GardenMaid| How to Plant Your Tomato

How to Plant Your Tomato

Growing from seed.
We will touch briefly on planting seeds outside and then move on to what most of you will be doing. Most of what you will read says plant your seeds outside after all danger of frost is past. Do that and you will have a real short growing season. If you want to try growing from seed outside plant your seeds a few weeks before the last frost date and offer them some protection with a light weight canvas cover. A cotton canvas cover about the fabric weight of panty hose is perfect. You can also start them in a cold frame, but you have to build it first.

Planting Plants
If your plants have been grown inside you need to harden them off for a few days before you plant them. Else it would be like you spending a naked day at the beach without sunscreen. To harden them off; place them in an area where they get an hour or so of direct sunlight and shade for the rest of the time they are out. You can carry them in and out on those warm pretty days that precede the arrival of the true frost free date. Said another way you are looking for the time when the overnight lows are not going below 50 degrees before you plant your tomatoes.

Tomatoes are the only plant that I know of where you disregard conventional planting advice regarding depth. Plant those rascals deep. Bury them up to where the leaves start. Got a lanky plant? Lay it into a trench and just let the leafy part stick out of the ground. Every where the stem comes in contact with the earth more roots will grow. More roots make more plant; more plant makes more and bigger tomatoes. They should be planted about 2-3 feet apart and watered well. Water the ground and not the plant.

You may fertilize the plant up until the time the first blooms appear. Once blooming start DO NOT fertilize any more. Tomatoes do not care for a lot of nitrogen 5-10-10 is a great fertilizer for tomatoes. The way that worked best for me when I had a bigger garden was to make a ring around the plant using about a cup to cup and half of 5-10-10 per plant maintaining a distance of about six inches from the main stalk of the vine. This was about a week after transplanting.

More Articles in this Section

●Tomato Types
●Selecting Your Tomato