growing your own tomatoes

[forestdale]

Tomatoes are one of the easiest frugal foods to grow from seed.  I’ll assume that everyone will check their own zones and conditions and will know when to plant the seeds, but for me and many others, March is around the right time.

Buy good quality seeds, open pollinated, non-hybrid seeds are far superior and you’ll be able to save seed at the end of the growing season and use it next year.  So spend a little money to get the best seeds you can.  It’s an investment in your food supply.

PLANTING TOMATO SEEDS 

1. Take a container and fill it with a good quality potting soil.  You can use either potting soil, a seed raising mix or soil and vermiculite mixed together thoroughly.  I use potting soil to fill the pot and I cover the seeds with a little seed raising mix or potting soil that I’ve sieved to remove the lumps.
   
   
   
   
2. Sprinkle the seeds lightly over the slightly moistened soil, firm in lightly with your fingers and cover thinly with a little seed raising mix or fine potting soil.  Moisten  the pot a little with a very gentle spray – you don’t want to dislodge the seeds or shoot them out the side of the pot.
   
   
   
   
3. Cover the container with a clear  plastic bag and place in a warm position.   Tomatoes don’t have to be outside to germinate.  Their main requirements are moisture and warmth from below.  If it’s still too cold outside, place your container on a few sheets of newspaper and put it on top of any warm surface.  SAFETY WARNING: When you need to add moisture to your container, remove the container from any electrical appliances.  When all the moisture has been absorbed and is not dripping at all, return it to its warm spot.  If you have no warm spots, try half filling a hot water bottle with hot tap water twice a day and placing the container on that.
   
   
   
   
4. Wait and watch.   [/list]
   
   
   

   In a subtropical climate your seeds will germinate and emerge in 4 or 5 days.  In colder climates it will take longer, sometimes up to 2 or 3 weeks.  Tomato seeds germinate fastest around 25C. fficeffice" />
   
   When the seedlings emerge and they are too close together, pull out the ones you think are the weakest.  Keep the soil moist.  When the plants are around 2 inches high, they are ready to be hardened off in preparation for planting in the garden.  At this stage, take them to a sunny spot – outside if it’s warm enough – and let then sit and strengthen in the sun.  If you think it will be a while yet before you can plant out, now is the time to pot your seedlings on to a larger pot that they alone are in.  A pot maybe 3 inches wide is fine, fill it with potting soil and gently transfer the seedling.  Water in gently and leave the plants in the sun in a sheltered position.  Bring them inside if the weather is still too cold.
   When the weather is warm enough for you to plant out, or when the tomato plants are around 5 inches high they can be planted in the garden. 
    
   
   PLANTING TOMATOES IN THE GARDEN
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
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     Decide what you’ll use for stakes or support and get those in before you plant your tomatoes.  Doing it later will disturb the delicate roots.
     You’ll have to find out the width of your particular tomatoes at full size and plant them according to their width.  They shouldn’t be touching but can be almost touching.
     
     
     
     

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     Take your seedlings to the garden and water them well about one hour before you plant them out. 
     
     
     
     

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     Dig enough holes for the number of tomatoes you have and put a good handful of compost straight into the hole. 
     
     
     
     

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     Remove the two bottom leaves from each seedling. 
     
     
     
     

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     Tap the seedling out gently and place it in its hole burying the stem right up to the lower leaves.  Burying the stem encourages the tomato to send out new roots along the stem and you’ll get a much stronger plant capable of producing more tomatoes.  Mulch around the base with a little more compost and apply a sprinkling of Sulphate of Potash.  This is an organic compound that will help the plant to set flowers and more of them. 
     
     
     
     

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     Water the plant in well, making sure you don’t water from the top.  Tomatoes only need water on their root ball.  Watering the leaves encourages viral and bacterial disease.  
     
      Just a short word on fertilizing.  If you have good rich soil, your tomatoes won’t need fertilizing.  They don’t need a lot of fertilizer and giving them too much nitrogen will make them produce lots of leaves and no, or little, tomatoes. They like rich soil with a lot of organic matter or compost.  However, if your soil is depleted, add a handful of organic nitrogen fertilizer to the soil around the plant.  The single thing that will make a huge difference to your tomato plants is the addition of manure to the garden, so if you’re adding manure – horse, chicken, sheep, cow, make sure you do it well before the tomatoes go in so the manure breaks down a little first.
     
     I'll add to this tomorrow with some photos of my tomato seedlings after I plant them on this afternoon.
     [/list][/list]
     

     I've tried to edit the above but those changes in font and the office thing won't go.   I wrote this in Word, so next time I know to write straight into the thread.

[cmu]

Wow! Thanks a bunch. This will come in handy, I really want to get into gardening this year (I hope I can at least do some container Gardening...we are moving soon)

[Dedlered]

Thanks Rhonda!!

[Mom23boys]

Thank you Rhonda for this info. Tomatoes are on my list of items to plant this year!!

[forestdale]

This is the second installment of tomato growing.  I'm going to add a few photos I took as I potted my seedlings on.  I do this when they are around 2 - 3 inches high because I've found that by giving each tomato its own pot to develop strong roots before it's planted in the garden, I get healthier plants capable of withstanding most conditions and they always produce earlier fruit. 

I use standard potting soil in this procedure and add about a 1/4 teaspoon of Sulphate of Potash to each pot.  I sprinkle some more soil on top of the potash so the roots don't directly touch it.

I give the plants another couple of weeks in these pots and then I plant them, complete with all their potting mix so I don't disturb the roots. 

I have 32 plants here.  Some might die in the next two weeks, some won't be strong enough to plant.  I always make sure I have too many plants as you never know what will happen along the way.  One year my cat was chased by a neighbour's dog, she ran into the greenhouse and scattered and broke every tomato plant I had - I planted 10 that year.  Since then I've always done up more than I need.  If all survive and all are healthy, I'll give some to the neighbours.

First photo is the tomato seedlings at age two weeks in their seedling tray.  You'll notice I have a few seeds in each cell.  I do this because I know I'll divide them up.  If I were to leave the tomatoes in this seedling tray until they were ready to plant, I'd plant two per cell and discard the weaker one.

[forestdale]

Step1 - gather your equipment.  I'm using a variety of pots, but mostly a long, black seedling pot about 2 inches across.  The other small pots there are about 4 inches across.  You don't want to use anything too big.

I also have a bag of Sulphate of Potash (organic) and my potting mix.  I'm standing the smaller black pots in a larger pot to hold them while I pot, so I also have that.

[forestdale]

When you have everything ready, pinch the bottom of the seedling cell and try to flop the seedlings onto your hand without damaging or touching the roots.  Notice how fragile the roots are?  You shouldn't touch them at this point.

[forestdale]

Fill your pots half full with mix and place one seedling on the top of each pot.  When you separate the tomatoes, try to be as gentle as you can be.

[forestdale]

Then cover the tomatoes with potting soil and firm them down.  Not too tightly, just enough to ensure they don't flop over and can stand up alone.

[forestdale]

This is the Sulphate of Potash I used.  I'd never grow tomatoes without it.  It's completely organic.

[forestdale]

Finally, gather all your pots together and water them thoroughly but gently.  Then place them in a sunny, warm sheltered potition and let them harden off before you plant them into the garden.  These should more than double in size in two weeks.  Make sure you water them every day if they dry out.  The quickest thing that will kill your seedlings is lack of water.

I hope I've given you enough info to help you with your tomatoes this year.  They really are one of the best things to grow as they taste a million times better than store bought ones, they are lovely eaten fresh or cooked and you can process them in jars for eating later in the year.

[jlxian]

Rhonda, thanks for the tips. I was not aware of the Sulphate of Potash product -- I will look for this at the garden center. I knew that of the N P K elements in fertilizer the P or Potassium was for flower production -- is this the same element? Sounds like great stuff!

[forestdale]

Jean, complete garden fertilizer contains the elements N P and K
N = Nitrogen, which is necessary for strong leaf growth and will promote new green shoots and leaves.
P = Phosphorus which gives you a healthy root system and helps new plants establish.
K = Potassium oxide = potash, which promotes flowers and fruit and a healthy root system.

Here's an online ad for potash:
http://www.terradisiac.com/products....openparent=125

[jlxian]

Oops I kinda had it switched around. Thanks for straightening me out, Rhonda.