How to grow tomatoes? – Practical advice
I have a small yard, but the biggest question is, How to grow tomatoes? When planning to grow tomatoes, we must not forget that they are a subtropical type of plant and are thermophilic. The best air temperature for the growth and development of tomatoes is 20-25 ° C.
Tomatoes are perennials, but are most often grown as annuals due to lack of necessary conditions in accordance with their biological requirements.
The main part of the roots is located at a depth of 10 to 40 cm and a diameter of 80-100 cm. Therefore, if you are going to grow in urban conditions, you should use deeper containers – large pots, large plastic buckets or large mineral water bottles.
An important factor is the time of sowing. In Bulgarian conditions it is necessary to make seedlings, as the tomato has a long growing season, and it takes a long time before it begins to bear fruit. The creation of seedlings allows part of this growing season to pass under controlled conditions, while the weather conditions outside are not yet suitable for plant growth. Make seedlings about 2 months before moving them outside. This way, you can decide when to plant the seeds for seedlings. If you have a greenhouse, you can sow the seedlings in February, and then transplant them to the greenhouse in April, when the danger of frost has passed. So you can have early tomatoes in June. However, if your tomatoes will be outdoors, they can be transplanted only when the temperatures outside are appropriate. Depending on the area, this time may be in the middle or end of May. This means that your seedlings should be laid in mid or late March. Keep in mind that these tips concern the conditions in the two most common climatic zones in Bulgaria – 6 and 7. Please check for conditions in your country and region 🙂
The seeds can be sown in small plastic buckets, peat pots or special trays for seedlings. If you are going to use soil from your garden, put the soil indoors a few days before sowing so that it is not cold. For urban gardeners, any fertilizer-soil mixture or peat substrate will be suitable for seedlings, which they can buy from a specialty store. In principle, the depth of sowing depends on the size of the seeds. For smaller seeds, such as those of tomatoes, the sowing depth is 0.5-1.5 cm.
The optimum temperature for seed germination is 24-26 °C, so provide a warm place for the initial phase of your seedlings. The seeds germinate in 6-10 days. After the appearance of the first true leaves (this is the second pair of leaves, the first are called cotyledons) seedlings should be moved to a cooler place. The temperature should be around 15-20 ° C during the day and around 10 ° C at night. The difference between day and night temperatures is important to mimic the natural day-night cycle for plants. This way the plants will harden and the stress of sifting them outdoors will be less.
They need to be provided with enough light, because tomatoes are very light-loving. A significant dose of ultraviolet rays is required for plant metabolism. I will share with you a trick I learned from a great gardener – Emo from Osmar Garden. If your seedling are placed on a window, put a sheet of crumpled aluminum foil glued to cardboard behind it so that the diffused light returns to the plants. This can prevent both the elongation of the stems and the bending of the seedlings to the light.
Diving seedlings
Diving is done to increase the nutrient area and volume of air needed for further growth and development of plants. It is performed when the second pair of true leaves appears (do not count the cotyledons). Select the strongest seedlings and remove them carefully so as not to tear the roots (for example, with a spoon). Transfer them to pots or buckets of yogurt by placing one plant in a bucket. It is important that the root is not bent, and the soil should reach about 1 cm from the cotyledons. Thus, the lower part of the stem remains in the soil, which will strengthen the root system of the plant.
If you do not have plans to make a large amount of seedlings or you have a lot of buckets of yogurt, you could skip the dive step by sowing the seeds directly in the buckets.
Watering seedlings
Seedlings are to be watered carefully so as not to hurt the fragile stems. When germinating, a spray can be used to moisturize evenly. Keep the soil slightly moist, avoid over wetting. Water when you see that the soil surface is slightly dry (1-2 days).
Transplanting seedlings
Ready-to-plant seedlings are about 25-30 cm tall and 7-8 leaves. About one or two weeks before the seedlings are planted outside, do additional hardening of the stems. Take them out every day for a few hours outdoors (not in direct sunlight), gradually lengthening the time and spending the last night outside. If you can’t get them out, provide ventilation to reduce the temperature. At the same time, slightly increase the time between watering.
Planting outside
If you are going to plant your tomatoes in the garden, it is good if the beds are oriented along the north-south axis so that more plants can get enough light during the day. The rows should be 80-100 cm, and the distance between the plants in one row is about 40 cm. These distances are approximate and depend on the specific variety, so check if the tomatoes you have planted have special requirements. To increase the distance between the plants in the adjacent rows a little more, you can plant them in a checkerboard pattern. The distance between the individual plants aims to improve aeration and reduce moisture retention on the leaves.
The planting hole should be larger than the seedling bucket. The depth of planting is such as to cover the cotyledons (the first leaves). The ability of tomatoes to form additional roots from each part of the stem is good to use at this stage. The stems are placed in the hole, and the lower part of the stem is placed slightly lying down. Thus, the plant is strengthened by creating additional roots.
For a stronger growth of the plant, you can put compost, stone flour or chopped nettle in the hole.
For urban gardeners who will grow tomatoes in large pots, buckets or tubes, it is good to put a few handfuls of stones or coarse sand on the bottom to ensure good drainage. The container in which the tomatoes are planted, should have holes at the bottom to drain excess water.
Mulching and watering
Mulch well around the plant (without mulch touching the stem). Mulch will retain moisture in the soil longer and will protect the roots of the young plant from sharp temperature differences (more about mulching and types of mulch can be read here). After planting, water and then do not water for a week to get strong roots.
Good mulching reduces evaporation. This on the one hand will allow you to maintain sufficient moisture in the soil around the roots of the plant and will reduce the need for frequent watering. On the other hand, it will reduce the moisture on the leaves, which is the main cause of fungal diseases. If you have a thick mulch, you can water once every 5-7 days, and on the hottest days once every 3 days. The rate of watering is 1-2 liters until the flowering period and about 4 liters when the plant begins to form knots (fruits). When watering, avoid wetting the leaves, because the increase in humidity around the plant favors the development of fungal diseases, the most common of which is manna.
It is good to plan the planting of friendly plants around tomatoes, which will further protect them from leaf-eating insects and diseases. The easiest to look at are marigold and tagetes, and at the same time they are one of the gardener’s best friends. You can read more about the article on allelopathy.
Nutrition for the tomatoes
Once in a week or two you can feed the plants by foliar or root fertilization. You know that we do not use artificial chemical fertilizers. Therefore, at the beginning of the growing season we use nettle extract (fertilizer) for foliar and root fertilization, which we prepare ourselves. It is prepared in a ratio of 1: 3 (1 kg of nettle per 3 liters of water), which is kept for about 2 weeks in a closed container (until the leaves rot and dissolve). It is good to stir the mixture daily to help the fermentation process. The finished extract is diluted 1:10 with water and is suitable for watering and spraying plants. During the first 24-48 hours after its preparation, the extract is a strong insecticide that can help you in the fight against leafhoppers (most often aphids). If you decide to use it as a foliar fertilizer, you can add a spoonful of clay to the extract from the night before (before diluting it with water). The humus sticks to the leaves and they are no longer so tasty for leafhoppers. Various herbs can be added to the nettle to make it more potent – horsetail, calendula, dandelion leaves, tagetes.
Another way of fertilizing that we use is sherbet. This is most typically fertilized with fermented poultry manure (we also add rabbit manure). Bird droppings are a great source of nitrogen, porcelain and potassium. The so-called sherbet is prepared by mixing fresh manure with water in a ratio of 1: 3 (fertilizer: water). It stays for about a week to ten days and can be used for root fertilization. Sherbet improves the diet of plants, used without further dilution once or twice during the growing season. It also eliminates the risk of damage to plants if they are fed with fresh manure. Fresh manure is not recommended for fertilization. Nitrogen and phosphorus in it are in an indigestible form for plants. Due to their intensity it can burn the roots of plants, and it may also contain pathogenic bacteria and spores of fungi, weed seeds and eggs of parasites.
Additional tips
It is good to know that if you are going to grow your tomatoes in the garden, you need to measure the pH of your soil in advance. This is especially true if you decide to use wood ash. Wood ash is a good source of potassium, but at the same time alkalizes the soil. And tomatoes feel best in neutral and even slightly acidic soil (6 to 6.8 pH). For urban gardeners, I recommend looking at the acidity of the soil marked on the package, which they plan to buy. More information on how to choose and nourish the soil can be read here.
Removing the lower leaves and slightly thinning the leaves help move air and reduce moisture around the plant.
Another thing that is often recommended for tomatoes is chopping. This is the removal of the so-called stalks – the branches of tomatoes that grow from the base of the stalks. This redirects the energy of the plant from creating new branches and increasing leaf mass to fruiting. Shredding will reduce the number of fruits, but will increase their size. You can skip the chopping of the determinant varieties (varieties with limited growth). They do not form branches, and even if they do form, they do not develop into lateral stems. These are some smaller fruits and mostly cherry tomatoes. Usually garden tomato varieties are interdeterminant varieties (with unlimited growth) and it is good to prune them regularly if you want larger tomatoes.
If you create good growing conditions for tomatoes, they will develop a strong enough immunity that will help them deal with leaf-eating insects, viruses, and fungi. We do not use artificial chemical fungicides, insecticides, or herbicides in our garden. We limit the humidity around the leaves of plants by mulching and have virtually no problems with fungal diseases. Furthermore, we also rely heavily on tomato-friendly plants to protect against leaf-eating insects. As a last resort, we use the insecticidal properties of fresh nettle fertilizer and neem oil.
There is another natural method to combat fungal diseases, which we have not had to use so far, but it is quite popular. This is the introduction of yeast (harmless to plants fungi) by spraying a solution of yeast. The idea is simple – yeast competes with pathogenic fungi for space and nutrients, and stimulates plant immunity. As a result, pathogenic fungi cannot find a suitable environment and food for reproduction and the plants remain healthy.
These are the basic things you need to know about growing tomatoes. In the next article, I will tell you how we prepare delicious dried tomatoes for the winter from our cherries.
Good luck with growing tomatoes, and don’t forget to send us photos of your homegrown tomato produce!
