Growing And Harvesting Tomato Plants

Did you know that tomatoes are a fruit rather than a vegetable? Yes, it’s true but most people are unaware of the fact. Tomatoes were once believed poisonous because they are members of the nightshade (Solanaceae) family.

On average a healthy plant can yield as much as 10 pounds of fruit. For a family of four, that’s more than enough tomatoes to feed on for a week. The plants don’t need much space and can even be grown in containers, which are easily moved around.

There are many advantages to growing tomato plants. Growing tomatoes on your own can save you money at the grocery store and ensure the fruit is as fresh as possible. In addition, you’ll know you’re eating tomatoes that free of pesticides and other dangerous chemicals.

When growing tomatoes you want the soil to be rich in nutrients. It is best if the soil naturally contains all the essential nutrients, however If necessary improve the quality of the soil with compost or organic fertilizer.

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Upside Down Tomato Plants You Say

If you found this article then, chances are, you have heard of growing tomato plants upside down before. These tomato plants are also referred to, by some, as upside tomato plants. It is not much of a surprise as to why people grow tomatoes this way, as you will soon discover. There are a great many benefits, and it also creates something a little different in your garden!

Benefits

The resulting benefits of growing your tomatoes upside down include bigger harvests and better quality fruit for you and your family. Air circulation around the plant is improved, and because of this, it results in less fungus and disease problems. Your plants will also tend to remain drier, due to them being more ventilated. Because your plants will be drier, your fruits will be less likely to rot. This method has also being attributed to lowering stress levels of the plant.

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Save Time Growing Tomatoes Upside Down

One popular way gardeners maximize on limited space is by growing vegetable plants upside down in hanging containers. Thanks to the mad scientist experimental types, we now know that tomatoes can indeed be grown downwards (or upside down) from hanging containers quite easily.

This is excellent news to those of us who love to garden don’t have enough space to do so. Now we apartment gardeners can grow delicious tomatoes at home just like anybody else!

Added Ease and Comfort.Even tomato lovers with outdoor space have turned to this innovative method for growing tomato plants for both the added ease and comfort that it offers.

Just consider – growing tomatoes upside down eliminates the need for staking and trellising. The support that tomato plants normally need as they grow taller is no longer necessary. When growing upside down, the weight of the plant just falls naturally downwards towards the ground. Growing tomatoes in containers also means no more weeding!

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Growing Tomatoes – 6 Tips For Avoiding Sunscald

Gardening can be a very relaxing hobby, and becomes even more satisfying when you are able to eat the fruits of your labor. In the process of learning how to produce the best growing tomatoes possible, you may have wondered what is sunscald and are there any ways to avoid it.

Sunscald is prevalent worldwide. It occurs when the tomatoes are exposed to direct sunlight in dry, unusually hot weather. This condition generally manifests itself on green and ripening tomatoes.

Signs and Progression of Sunscald

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Tomato Gardening – The Best Way to Grow Tomato Plants

Now is one of the best times of the year to start your tomato plants. Why, well you want to give them the best start to life and tomatoes need a long growing season to produce a good crop. I can hear you saying, it is too cold or too wet to start my tomato plants in the ground. Yes, I agree for the Northern hemisphere but you need to start your plants off in very early spring to be sure that they are good croppers. This applies in both the North and South. It is just that Spring happens at different times in the year in different parts of the world.

You need to judge when to start your tomato plants and mine go in during January. These will be potted on into larger pots and eventually put into the growing area of a greenhouse in May. This is giving me about 4 months of growing before they go into their final planting position and I would expect to start cropping my harvest sometime during July, probably towards the beginning of July. I will also be able to keep these cropping until late October and this is a growing period of nearly 10 months.

First of all you need to identify the best seed for what you want to produce and there are many different types of tomatoes to choose from. The seed type will also affect when and where to plant your seeds.

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Why Grow Your Tomato Plants Upside Down

Do you ever imagine a tomato being grown upside down? As times went by, gardeners have come up to producing tomatoes through upside down approaches. Upside down tomato plants are advantageous for some reasons.

When you grow tomatoes in a regular way, it will require heavy maintenance of the plants. For proper support, you will require building tomato cages. Regular weeding is also a must if you grow tomatoes in a regular way. You must also be careful of the fruits to prevent rotting.

When you choose an upside down way of growing your tomato plants, you will not worry much about grooming and caring for the plants. Moreover, you can create a visual appeal to the patios, house border, decks and backyards through upside down tomato planting.

How to Grow an Upside Down Tomato Plant

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Growing The Best Tomatoes

If you are trying to produce the tastiest and best growing tomatoes possible, you may have wondered what the difference is between a determinate and indeterminate tomato. Not only does each have distinctive qualities, but, many gardeners agree that there is a definite taste difference between the two.

It is helpful to know how determinant and indeterminate tomatoes differ. The distinctions below can assist in helping you produce the best growing tomatoes you can and enjoy the bounty each plant brings.

Characteristics of the indeterminate tomato plants:

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A Beginners Guide to Growing Tomato Plants

So you want to grow tomatoes? Well the good news is that they are a hardy plant which is (relatively) simple to achieve good results with. The not so good news is that there are a staggering number of varieties and the choices can be a little overwhelming at the start.

So follow these five quick points which will help you get up and running quickly…

1) Start with a Determinate Variety: Although I love my Indeterminates there are a number of reasons why the new tomato gardener would be better off growing a Determinate variety to start with. They require less room, they generally don’t require pruning or staking and most of the Hybrid varieties you will find are Determinates.

2) Start with a hybrid: Hybrid varieties have been especially bred with certain traits in mind, not the least of which is disease resistance. Traditional pure strains may taste better but they can require a more experienced hand to guide them. Fortunately nowadays there are a number of decent tasting Hybrids so you should still be able to find a variety that will be acceptable to your palate.

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Begginers Guide To Growing Hanging Tomato Plants

The problem many people face when wanting to grow their own tomatoes is lack of garden space. A simple solution to this is to use a container for growing hanging tomato plants. As long as you take the time to correctly set up your seedlings in the right container you will find several advantages over traditional tomato gardening.

Choosing the best variety of tomato to grow should be your first step. There are over 700 different types to choose from but let’s look at three of the easiest and most popular ones to grow.

1 – Cherry. This is quite a small variety of tomato and relatively easy to grow. Being smaller than some of their cousins that are grown outdoors they don’t take up too much space and are therefore a good choice for growing in a hanging container. They vary in size from about your thumbnail right up to a golf ball size.

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5 Keys to Growing Your Own Tomato Plants

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.

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