Garden Tomatoes

Tips on growing tomatoes and gardening from Dave’s Garden.

Recently a large amount of aphids on my tomatoes. i got ladybugs to eat them, but the ladybugs left, even though i followed the instructions. so the aphids are still there, along with black ants. what can i use to get the pests off and still keep the plants organic? i tried peppermint soap, and that didnt work…………………thx!

I’m planning to use container gardening to grow tomatoes this summer. Do they have to be outside at a certain point to be pollinated? Or can I keep them inside in a sunny spot and have them grow fine?

Every tomato grower has a “secret recipe” for tomato growing success. An integral part of high tomato yield is proper plant nutrition. Plants need food, too! Giving a plant the right food at the right time will not only increase fruit yield, it will also help prevent damage from diseases and pests.

Plant Nutrients

Plants do not eat hamburgers and French fries, but they do still need “nutrients.” Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are the three nutrients most commonly fed to plants. Most fertilizers are a combination of the three. When reading a fertilizer package, a three number series such as 3-0-3, or 15-10-5, presents the ratio of all three nutrients in the fertilizer. Other nutrients and minerals, in smaller amounts, help tomato plants grow robustly and healthily. Plants get nutrients from the soil in which they are planted, so soil preparation is integral to providing plant nutrients in proper amounts.

To determine which nutrients your garden soil needs to promote healthy plant growth, prepare a soil sample and send it to your local cooperative extension office for analysis. The soil sample will allow you to properly prepare the garden soil and add just enough of each lacking nutrient to grow healthy plants. Another important test is the soil pH. Soil pH affects the way plants are able to take in nutrients. If your soil is too high or too low, you will want to amend the pH by adding mulch (to increase acidity) or lime (to increase alkalinity.)

When to Add Nutrients

Tomato plants need nutrients at differing amounts at various stages of growth. After receiving soil test results and before planting tomatoes, work a general fertilizer into the soil. Ratios of 5-10-10 or 8-16-16 are good to start. The soil test results will tell you if you are seriously lacking one nutrient or another.

Once the plant begins growing, different ratios of nutrients promote best growth. Once the plant starts flowering, it needs a higher ratio of potassium.

Soil Composition for Plant Nutrition

Adding fertilizer is only one step to providing plants with proper nutrients and increasing crop yield. Soil composition and structure directly affects tomato plant health. Tomato plants thrive by growing roots deep into the soil. Hard clay soils must be broken and amended with compost to promote healthy root growth. Overly sandy soils need addition of organic matter in order to hold water and nutrients.

Compost for High Fruit Yield

Organic matter is an essential component of soil. Adding proper organic matter will greatly improve soil health, while adding improper organic matter is detrimental to soil. Organic matter can be added by top dressing or double digging. Top dressing with organic works exactly as it sounds-you add organic matter to the top of the soil, almost like a mulch. Double-digging requires digging and removing soil, mixing the organic matter into the soil, and replacing the newly combined soil.

Great organic matters are already composted, or broken down. As wood chips, leaves and other compost breaks down, it uses nitrogen. It is important to add composted organic matter rather than fresh, as fresh matter will remove essential nutrients from the soil. If fresh organic matter is all that is available, be sure to add nitrogen along with the organic matter.

Soil composition is one key to tomato growing success. Structure, pH, and nutrient availability all contribute to plant health. For more detailed information on soil health and how to manage nutrition (including diagnosing nutrient deficiencies), consult a comprehensive tomato growing reference such as How to Grow Tasty Juicy Tomatoes.

I’m not by any means a gardener, but I do love my grandchildren and when they clamoured to buy some seeds, I let them pick one packet each. Chloe the eldest picked a packet of mixed flowers, and I reckoned I could cope with them. But the youngest Bethany was going through one of those phases that children go through. She had taken to eating tomatoes, as if they were apples, she couldn’t get enough of them.

Yes, that’s Right. You’ve guessed it. She picked a packet of tomato seeds. Glory be, what was I to do now, as far as I was aware you needed a greenhouse in these northern climes, to grow tomatoes. I tried to talk her out of it, but she was having none of it.

‘You said I could pick my own seeds, Grandad,’ she cried.

‘Yes, but I don’t think you can grow them without a greenhouse.’ I said.

‘Why?’

‘Because, they don’t like the cold.’

‘But it’s not cold, Grandad, it’s nice and warm.’

‘I don’t mean just today, I mean in general.’

‘What’s in general?’

‘It means…em… it’s cold most days.’

‘That’s alright then, we’ll plant them today while it’s warm.’

I gave in then, thinking, we’ll plant the seeds today and she’ll eventually forget all about them.

I paid for the seeds, a pack of plant pots, a bag of compost, and lugged them home on the bus. After getting off the bus the girls ran ahead, leaving me to hump the compost and plant pots. Reaching the house and since my hands were full, I pushed the door open with my foot and was just in time to hear the little one say, ‘And, Grandma, Grandad’s coming with the pots and the compy stuff and we’re going to plant the seeds straight away.’

‘Hold it, hold it,’ I said as I staggered through the door, ‘before Grandad does anything, he’s going to have a nice cup of tea.’

‘Aw, Grandad,’ she said.

But she waited, after a fashion, humming a hawing, until I had a cup of tea, and then she dragged me out into the garden.

Opening the bag of compost I filled six pots for Chloe and let her plant her own flower seeds, then help Bethany with her tomato seeds. Now all we could do was wait.

The weather was mild so it should have been, since it was May and we were far too late for planting tomato seeds. Two weeks went by and the flowers started to show, but there was no sign of the tomatoes. Another two week went by and just when I’d given up. Bethany came racing indoors, all excited.

‘Come and look Grandad, they are growing.’

And sure enough the tomatoes were showing, but I didn’t hold out much hope for the crop. Anyway as soon as the plants were big enough I transplanted them into a couple of grow bags and they took off, like Jack’s magic beanstalk.

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It’s now the 30th of September, the plants are 5ft high, filled with tomatoes, and are still flowering. Bethany is over the moon and is looking forward to picking her first fruit, or should I say vegetable? But as we slide into October, no way on earth are they going to ripen and to save her disappointment I decided after consultation with the Grand Dame, my mother in-law, to turn them into chutney. See the recipe below. By the way, Chloe’s flowers bloomed, though they are nearly finished now.

Green Tomato Chutney.

Will make 5- 6lb.

Ingredients

4lb green tomatoes

1lb apples

1lb of onions

8oz of raisins

2lb of soft brown sugar

1/2oz of salt

1/2oz of root ginger

1oz of mustard seeds

11/2 pints of malt vinegar

Method

Cut up tomatoes, peel, core, and cut up apples, cut up onions and chop raisins.

Bruise ginger and tie in muslin bag.

Place all ingredients into pan, bring to boil and simmer until vinegar has been absorbed. (Approx 2 hours) At this point you should be able to draw a wooden spoon across the mixture and it will leave an impression.

Remove the bag of ginger, pour chutney into hot dry screw-top jars and place waxed discs on top of each one.

Cover jars with a clean cloth until cold.

Screw on lids (Make sure they are vinegar proof first) label and store in a cool cupboard.

Mmm, I can taste it now.

Copyright Fred Watson.