I joined Pinterest recently, and I have found it to be a good source of inspiration for the garden and landscaping I hope to build someday. Pinterest is a good way to enjoy a hobby when you can't really enjoy your hobby right now. For me, a bad back is keeping me out of the garden beds, but I imagine it will be just as useful in winter. The problem with Pinterest is that a lot of the ideas are bad, especially when it comes to tomatoes. So let's run down some Do's and Don'ts for tomatoes from a gardeners who's plants regularly hit 8 feet and are the pride of the neighborhood.How-to Plant
Buy tall plants, strip all the leaves but the top two, and plant the entire stem up to an inch below the leaves. All the stem below ground will become root. This makes a solid root start for pulling in nutrients and water.Wrap the stem with a 1 inch wide piece of newspaper at ground level (half above, half below) to protect from insects
Place aluminum foil or aluminum pie tins tied to stakes to scare birds away, if they are a problem.
Fence the area to keep out rabbits, deer, and other critters, if you have problems.
Fertilizer
There is no magic fertilizer for tomatoes. Dumping salt, household ammonia, or other 'magic' ingredients into the soil isn't going to fix your soil problems. Generally, compost is what you need first, along with natural organic matter, to feed your soil. Compost and natural organic matter in your soil will balance the pH and supply all the micronutrients tomatoes and other plants need. Till in your fall leaves, buy cheap bags of compost (or in bulk, if you can), and keep your soil healthy first.
For bigger plants (i.e. more green) fertilize with nitrogen. I recommend MiracleGrow and its knockoffs, and bloodmeal as both excellent sources of nitrogen for garden plants. Nitrogen increases plant greenery, which drives fruit production if you give it the other things it needs.
MiracleGrow-like high nitrogen fertilizers that are water soluble can be mixed up in a sprayer and directly applied to the leaves. Tomatoes will absorb the nutrients directly.
Watering
Watering is simple, but can be expensive. Soaker hoses or drip irrigation is the way to go and put it in place when you plant your tomatoes. Put them on a timer that automatically waters as often as needed for your climate and current weather conditions, making sure you soak the soil deeply by watering at least 1 hour. Water earlier in the day to avoid having diseases that come from leaving soggy plants overnight.
Putting containers in the ground is generally a bad idea, because it means your shallow watering which doesn't promote root growth. Also, when a root hits dry air, it dies, so containers in the ground that go empty kill roots.
Containers
Tomatoes build large, healthy, productive plants from the ground up. Generally, use large containers, or better yet, the ground, so roots can grow without limits. A two liter bottle is too smalls for tomatoes, and might even be too small for pepper plants (mine regularly reach 3 feet high).
The picture to the right shows my tomato plants from a previous year spilling over a 4 foot wall out of a straw bale garden. Only a half whiskey barrel would have been large enough to hold this relatively small plant upright through the season.
Pruning
Suckers limbs on tomatoes are a myth. Sucker limbs, if given enough water, nutrients, and sun, can grow into full branches and produce fruit. Pruning tomato plants does not help a plant produce more fruit, unless it is already limited by other factors, like nutrients, soil volume, sun, or water.
Location, Location, Location
The most important factor in growing large, productive tomatoes is sun. A spot that can see sun all day is best. Less sun is less ideal. Afternoon sun is more important than morning sun.
Cages
If you cages are for supporting tomato plants only, use horizontal tomato cages. They make picking the tomatoes easier, and they are easy to remove for working the soil. My cages with still-growing tomato plants can be seen here.
If your cages are for keeping out critters, be sure they are large enough to accommodate your tomato plants.
Plant Spacing
Tomato plants are like fish in a fish tank. It is not the physical size that limits the number, it is the availability of resources. With good compost-rich soil, high nitrogen fertilizer, regularly watering, and good supports, I was able to plant 12 to 16 plants in a 4 ft by 12 ft bed and grow more tomatoes than our household of 6 and all our friends and neighbors could possibly use. These healthy plants would reach 6 to 8 feet in height and choke out all the weeks (except morning glory -- ick).
Mulching
Mulch is good to maintain soil moisture and keep weeds down. It also can be turned to the soil to add organic matter. I prefer straw, added after the plants reach 18 inches, but any reasonable organic mulch will work.
Forcing Ripening
If you end up with big tomatoes that just won't ripen, toss an overripe tomatoe from the supermarket under your tomato plants to rot. The gases it gives off will start the ripening process.
Summary
Tomatoes are the output of a plant engine, consisting of roots and leaves, that turn sun, water, soil and air nutrients into tomatoes. To get the best tomatoes, grow the plant engine as large as you can, and give it all the right ingredients to make tomatoes.
In the future, I am hoping to attempt to grow tomatoes indoors over the winter in a plastic drum. I'll share my results in a future post.
