High-yield tomato growing has immense economic importance to farmers across the globe, though it is no easy feat. Pest and disease issues can significantly reduce yields while driving up the per-acre production cost. To tackle these tomato growing problems, farmers need to implement cost-efficient measures wherever possible, keep a close eye on growing crops, and amass reliable data to make accurate predictions about the likelihood of bad weather, disease outbreaks, and so on. Profitable tomato farming requires both trained workers and constant access to up-to-date insight about every crop-related issue, from soil fertility and watering to disease management and harvesting.
Should you Start Tomatoes from Seeds or Seedlings?
Growing Tomatoes from Seedlings When you start tomatoes from seedlings, someone else does the work of starting the seeds and caring for the seedlings for the first few weeks. It’s significantly less time-consuming and you don’t need seed starting supplies or a dedicated space in your home. The downside is that big box stores and garden centers generally carry a very limited number of tomato seedling varieties. However, you may be able to find a wider variety of heirloom tomato seedlings at farmers markets and small local farms.
If it’s your very first year growing tomatoes, especially if you only plan to grow a few tomato plants, I recommend starting with seedlings and focusing on learning how to plant and care for those rather than taking on the additional tasks of setting up an indoor seed starting space, learning how to start seeds and caring for indoor seedlings.
Best Time to Plant Tomatoes
Wait to purchase and plant your tomato transplants until after all risk of frost has passed AND nighttime air temperatures are reliably above at least 10C, ideally 15C. In my 5b garden this can be as late as mid-June. It’s counterintuitive but you don’t gain anything from planting tomatoes before conditions are ideal. They will just sit there and languish. Tomatoes planted later tend to catch up and eventually do better than tomatoes planted too early.
Timing is especially important for heat-loving long-season fruits like tomatoes. I’ve got a dedicated post on getting the timing right for starting seeds and transplanting plants outdoors.
At the same time, you want to plant your tomatoes with enough time left in your growing season for the tomatoes to ripen. This is especially important if you live in a cool, short growing season. Check the “days to maturity” of the variety you are planting. This number usually refers to the number of days from transplant to harvest, so count from your transplant day to the first expected frost in fall, to be sure there are enough days in your growing season. If you’ve got a short season, choosing varieties that ripen quickly, about 55-60 days, may be your best bet.
How To Care For Tomatoes
Tomatoes are a delicate crop, and the harvest depends on the farmer’s care throughout the growing season. Making sure plants have enough water, enriching the soil, and combating diseases and pests are all crucial steps in successful tomato plant growing. Watering Prudent irrigation is essential for healthy development and high harvests when growing tomatoes on a large scale. If you don’t give your crops enough water, their leaves will curl upward and turn yellow. This is typical in the middle of summer when heat and a lack of rainfall cause heat stress on plants.
Remember these two principles for effective tomato plant watering: Focus irrigation on the plant’s base. Be careful not to moisten leaves and stems. Wet leaves are an ideal breeding ground for the bacteria and fungi that cause fruit rot. Supplying water to the plant’s root zone will help avoid this issue. Rely on drip irrigation, where water is not wasted by running off the plants and instead seeps slowly into the soil. Soak the soil deeply — to at least 10 inches (25 cm). If you water the soil deeper, the plant’s roots will also grow deeper. Thus, plants can establish themselves better and grow more robust even in the event of drought. How To Care For Tomatoes Tomatoes are a delicate crop, and the harvest depends on the farmer’s care throughout the growing season. Making sure plants have enough water, enriching the soil, and combating diseases and pests are all crucial steps in successful tomato plant growing. Watering Prudent irrigation is essential for healthy development and high harvests when growing tomatoes on a large scale. If you don’t give your crops enough water, their leaves will curl upward and turn yellow. This is typical in the middle of summer when heat and a lack of rainfall cause heat stress on plants. Remember these two principles for effective tomato plant watering: Focus irrigation on the plant’s base. Be careful not to moisten leaves and stems. Wet leaves are an ideal breeding ground for the bacteria and fungi that cause fruit rot. Supplying water to the plant’s root zone will help avoid this issue. Rely on drip irrigation, where water is not wasted by running off the plants and instead seeps slowly into the soil. Soak the soil deeply — to at least 10 inches (25 cm). If you water the soil deeper, the plant’s roots will also grow deeper. Thus, plants can establish themselves better and grow more robust even in the event of drought.
HOW YOU FERTILIZE YOUNG TOMATOES
After you’ve got your soil generally prepared, it’s time to think about how you want to fertilize your tomatoes at the point of transplant. If you’re willing to run a soil test, the results will really help you make a more informed fertilizing plan and schedule. But practically speaking, most of us aren’t going to do that (at least not every year) so we’ll just make solid fertilization choices for the majority of soils.
Transplant day is the ideal time to mix in either a balanced fertilizer with plenty of nitrogen and phosphorus like a 10-10-10 mix or a more specialized fertilizer that’s moderate in nitrogen, higher in phosphorus and low in potassium - all the way up to a 10-34-0. Or if you did a good job amending with organics like compost, you can just use a low-nitrogen, vegetable fertilizer!
I won’t wade into the debate around organic vs. synthetic today but I do have a 1 minute video showing you how to quickly look up how much of both the good and bad stuff is in your fertilizer in a video.
Now, let’s get back to why we didn’t add a concentrated fertilizer earlier when prepping our soil. It’s important to know that tomato plants take up a minority of their nitrogen - less than 30% - before fruit set. Most of the seasonal growth and nitrogen uptake occurs between the early fruit set and the early red fruit stage. Because of this late nitrogen uptake, the nitrogen needs to remain in the root zone for a relatively long time before plants take it up and this is why adding nitrogen at the time of transplant is more efficient. Compost and manure during soil prep, moderate nitrogen at transplant and small amounts of nitrogen during the growing season is both an effective and efficient receipt that reduces wasted fertilizer.
Mixing in that high phosphorus fertilizer at transplant is good because phosphorus supply is most limiting early in the season, when the soil is cooler and the root system of the crop is still small.
Potassium uptake is slow until the fruit set begins. Up to this point, the plant’s need for potassium is probably covered by the soil. But most of us aren’t going to go out and buy or make a fertilizer with little or no potassium, it’s just a bit much for the home gardener or homesteader. So just make sure you aren’t overdoing it with your fertilization and follow your package’s instructions (or even apply less). You absolutely can hurt your plant’s roots with too much fertilizer, especially very strong synthetics. Assuming you’re transplanting in established tomatoes and not starting them from seed in the ground, the placement of the starter fertilizer can be done beforehand by mixing it into a planting hole. You can dig it into the soil after, slightly offset to the side so that it can be reached by roots growing out of the root ball, but it’s generally less effective.
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