the best gardeners I know for their tips on growing great tomatoes.   Below, are some of their secrets.

• Mix an organic fertilizer into the soil before you plant, unless you have applied fertilizer to the area in the past year.  If that is the case, wait a month or so to fertilize.
• Before you plant, crush an entire banana into the hole you’ve dug.  Tomatoes love potassium.
• Once the yellow flowers appear, shake the plants every so often to encourage new blooms.
• Do not over water.  Use a pencil (like you wood a toothpick when baking a cake) in the soil to determine water needs.  Wait until they completely dry out, before watering.

Spray the foliage with kelp once a month.

If you plant in pots, opt for cherry tomatoes, which do better in containers.

For plants in pots, don’t water in the center where the stem is, water along the edges, where roots tend to extend outwards and touch the sun-warmed pot.

When putting your plants in the soil, plant deep, even if it means covering some of the branches (on plants which have grown taller) with soil.  The plant will root better.

Shift spaces from last summer’s crop if you can.  Tomatoes like to be in soil that hasn’t be used over and over.

Want to plant some spices but running out of space?  Plant spices in between your plants.  This works especially well with basil in very hot climates – as the tomato plants will get taller and offer the basil some shade in the afternoon.

Comments

[Diane Watson]

No wonder my tomatoes never looked good or produced many tomatoes. I planted them without tender loving care. Thanks for the tips.

[Georgia Bell]

I will plant some Basil between my tomatoes and let you know how they do!