HOW TO GROW TOMATOES

Anyone can grow really delicious tomatoes by following these garden suggestions!

* Tomatoes need sun, all day. Pick a sunny area where water does not stand after a heavy rain and trees do not cast shadows.

* Start your seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost.

* Use sterile seed-starting mixture for best results. Provide 12-18 hours of light daily from fluorescent fixtures 6-8 in. above the plants. Turn the lights off at night. Raise the lights as seedlings grow.

* Use a fertilizer dissolved in the water, at about half strength, each time you water, starting when seedlings have 2 pairs of leaves.

* Thin plants as suggested on seed packet.

* When frost is past, take your seedlings outdoors during the day, shading them from direct sun. Bring seedlings in each evening. After a week or so, the plants have ""hardened off"" and you can plant them into the garden.

* Outdoor planting time varies. In Zone 9-10 (far south), plant outdoors March-May. Zones 7-8, March-May. Zones 5-6, April-June. Zones 2-4, May-June.

* Plant seedlings a little deeper than they were in the pots. Provide stakes about 6 in. from plants, and tie plants up as they grow.

* You can prune the suckers (branches) off your plants of you wish. On large-fruits varieties like Top Sirloin, this will give you bigger, though fewer, fruits. For BIG tomatoes: Tomato flowers form in a cluster. Once you have a sure fruit forming, pinch off any subsequent fruits which start to form in that cluster (leaving one tomato per cluster).

* If your tomatoes are very large, you may want to provide little hammocks for each fruit. Pantyhose works great for this; just sling it underneath the fruits and tie to a stake.

* Keep your tomato plants evenly moist all through the growing season, and fertilize regularly with a formula low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus and potassium. Enjoy!

SHOULD I STAKE/CAGE MY TOMATO PLANTS?

YES, support your tomato plants for larger, cleaner fruit and to make it easier to see and pick. If not staked, use black plastic mulch around plants.

WHAT FERTILIZER SHOULD I USE? WHEN?

Add balanced fertilizer (10-10-10) to soil as you prepare it, then plant. Or scatter a little balanced fertilizer around the plants after you’ve planted them; water in. Do not get dry fertilizer on the plants -- it may ""burn"" them. Repeat one more time, before July 1 (in most areas).

MY TOMATO PLANTS WILTED OVERNIGHT!

Common problem--bacterial wilt (Fusarium or Verticillium). Sudden wilting when plant is loaded with fruits. Plant may continue to ripen its fruit (which are fine to eat). Soil disease -- no cure once the disease begins.

Suggestions:

1. Plant tomato varieties which have tolerance or resistance (indicated by ""VF"" after their name).

2. Move your tomato plantings around each year. Don’t plant tomatoes where any tomato, pepper or eggplants have grown the last 3 years (called rotating crops).

3. Build raised beds or grow in large tubs filled with sterilized soil mixture

MY PLANTS HAVE MOTTLED LEAVES (MOSAIC)

Tobacco mosaic virus spreads from tobacco -- don’t handle cigarettes or smoke in the garden. Use varieties tolerant/resistant (""TMV"" after their name).

MY SMALL PLANTS ARE ALL CUT OFF AND FALLEN OVER!

(Cutworms) It happens overnight! Nothing you can do but replant! Next time, prevent cutworm damage! Use a paper, cardboard or Styrofoam collar (a coffee cup with the bottom removed works wonderfully) around the base of each newly-planted tomato. Leave in place for a month.

WHAT ARE THESE HUGE GREEN WORMS ON MY TOMATOES?

Tomato hornworms eat a lot quickly. Pick off by hand. Take to show and tell!

WHAT'S CHEWING MY TOMATOES?

Raccoons and squirrels chew. Pheasants peck the fruits. Use repellents, fake snakes, owls and scary ""eyes"", or try fencing with chicken wire.

WHY AREN'T MY TOMATOES RIPENING?

Long periods of cloudy/cool puts ripening mechanism on ""hold"". There’s just no substitute for hot sun. Be patient. Maturity/days to harvest given on seed packets is approximate from setting plants out, under ideal conditions.

WHY ARE MY TOMATOES SPLITTING?

After a lot of rain following drought, fruits absorb moisture quickly and the skin splits (but OK to eat). Mulch plants, keep even soil moisture through growing season.

WHAT ARE THE BIG BLACK SUNKEN AREAS AT THE FLOWER END OF THE FRUIT?

Called Blossom End Rot. It could reflect a calcium deficiency. Add lime in the fall for the next year's plants.

WHAT IS THAT WHITE SCALDED AREA ON ""CHEEK"" OF FRUIT?

Tomatoes ""sunburn"" if summer temperatures are very high without much leaf cover on plant. Mostly a problem in Zones 9 and 10. There isn’t much you can do (but OK to eat).

In most areas of the U.S., tomato plants do their best for you when the seeds are started indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost.

"Set" ( that is, plant) your tomato plants deeper in the garden soil than they were in their pots. Roots will form along the stem to help the plants get established more quickly and get growing sooner and stronger.

Determinate tomato varieties grow to a certain (determined) size, then start flowering and fruiting. They bear a heavy yield of fruits just about all at once, but then produce no more. Grow this type if you have a short season to grow tomatoes or if you want a lot of fruits for canning all at one time.

Indeterminate tomato varieties keep growing until frost stops them, vining happily along stakes, up to porch roofs, over fences, etc., and continue bearing flowers and fruit. These are the large-fruited and beefsteak types which keep ripening fruits summer until frost.

Disease tolerance is a term which describes the plant’s ability to continue to grow and bear fruit in spite of being affected by disease. Tolerance is a relatively low level of ability to perform in the face of disease.

Disease resistance shows a stronger response of the plant to thrive in spite of disease. There is no plant we know of which is "disease-proof." If you have a tomato disease in your soil, your plants will most likely be affected to some degree. Many hybrid tomato varieties have stronger disease tolerance or resistance than older "heirloom" varieties show. A good suggestion is to grow varieties which have disease tolerance or resistance to give yourself the best chance at a great tomato season. The best way to make sure your tomato plants are vigorous and healthy, with resistance or tolerance to disease, is to choose your variety and grow it from seed. It’s not difficult to grow tomato plants yourself from seed!

Paste Tomatoes are delicious eaten fresh. Their flesh is thinner, drier and has fewer seeds, and a rather distinct concentrated flavor which you may like. In Mexico the paste tomato, called a "saladette" type, is commonly used fresh, for salsa.

Tomato colors are a joy to the eye. Color and flavor are often linked in a tomato-eater’s mind. Actually, though, the flavor of a yellow tomato is not necessarily milder than that of a red tomato.

Flavor is a subjective topic. Our taste buds may react quite differently to the various chemical compounds and solutions within a tomato which give it distinctive flavor. Many people who describe a tomato as "acidic" would be surprised to learn that their tomato, if analyzed chemically, may show a lower sugar content rather than a higher acid content. Flavor is related to a variety’s genetic heritage and can be influenced by growing conditions. If you’re a flavor nut, try different tomato varieties until you find "The One". Your neighbor may not agree with you about the flavor of your "chosen one", but your tongue will know. Let your neighbor find his own favorite!