If you follow these 5 keys to growing tomato plants you are sure to get a healthy crop of tomatoes throughout the growing season – even if you’ve never planted them before! Homegrown tomatoes taste so much better than commercial ones and with so many varieties to choose from you can enjoy some unique tastes in your kitchen.
Step 1-Make Sure it is Warm Enough:
Before you plant outside make sure the temperature is high enough. For growing you need a minimum 60F (15C) night-time temperatures and 65-85F (18-30C) during the day. Tomatoes need a lot of sunlight for healthy fruit – a minimum of 6 hours is ideal. Find a spot in your garden or patio where where you can achieve these numbers.
Step 2 – Select The Right Plants:
Decide on which varieties of tomatoes best suit your needs and select a disease resistant variety. If you are planting in containers you will want a smaller plant such as the “dwarf” tomato. If you have more space you can go for larger plants like the “beefsteak” variety. You can plant from seed or buy the seedlings from your local garden center.
Step 3- Plant Your Tomatoes the Right Way:
Make sure you have deep soil with plenty of compost. Tomatoes grow best in slightly acidic soil PH6-7. For the best tomatoes you need to make sure your plant leaves receive plenty of sunlight. To help achieve this make sure you allow for plenty of spacing between plants – at least 2ft is ideal.
Step 4-Support Your Plants as they Grow Larger:
If you want to grow the most tomatoes you will need to provide some sort of support to your plant as it grows up. This is known as “staking”. A simple method involves hammering a post into the ground next to your plant and tying the stem to the post as it grows. This gets more sunlight to the leaves and gets your tomatoes off the ground so they don’t start to rot.
Step 5-Pruning,Watering and Fertilizing Will Make Your Tomatoes Sweeter and Juicier:
Pruning branches with no fruit on your plant regularly will help channel more energy into fruit producing branches for healthier tomatoes. Water your plants regularly – if the first inch of soil is dry then it is time for watering. Finally, your plant will consume a lot of soil nutrients – applying a fresh layer of fertilizer every 3 to 4 weeks will keep your plant performing for the whole season.
Follow these 5 simple steps for the tomato growing season you are sure to produce piles of juicy homegrown tomatoes to stock your kitchen with.