Planting tomatoes

[Phawk57]

paperhouse I appreciate the info on the tomatoes.

[mmm...mabeynot]

Originally Posted by paperhouse

The basics, good well draining soil, lots of sun, and consistent watering. Use whatever you like for fertilizer, I use horse poo in my beds so I rarely add anything else. 10-10-10 is my second choice. Remove all by the top 2-3 leaves. Plant it so that those leaves are just above the soil. The stalk will root all along the edge and provide a robust root system. Use lime if you have acidic soil to ward off Blossom end rot. Add 1 tbsp of Epson salt in a gallon of water if the plants are turning yellow. Water deeply and often during production time. Suckers, if pinched, can be rooted in water in a sunny window. Change the water daily. Plant the suckers the same way you would the other plants. For long seasons, it's a good way to continue your harvest well into the fall.

Remember to stake, train, or cage the tomatoes to keep them off the soil and away from the insects that would eat them. And a matchstick (or other small piece of wood) against the stem at planting time will keep cutworms from slicing them in two. Just stick it into the soil after planting so that at least 1" is above ground. The cutworm can't wrap itself all the way around the stalk.

Or you can cut the bottom off a paper cup and bury it about an inch deep with your little tomato in the middle and that will keep the cutworms from
killing your plant.

When planting plants in peat pots make sure the peat pot is under the soil, even if you have to "take a little off the top".
The peat pot will wick water out of the soil if exposed to the air.

[johnny999]

Originally Posted by Snowman27

Dont pinch the suckers. I had tomatoes grow from them. Your pinching off yeilds. If you pinch off suckers be prepared to have 7 foot tomatoes and that sucks when your under 6 feet tall.

If you pinch the suckers so there is just one main stalk you will get less, but larger tomatoes. Pinch them when they are about 2" long and root them for more plants.

[yankeegirl313]

This advice has been great!! I appreciate you all!!

[hotzcatz]

I cleaned out the chicken coop this year and dug a bunch of well aged chicken manure into the tomato patch. We have acidic soil so I sweetened it with hydrated lime. We also have fruit flies so I put a lot of fruit fly traps around the garden. Also added bit of Epsom salt to strengthen the stems and some wire cages to keep them off the ground. It's been pretty rainy for the past month or so and they haven't needed any extra water.

I'd started the seeds in flats so there were small plants to put out instead of direct seeding the tomato patch this year. Since more of the seeds sprouted than I'd expected (almost all of them) I put a couple of the extra tomato plants in the herb garden which didn't get any manure spaded into it. The plants were about 6" tall when they were planted in the garden. Twenty four days later, the plants in with the herbs were about 16" tall. The plants in the area which had the chicken manure spaded into it were about 36" tall. So, now I'm spading chicken manure into the rest of the garden even though I had to actually buy the stuff at the store.

We are now collecting the chicken manure instead of just considering it a mess and we now also have two rabbits who we hope will help with the manure production, too.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Yeah, go ahead and pinch those suckers, you will get a higher yield per plant, also, water just before dark and miracle gro works quite well, about once every two weeks, too much and most of the growth will go into stems and leaves instead of flowers.