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



Supporting Tomato Plants

This is particularly important for tomato care when growing vine tomatoes, they usually produce trusses on which you will first get blossom and the blossom will become your tomato fruits. To keep your plants and fruit healthy it is necessary to tie the trusses to a suitable support usually with a soft string. There are a number of ways in which you can provide support for the plants but the simplest is just a stake pushed in besides the plant and soft string to tie the plant to the stake.

Pruning Tomatoes


Pruning tomato plants is done for 3 primary reasons, to prevent lower trusses touching the soil which is the biggest source of contamination. To control the number of trusses you want on the plant so that you can ensure all the fruit you get will ripen and finally to remove non producing foliage, i.e. take out growth where there is no blossom so that the energy for the plant is directed to the fruit producing regions.


Watering Tomato Plants

Tomato plant care requires regular and consistent watering to ensure that the plants neither dry out or become saturated in water i.e. water logged. Neither of these conditions is desirable and incorrect watering is the biggest source of tomato problems related to tomato care.

Feeding Tomato Plants

Occasional feeding of tomato plants with a high nitrogen liquid feed, ideally that has been developed specifically for tomatoes, is always a good idea. This should ensure that you will produce healthy fruit in a plentiful supply. The best suggestion for this is that you follow the instructions on the product you use and also be aware that over feeding tomato plants can actually be counter productive and may result in problems such as blossom end rot for example. So the key is to follow a properly planned feeding regime and make sure you feed your tomatoes enough but not too much.

Pest Control

Tomato plants will need to be regularly checked for the presence of pests, the vast majority of which place themselves on the underside of the tomato plant leaves. Many can be removed by hand, if caught early enough, either by picking them off or by wiping the leaves between your thumb and forefinger. For persistent pests or large infestations you may need to use a suitable pesticide or sometimes a mix of 1 part soap and 4 parts water may be enough. Clearly when looking for pests the underside of leaves is the first place you should look. Tomato plant pests are much easier to eradicate if you find them early on and hopefully before any permanent damage has occurred

Useful Articles and Resources

• Tomato Plants Care and Feeding
• Tomato Plant Care and Essential Tips For Growing Tomatoes
• Tiny Game Hunting: Environmentally Healthy Ways to Trap and Kill the Pests in Your House and Garden New Edition

The time to maturity becomes quite critical when leaving things a little late in the season. For example in the UK about now, approaching the end of May, it is about as long as you can leave it before getting your plants in. That said there are 3 general groups of tomatoes that mature in approximately the following periods:

• Early varieties take around 50 to 60 days
• Mid Season take around 60 to 75 days
• Late season take around 80 to 90 days

Typically it is the size of the fruit that dictates how long they take to mature, so clearly cherry tomatoes will generally fit into the 50 to 60 day grouping, medium size fruits, such as plum tomatoes, fall into the 60 to 75 days and the larger beefsteak varieties will take around 80 to 90 days. So if you select the early to mid season varieties you should still be OK up to the end of May in Europe.

This is a general guide but obviously if you are selecting specific varieties and you have left it a bit late then refer to the label for the best time for planting and when you can expect to harvest the last of the fruit.

If you are totally organised and on top of everything, then ideally you will have sorted out a range of plants that cover all the maturing periods so that you have a plentiful supply of tomatoes from the early part of the season right through to the end. But if you are anything like me, you will be rushing to get your plants in at the last minute , well this year anyway.

Of course your tomato planting schedule changes when you are growing tomatoes from seed, typically you need to be planting tomato seeds around 4 to 6 weeks before you need the tomato plants ready for planting out. Not too difficult to work backwards and figure out when they should first be going into the pots. In Europe its from around the middle of March to the beginning of April.

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.

Sorry I can’t help more than that it is very subjective and actually down to trial and error to an extent.

Of course the other thing that can help you with taste is selecting the right varieties and many home grown tomatoes come from the Heirloom varieties that have been kept going, not by the market gardeners, but rather the tomato growing enthusiasts that care less about transport toughness and shelf life than they do about getting the tastiest tomatoes. So go for Heirloom and there is a good chance that combined with the right watering program you will get very tasty tomatoes.

There is another source of information, and this was fed through to me by my brother in law who advised me that the UK consumer magazine he subscribes to, called ‘Which’, has stated that the tastiest tomato this year, identified through consumer trials, is the Soiux tomato; which is of American descendency and of course is one of the Heirloom varieties.

The second tastiest tomatoes are listed as being the Orkado tomatoes and while we are at it the worst and most bland tasting tomato was identified as, can you bear it, the Alicante. A firm favorite amongst many of you, I would hazard a guess. Sorry to disillusion you.

Now knowing what the tastiest tomatoes are and finding them for sale anywhere is a different matter. But I can advise you that if you would like to buy them in the UK you can get your tastiest tomatoes here, and I don’t even make any money out of it.

For anyone living in the USA you can get them here Sioux Tastiest Tomatoes and now I do make some money from this link. So if you go and buy some, thanks very much.

Orkado are much easier to find so I will leave you to hunt for them yourselves, and of course the Alicante which you can get pretty much anywhere, that is if you want the blandest tasting tomatoes on the market as reported by Which magazine and my brother in law.

One of the problems with writing about taking care of tomatoes on the Internet is that your readers can come from all over the world, Australia, the United States, the UK or mainland Europe. This book doesn’t care what country you are in or what climate, hot, cold or somewhere in between, it provides detailed information and pictures to help you grow and take care of your tomatoes using a step by step set of instructions that have been written by people who know their subject and have written in an easy to understand format.

So if you are just starting out or you are looking to dramatically improve your growth rates and crop yields by referring to a comprehensive, single source option with great cultivation advice. Then I would recommend that you at least check out this 88 page book How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes

Great for Green Tomato Pickle

So don’t despair your green or left over tomatoes do not need to got to waste.

Green Tomato Pickles
By Peter Gitundu

Like all other pickles, green tomato pickles are very tasty and definitely a choice of many. They can be prepared using a number of recipes and the end product is surely something worth every effort. Ingredients used in making green tomato pickles include; green tomatoes normally found at the beginning of winter season, white vinegar, salt, onions, red chilli pepper, sugar, cloves, mustard and celery seeds, Jamaican and black pepper.

Green tomato pickles recipe is as follows; Slice tomatoes and onions, place them in separate bowls and sprinkle salt on each. stir the mixtures and leave them covered for four to six hours. Next, place the tomatoes in a piece of cheese cloth and press them gently to drain the extra juice produced. The same is to be repeated precisely for onions.

The next step is to remove the onions and tomatoes from the bowls. The salty water at this point can be thrown away. From here, place the onions, sugar, vinegar, chili peppers, celery and mustard seeds, pepper and the green tomatoes and stir thoroughly. Next, tie the allspice and cloves in a cheese cloth, and dip it in the tomato onion mixture. Boil it for about 20 minutes in low flames, while at the same time simmering the mixture gently in uncovered pot.

When you’re done, place the tomatoes and the liquid in well sterilized jars, cover with lids and secure them using rubber bands. For the next step, place the jar in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. When you’re done cooking it, let it cool down and then store in a cool dark place.

Peter Gitundu Creates Interesting And Thought Provoking Content on Pickles For More Information, Read More Of His Articles Here PICKLE RECIPE If You Enjoyed This Article, Make Sure You SUBSCRIBE TO MY RSS FEED!

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For even more recipes visit Tomato Harvest Recipes or if you just want find out how to cook like they do in all the best restaurants Click Here!

]]> http://myhomegrowntomatoes.com/green-tomato-pickles/feed/ 1 http://myhomegrowntomatoes.com/upside-down-tomato-garden-also-known-as-the-topsy-turvy-tomato-planter/ http://myhomegrowntomatoes.com/upside-down-tomato-garden-also-known-as-the-topsy-turvy-tomato-planter/#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:52:22 +0000 Brian http://myhomegrowntomatoes.com/?p=115 This is the ultimate upside down tomato planter, which you don’t even need to buy, it tells you exactly how to make your own from a disused plastic bucket.

Couple of things I would note, don’t miss the use a metal handle tip and I would use a drill to take out the hole rather than using a Stanley knife as demonstrated, you could just loose a couple of fingers doing it that way. Other than that, this video says it all when it comes to making your own topsy turvy tomato planter.

Watering may become a bit of a pain, I always hated watering hanging baskets above my head so it might be worth investing in a micro water irrigation system. Especially if you decide to plant a few of these and remembering if they dry out then you will likely loose your entire crop of tomatoes.

Hope you enjoyed the video, but if you prefer to buy the equipment you can click on Upside Down Tomato Garden

Sometimes its just easier that way.

There are different ways of dealing with this problem, no one wants horrible rotten tomatoes when they can have a nice juicy crop by taking a few sensible precautions. Clearly the easiest way to avoid diseased soil is to use fresh compost each year which you can achieve by either using a growbag or some other sort of container. Tomatoes will thrive in a standard 12″ plant pot as long as they are watered regularly and fed with a dilute liquid feed once or twice a week, particularly when the fruit starts to develop. Potassium supplements in the form of a high potassium tomato feed can aid the health and development of your plants and will be available from a garden center.

If you leave a space between the compost surface and the top of the pot, you can add more fresh compost as the plant develops and the compost shrinks.

The reason for using 12″ pots is that if the pots are too small the soil and compost mix can see erratic changes in both temperature and moisture, neither are conditions that the tomato plant will enjoy and will almost certainly lead to crop failure. Watering regularly so that the compost remains moist but not saturated is essential and this constant moisture content state is more easily achieved with larger pots. Remember as well that if you are using a growbag of around 40L not to put too many tomato plants per bag, my recommendation is 2 plants per bag and at a stretch perhaps 3 but definitely no more than that if you want decent results and healthy tomatoes.

Also make sure the plants (vine plants) are properly supported with either string, stakes or, more recently, tomato cages. If you are using string or stakes train the plants around them in a clockwise direction. Remove any little side shoots that develop between the main stem and the leaves, this should be done on a daily basis if possible.

When they are flowering you can gently tap the plants to help them pollinate, another option for aiding pollination is to spray with a fine mist of water when conditions are warm and bright. There is a further option of spraying with a hormone setting preparation which you can also get from the garden center, but tomatoes do pollinate quite readily so you shouldn’t really need to do this unless you are having problems.

When the fruit is beginning to ripen try and avoid temperatures over 27C (81F) especially if in a greenhouse where the glass can increase temperatures inside significantly. Potassium supplements in the form of a high potassium tomato feed can aid the health and development of your plants and again will be available from a garden center.

With indeterminate tomato plants you will need to limit the number of trusses that you allow to develop to between 4 and 6 depending on the length of the growing season wherever you are, or whether you are growing tomatoes in the greenhouse or outside.

Always remember to keep temperature and moisture levels constant, erratic changes can cause, flower shedding, blossom end rot, immature fruit fall, split skins, sun scald or blotchy ripening.

*Top Tip* Growers Pride is a great starter tomato for beginners, it is an F1 Hybrid however so best to buy the plant rather than trying to grow yourself from seed.

As a final word on growing tomatoes in containers, especially relevant when you have restricted space, is to do what a lot of people have started to do and that is to create an upside down tomato garden, where your tomato vine plant is planted in a plastic container and then hung upside down so that the vine hangs down instead of growing up a support frame. A little bit gimmicky I think, but then I suppose everyone to their own. I will make sure my next post describes how to do this.

You cannot grow plants with seeds taken from Hybrid tomatoes however, see the comments section for an explanation of why.

Preparations: -

• Use ripe, reasonably fresh seed that has been stored in a cool dry place
• Use a proper seed compost for best results, a loam based seed compost is generally the best
• Maintain a good level of cleanliness both of the compost (keep in sealed bags) and of the seed trays
• Fill the seed trays to within 1/2″ of the top rim by pressing in your seed compost, level it off and firm it down by hand
• Mark the tray if necessary so you know what you have planted
• Moisten the compost before starting to sow so that it is exactly that moist, not dry or waterlogged
• Push the seeds into the compost to a depth equal to their diameter or thereabouts, tweezers might help with this process.
• Don’t sow everything at once stagger over a week or two to give you plants at different stages of development to give yourself some options for a longer growing period
• Make sure the seed is lightly covered, then water in with a fine mist of water from a sprayer.
• As with watering tomato plants you need to maintain a watering program that ensures the seeds don’t end up dried out or waterlogged

That is pretty much it, you can help the seeds along by covering with a sheet of white paper and a piece of glass or slipping the seed tray into a polythene bag to help retain moisture. The paper stops the condensation going straight into the seed compost.

After 2 – 3 weeks the seedlings should be large enough to handle without damage and should then be transplanted, using tweezers or a thin plastic or wooden strip with a V notched out to prise out the root ball. Try not to handle the stem, hold the plant by the first leaf.

Use a dibber to make a small hole in the compost and put 2 to 3 seedlings in a 3″ pot ready to grow on. Leave them now to grow on until large enough for planting in the ground or some kind of container, vine tomatoes usually do best for the final stage if they are planted 2 or 3 to a 40L grow bag or 1 per 12″ pot, other than that of course you can prepare the soil and plant your tomatoes in the the ground and for short summer regions this should probably be in a greenhouse.

Remember before final planting check the plants over and discard any that are weak, stunted, distorted or where the leaves are pale or mottled, these are the ones most susceptible to disease and liable to failure at the final stage.

*Top Tip* the ideal germination temperature for tomatoes is 16C (61F)

You will discover that by watching this video that pruning tomato plants really isn’t that difficult, the main thing is to make sure that you don’t cut off any growth that has a blossom or fruit on it.

When choosing, one of the most over riding considerations to take into account is what they are going to taste like, after all when you are growing tomatoes at home that is one of the primary reasons for doing so, otherwise you may as well go and get the plastic ones from the supermarket. It’s quite difficult to recommend a variety for taste because everyone’s taste is different but what a lot of people opt for are the Heirloom varieties, mainly because they are as the name suggests an older and more traditional type of tomato which are full of flavour but may not have some of the more modern characteristics built in such as disease resistance.

Talking about disease resistance and to help ensure that you actually get some lovely fruit from your tomato plant it is a good idea to pick a tomato type that has a reasonable level of resistance to disease, especially if you have had trouble in this direction in the past. Check out the seed packets and make sure that they have a natural resistance to fusarium wilt and verticillium, these are two of the most common tomato diseases that they can get from the ground.

How much space you have will determine whether you can go for a determinate or indeterminate variety, the determinate variety as the name suggests grows to a limited size usually a couple of feet to maybe three feet in height then they stop. The indeterminate type are the vine tomatoes and they will just keep going unless you prune them. I actually think that the vine type are better in smaller spaces because you can control them to a size you want and train them where you want them to go whereas with the bush tomato plants they are what they are.

Also the vine plants continue to grow fruit over a longer period as the fruit of each truss ripens. The determinate (bush) variety on the other hand tend to ripen all at once over a relatively short period.

Unless you have a greenhouse the time the fruit takes to mature becomes important, if you are going to start to see frost at the beginning of October you need to be all done by then. So it is better to go for early maturing varieties in this case.

Something like Sun Gold will mature in 65 days or so and are indeterminate so lots of fruit over a longer period.

Beef tomatoes are large and are great for a burger but they do take longer to ripen so you either have to have a long summer or a greenhouse for growing these so that you can protect them from overnight frosts.

At the end of the day tomato selection is a matter of preference and as long as you actually end up with tomatoes that you like the taste of then the job is done, so make sure you take into account these factors and you will be sure to soon be enjoying lots of lovely ripe tomatoes.

If you prefer to buy your tomato support frames check out these options available through Amazon.