Adorn Your Garden With Tomatoes

Gardening

oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 12:54

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins."

Tomatoes, the most widely grown "vegetable" in the world, have been domestically grown in many parts of the world for several hundred years. It is mind blowing to have this colorful plump fruit-vegetable in your garden. If you render a little care and time you can have a beautiful tomato garden.

The safe time to plant tomatoes is when frost is past and the native trees in your area are in full leaf. Tomatoes like warm weather and should have eight or more hours of sun a day. If you expect lower temperature it is always recommendable to cover your plant properly.

Get the soil conditions right. Tomatoes adore well-drained, humus rich soil. Make sure you dig in lots of well rotted compost or manure and add complete fertilizer.

Choose the right type for your local area and particular taste and use.

Try a couple of varieties of tomatoes and work out which ones are the best ones for your area.

If you are starting from seeds be careful not to crowd seeds. Once fresh leaves have sprouted out you can transplant the plant. Ensure strong, direct sunlight or 14-18 hours of grow lights. Tomatoes should planted in the sunniest part of the garden. Plant them in at the right time.

Tomatoes love heat Covering the plant with a red or black plastic couple of weeks before planting them will help to transfer the extra heat into early tomatoes.

Spacing of the plants depends on the variety of tomatoes you"ve selected and their growth habits. Space tomatoes around 1 ' to 2 feet apart in rows. If you grow tomatoes in cages, give them a bit more room, up to 3 feet is recommended.

Water deeply and regularly while the plants are developing. Once the fruit begins to ripen, lessening the water will coax the plant into concentrating its sugars. Don"t withhold water so much that the plants wilt and become stressed or they will drop their blossoms and possibly their fruit.

Spread a thick layer of mulch around each tomato plant which keeps the soil moist for longer. Alternatively, you can add a weed mat on top of which you add the mulching material for even better weed control.

nce the tomato plants are about 3' tall, remove the leaves from the bottom 1' of stem. These are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems. Spraying weekly with compost tea also seems to be effective at warding off fungus diseases.

Raised beds can be a great option for growing tomatoes. They have the advantage of being adaptable to different heights to create interesting visual effects in your garden or to reduce back strain. Additionally, you can quickly and easily change out plants and soil. Raised beds are also an excellent way to provide improved drainage for your tomato plants by customizing your soil mixes.

If you are really keen on growing your tomato plants organically, you need to display constant vigilance. Snip off distorted leaves and deal with insects promptly. Put all leaves and bad fruit into a garbage bag and toss it out with the rubbish, don't add them to the compost.