Our Tomato plants are in! We have a big selection of these yummy treats.
One of the great things about growing tomatoes is you do not have to have a big garden, you can grow them in containers with great success. I grow mine in containers because we have so much rock in our yard. I swear the only reason we have any dirt in our yard at all is from years of accumaltion of me dumping the dirt out of my shoes every day when I come home from landscape jobs and the nursery before I go inside my house.
When growing tomatoes make sure you have at least six hours of direct sun each day. If you do not have enough sun they will hardly bloom or bear fruit. If you are planting on a patio make sure that your tomatoes will have some wind or movement to pollinate them. If you feel you are not getting any wind, then gentley shake the leaves a couple times a day.
Watering is one of the keys to growing tomatoes. You will need to keep your tomatoes moist, but not wet. If they are kept to wet they will wilt or rot and die. I recommend you place a top layer of mulch on top of your tomatoes to help maintain moisture, retard weed growth, pests, and it forms a barrier that keeps diseases in the soil from splashing up on the leaves. To prevent disease, keep the leaves dry. Avoid watering overhead. One of the causes of blossom-end rot is not keeping the plants evenly moist in hot and dry conditions. This also causes a nutrient deficiency in tomatoes.
If your space allows to plant your tomatoes in the ground, work in some Back to Nature cotton burr compost. Your tomatoes will thank you. This will give your tomatoes some nutrients, help improve your clay or sandy soils, and help your plants resist disease. Back to Nature compost is completely composted and ready to use.
Feed your tomato plants with a good well balanced fertilizer. Avoid using a high nitrogen fertilizer, as this will cause your tomatoes to produce few tomatoes and have more leaf growth.
My favorite organic food for tomatoes & peppers
When planting, plant your tomato plant deeper than you do your other potted plants, due to the fact that tomatoes send out roots from their stems. This is especially true if the tomato plant is leggy with alot of stem between the leaves. Some gardeners I know plant their tomato plants sideways so that a large portion of the stem is below the soil.
You may have heard of the terms 'determinate' and 'indeterminate'. This is simply how tomatoes are grouped on how they will grow fruit. Determinate type tomatoes grow foilage to a certain point, then produce fruit which often ripen at one time. Determinate typically stay compact and are bush form. Often not requiring a cage or stake. Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing after they bloom and produce fruit. The plant grows large and will bear fruit later into the season. You will need to place a cage or stake on this type of tomato.
There are many disease resistant tomatoes. Some of the 'tried and true' most popular varieties at Greenlife Nursery are Celebrity, Early Girl, Porter, & Cherry.
We are not quite through our average last frost date. If you plant your tomatoes now out in the garden, keep a close eye on the weather for frost. Use frost proof cover, old blanket, etc. to cover your tender new plantings. Containers can be brought inside overnight.
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