Tips for Growing Tomatoes

It’s important to choose the sunniest spot in your garden for your tomatoes. They soak up sunshine just like water. Aim for plants to get seven hours of sun a day.

Give your plants room to grow, too. Plant seedlings 30 to 48 inches apart, with rows set 48 inches apart. Leaving space between tomato plants will let light into the lower portions of the mature plants, improve air flow and help prevent disease.

Tomatoes thrive in rich, well-draining, slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. To determine pH, pick up a soil test kit from the Garden Center or your local Cooperative Extension Service.

Neutral soil will have a pH of 7.0. You should aim for a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. If your soil is too acidic (below 7.0), it will have a lower pH. If your soil is too alkaline, above 7.0, it will have higher pH.
The proper soil pH helps your plants take up nutrients.

Adding plant food and fertilizer can help find the right balance. If soil is too acidic, add dolomite lime. If it’s too alkaline, add sulfur or composted organic matter.

Whether you start your own seedlings or buy them, tomatoes need to be planted at the right time. Wait until soil temps are consistently over 60 degrees Fahrenheit before planting outside. If the weather is still iffy, protect tender seedlings from cold with row covers or plant protectors.

Here’s a neat trick: Tomatoes will root along their stems. If a plant is long and leggy, follow these steps:

• Dig a trench.
• Add a slow-release fertilizer.
• Lay the stem of the tomato plant sideways, bending it gently upward.
• Snip or pinch off the lower branches and cover with soil up to the first set of leaves.

This extra root growth will produce a stronger, more robust plant.

Basil, garlic and onions are a tomato’s best friends in the kitchen, and in the garden, too. Grown together, they repel pests such as nematodes.

Marigolds are said to keep nematodes away, too. Whether or not they truly help, a border of marigolds will invite pollinators and bring a bright spot of color to hard-working tomato vines.

Juicy jumbo tomatoes need water, about an inch a week. A blanket of mulch, anything from shredded pine bark to grass clippings and composted leaves, will keep the water from evaporating in summer’s heat.

A soaker hose is an efficient solution for watering tomatoes. Position the hose in the garden. Then, pile mulch up and over the hose.

Adding the benefits of nutrient-rich compost can keep heavy-feeding tomato plants happy. Mix organic compost into the soil when you plant your tomatoes.

During the growing season, top the soil with a couple of shovelfuls of compost. You can also make compost “tea”. Soak one part organic compost in one part water and let it sit for 24 hours. Filter it and use it to nourish your plants.

Tomato plants send out suckers, which are leaves that shoot out from the main stem. “Suckering” tomato plants, or removing the suckers, helps the tomator plants in several ways. It promotes air circulation, keeps down disease and focuses the plant’s energy on growing fruit.

Small leaves and tender stems can be pinched off with your fingers. Use pruning shears to cleanly cut thicker stems.

There are two main types of tomato plants. Determinate plants are compact and grow their fruit all at once. Indeterminate plants produce fruit throughout the season. Determinate plants are self-contained and keep to themselves. Indeterminate plants will grow uncontrolled without support. Use tomato cages or stakes to keep indeterminate tomato plants under control.

The lush color that signifies a ripe tomato comes from warmth, not light. Cool temperatures delay ripening. If summer’s temps are too cool, go ahead and pick fruit that’s red-orange and bring it inside to ripen.

The time-honored tradition of lining up your garden’s best fruit along a sunny windowsill isn’t the speediest way to ripen it. Putting unripened tomatoes in a loosely closed paper bag is a better solution.

When picking and storing tomatoes:

• Pick in the morning or evening, gathering those that appear at least halfway ripe. Large heirloom varieties often ripen from the inside out. They should be picked when they feel quite firm, even if they still have green shoulders.
• Gather all almost-ripe fruits just before heavy rain is expected, especially cherry tomatoes. Drenching rains following periods of dry weather can cause fruits to crack because they cannot handle the sudden oversupply of water.
• Handle tomatoes as gently as eggs. Pokes, cracks or bruises can invite problems with fruit rot. Place a soft cloth in the bottom of your picking basket to cushion the fruits. Pile them no more than two deep to avoid squashed tomatoes. Remove the leafy green caps from tomatoes as you pick them.
• Clean your tomatoes. Rinse and wipe them to remove any dirt or garden residue.
• Sort according to ripeness. Place the least ripe in a paper bag with the top folded shut, or arrange them in a single layer on plates or trays. Cool temperatures delay final ripening, so you can choose between speeding up the process by keeping your tomatoes in a warm room, or slowing it down by ripening your tomatoes in the coolest room in your house. As long as tomatoes are kept above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, their homegrown flavor will not be compromised.
• When you have no time to preserve your ripe tomatoes, simply stash them in the freezer. Cherry tomatoes can be frozen on a baking sheet and transferred to freezer bags. The frozen tomatoes can be used in soups, salads or sauces.