Home Grown Tomatoes

There are some common pests on tomatoes and aphids are some of the most voracious, they are able to clone themselves every 20 minutes and even the clones that have been produced come with a built in baby ready to go. So aphids not only clone their children, they do in effect clone their grandchildren. Early in the year they tend to produce all females but as the end of the year approaches they start to produce some males.

The reason for this is that the males can go off and mate with females to start to change the genetic profile a little. This ensures that the species can continue should some unexpected change in environment occur. You can imagine that should the aphids try and survive on cloning alone, with no genetic variation at all, then should some circumstance come along that kills one, then it is obviously going to kill them all. Hence the reason that males of the species have to be retained and why aphids have sex, other than that it wouldn’t be necessary.

When it comes to aphids on tomatoes I can imagine as a keen gardener you are probably thinking ‘shame they thought about that I wouldn’t have to worry about them otherwise’. Unfortunately life is never quite that simple, but never fear, there are a few ways of dealing with aphids and not all of them involve using chemical pesticides.

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There are a few aspects that have to be taken into account when considering how to care for tomato plants:

• Supporting Tomato Plants
• Pruning Tomatoes
• Watering Tomatoes
• Feeding Tomatoes
• Pest Control

Supporting Tomato Plants

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Finding the tastiest tomatoes for 2010 is going to be a bit like hunting for a needle in a haystack. There are so many different varieties available and it’s worse than needles, because everyone will have a different opinion. A needle is a needle at the end of the day, but the tastiest tomatoes is very much a question of – well taste.

Understanding what makes the tastiest tomatoes might help a little. The answer relates to the watering program to a significant extent i.e. if you over water then there is a risk you will make your tomatoes watery and a little bland. There are some circles that advocate dry cultivation with no irrigation. But this is a little bit of a specialist activity and you need to know what you are doing, it requires a soil mix of clay and loam with a minimum rainfall of 20″ to be effective. Not an area I am completely familiar with so if you want to know more about this then you could visit Home & Garden Publications who have an article on that exact subject.

For us lesser mortals what it comes down to is getting the level of watering right so that you get a concentrated flavor as a result. Over water and you end up with those watery, bland tomatoes mentioned earlier. Maintain your watering program so that the soil is moist, not dried out or waterlogged and there is a good chance that you will get the tasty tomatoes you are looking for. As the fruit reaches the ripening stage you can consider backing off on the watering program a little so that you err on the side of a drier soil, but again not completely dry.

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Describing how to prune a tomato plant using the written word is a very difficult thing to do, so instead I have provided you with this video courtesy of YouTube. This particular video has a very good rating and demonstrates what is required to ensure lots of fruit by removing unwanted growth from the tomato plant.

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Tomato Plants Care and Feeding
By Brian R Stephens

The tomato plant is one of the easiest plants to grow in the garden and is a great source of food for the family, they are both delicious to eat and promote good health. Learn how to care for tomato plants and you will be able to produce a lot of fruit throughout the growing season.

There are a few basics to get right concerning both the tomato plant care and feeding so that you can ensure lots of juicy fresh fruit straight from the garden.

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Growing Tomatoes – How to Stop an Earwig Party on Your Tomato Plants
By Diane Palmer

Tomato Plants suffer from pests, just like any other plant in your garden. But personally, I found Earwigs to be the biggest pain.

They love to eat the leaves of a tomato plant, and if there are enough of them, this can kill the plant. If you are just battling a few, then, picking them off by hand may work.

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fresh juicy tomatoes straight from the garden to the dining table

When you are just starting out with your own vegetable gardening, a wise choice is to include tomatoes in your choice of plants because they are one of the best plants for a beginner to try his or her hand with. Strictly speaking of course tomatoes are not vegetables they are actually a fruit, but most people categorize them as a vegetable and they are a classic ingredient for a lovely summer salad. There really isn’t anything nicer than having your own home grown tomatoes sitting freshly picked on your plate.

Tip Number 1 – correct spacing

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