Top Tips For Growing Tomatoes

Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 11:17 am

: Image by Yandle via Flickr

Being first year gardeners I think we did great. However I know we can do even better by using a few helpful tomato growing tips I have picked up over the summer.

Hopefully we can do even better in the next growing season. We would love to give canning a try.

I got a little confused this past year. I was thinking it was too early to start my tomatoes indoors and then I waited too long, well live and learn.

One of our biggest blunders was to plant our tomatoes way too close to each other, not giving them the light they so love. Noted for next year of course.

Here are a few changes we will make for next season:

Firstly we realize that growing great tomatoes doesn’t just happen by accident, usually.

1. Start Your Tomatoes Indoor Early. This will give the plants a chance to grow and strengthen before we put them out in the yard. Be sure not to crowd the seeds and if you do then be sure you pluck out the extra plants so that only one or two per pot are left. They will get much healthier with elbow room.

2. Tomatoes Love Light. We didn’t plan our locations very well and didn’t plan for the angle of the sun light. The tomatoes that we planted in full sun did awesome and those that got blocked by our huge trees did okay, but not great like those in the direct sun light.

3. Proper Water And Drainage. Again we learned from our mistakes so you don’t have to. The tomato plants we planted at one end of our garden did great while those at the other end did poorly.

This was our first year at gardening. Our yard is low and the ground clay. We dug it up and put in lots of peatmoss and top soil but one end was still lower than the other, by enough to get flooded over and over. Next year we will be sure to have our tomatoes where the ground will drain well.

4. Put Your Tomato Plants Outside In The Day Time. Of course you don’t want to put your tomato plants out when it’s still to cold but on those day when it’s nice out put them out so they can get adjusted to the climate. It will strengthen your plants if you allow the wind or breeze to blow on them to give them strong stocks.

5. Re-Plant Your Tomato Plants Deeper. Growing your tomatoes from seed can lead to shallow roots so when you transplant them outside be sure to bury them deeper so they will grow a stronger root system which will make a stronger healthier plant that will produce many times more tomatoes.

These are only a few short tips, but they will definitely help you. Learn more about growing great tomatoes, things like mulching, removing leaves and pruning. Here is another book that does a great job of teaching how to grow great tomatoes.