Tomato tips

Tomatoes! One of the best and most versatile fruits out there! I love tomatoes. They have always been my favorite “vegetable”. Growing up I would eat them raw like apples. Which to me was just about the most delicious snack out there. My cousin on the other hand did not. She would always stare at me like I had just eaten a raw cow carcass, as if I was some sort of sick tomato eating zombie. This was unheard of to her. Though I didn’t know anyone else who also ate tomatoes straight out of the grocery bag I hated pb&j so I just assumed I invented it. No really, I thought I was the first ever. I also thought I invented butter and jelly toasted sandwiches in case anyone out there is looking for some groundbreaking inventions. I haven’t been approved for any patents but I did think I could get one back then. Such a pioneer, and at only seven! Well now that I am even wiser I have learned to not only love eating tomatoes but growing them too. Here in the pacific northwest or PNW if you’re from around these parts, it can be difficult to grow this luscious fruit. They thrive in heat which we get exactly three hours of. So, I have done a good amount of research and trouble shooting and figured out what I believe is the best wayto grow big fruit and a good deal of it, all organically. So without further ado..

The keys to big beautiful plants:

Plant your seedlings deep. It seems counterintuitive but when they are hardened off and ready to be put outside in the dirt, pull off some of the bottom leaves and plant deep up the stem. I usually go about a third of the way up. roots will grow on the stem making your plant sturdier and giving it the opportunity to grow big and strong. I plant my tomatoes straight into a good compost. Add charcoal to the soil before backfilling. I tried this the second year I grew tomatoes and it made a big difference for my plants. I think with all the spring rain we get this helps to retain fertilizer in the soil. It works because the charcoal absorbs some of it and slowly releases it back to the soil and the plant.  I then feed with blood and bone which gives the plant a good bit of nitrogen and phosphorous for leafy greens and healthy growth. Put on some manure and then water in. Always use cages or steak to keep up right. I like cages because they give more levels of support for the branches.      

Place rocks around the base of the tomatoes to keep the roots warm overnight. The weather around Seattle can change rather suddenly even in the summer so this is just added insurance for my plants in case the temperature drops slightly. The rocks absorb the heat from the days sun and hold it for a little while into the night giving the plant just a little extra blanket of warmth.

Manure: don’t over fertilize with a fertilizer high in nitrogen super often because the plant will get too much and only focus its energies into the leaves. The fruit may not come in at all or will be small. This is a hard balance because tomatoes are heavy feeders. I just like to top mine off with compost and compost tea every 2-3 weeks. For the compost tea I fill a watering can with water add a few handfuls of compost and the recommended amount of fish fertilizer (the bottles label has the ratio and instructions) then I just water normally with it till the can is empty. I used this amount for about 3-4 plants. I then will top the plant with blood and bone every 6 weeks just to give it a boost.

Cloches when finally planting outside. These just cover your plant and protect them from the cold and wind. I use a garden tunnel cover now because it is easy to move and keeps the air flowing around the plant, but still keeps them warm. I watched an episode of my favorite gardening show: Gardening Australia and they used a method of burning off the bottom of a growler to make simple clotches. You can then take the lid off to allow air in. I haven’t tried this because it seems a bit daunting to me, but I have tried a couple of other methods before settling on the tunnel. The paper cone clotches were not attractive but they work ok, they will blow away if they aren’t secured down which in my opinion defeats the purpose of them in the first place. I also tried to use mason jars and while they looked charming in the garden they do not allow for enough airflow, which meant heartbreak for me because none of my homegrown seedlings made it. You can also purchase some very beautiful glass clotches at your local garden center. But the easiest and most economical way is to steak three pieces of wood around your plant and then cut the bottom off a heavy duty clear plastic bag and pull it around the steaks to fit. This lets the sun in but protects from the cold and looks pretty interesting in the garden as well.

Get rid of sucker; do this as often as you see them come in. Suckers are the small shoots that grow between the branches and the stem. By pinching them off you are forcing the tomato plant to focus more of its energy into producing delicious tomatoes. I like to trim unnecessary leaves as fruit is getting big to help ripening as well. Though keep in mind I live in Seattle and it rarely gets more than 80*F here. If you live somewhere hotter the fruit can scald in the sun so you want to leave the leaves around the fruit because they protect from those ghastly yellow marks.
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Now here are a few trouble shooting tips:

Don’t over water or under water causes splitting or blossom end rot. I like to water in the early afternoon heading into the evening so the leaves have time to dry but the soil doesn’t dry out as quickly. You can’t control the rain especially in Seattle but watering regularly and not letting the plants soil get overly dry keeps them from getting to needy for water and pulling up all the water from over watering. The sudden swell of water to the fruit is what cause them to split. Though if the tomatoes do split they are still edible it’s just not gonna win you any awards, but it will still be tasty.

Crop rotation. Prevents most diseases. This is simply planting new tomato plants in soil that hasn’t had a tomato plant in it for at least 1 year but ideally more is best I used two boxes and the ground. Starting by planting in the ground (not the best performer) then moving onto only planting them in box one the 2^nd year and then planting them only in box two the 3^rd  year. This method applies to all vegetables so just keep track and move all the plants every year. This isn’t hard as most vegetables don’t last more than a season.

Good pollination. I have never had a big problem with my plants being pollinated. I like to try to plant a good array of other flowers like lavender and curry around my plants to attract bees. I don’t have a whole lot of space and I know most people are in the same boat so in the past I have taken a flower or two off and rubbed the flowers on the other flowers to pollinate. Im know scientist but I do know that tomatoes are self-pollinators. I have also heard shaking the plant lightly to “simulate wind” also works. This I cannot comment on because I haven’t tried it. So for me I just make sure plants have enough room between them to give good wind flow through them and maybe invest in a mason bee house to see if you can bring them into your yard.

Blossom end rot, tomatoes need calcium. This can be in the form of a substitute like lime to the soil when planting I’ve been told in the past that a ph of 6.5 is what they really need to grow properly and absorb that calcium. This is something I have honestly never really done. Partially because the tests are kind of expensive and I haven’t really seen a need as of yet. just think they like the natural bone better and if mixed in well with the compost when planting and topped up with it every few weeks I don’t see any problems with blossom end rot. I have put oyster shells near my plants in the past just cause we had them but I didn’t even bother crushing them so I don’t believe that truly helped with calcium absorption.

With all that being said go forth and concur the tomato plant and you will be rewarded with the best fruity goodness!