Crave home-grown tomatoes? Start with short, stocky transplants
Tomatoes, the most popular vegetable for home gardeners, have a taste when right off the vine that cannot be duplicated in a greenhouse for the supermarket. Fresh tomatoes from the backyard garden are easy as long as you provide for the plant’s needs.
Choosing a location
Tomatoes are sun-loving and require space for the vines to spread. Choose a spot that receives at least six hours of sun each day. Lack of sunlight dramatically reduces the yield. Each plant needs at least a 3-foot circle of space. To support an upright growing habit, surround the plant with a cage. Even moisture is a must for quality fruit. Mulch applied around the plants will help retain moisture.
Select healthy transplants
The best way to get started is with a transplant. Don’t waste time by planting seeds directly in the garden. Healthy transplants are short, stocky, dark green and 6 to 8 inches tall. Avoid overgrown tall, leggy plants that are stressed in the small container. Transplants are grown in a mass of soil, usually less than a cup.
Don’t fall for the idea that a bigger plant will produce fruit earlier. Larger sized tomato plants found in 1 to 3-gallon containers are on the market but are costly and probably not worth the return on investment. You might get a few tomatoes earlier, but overall production will be about the same.
Planting
Tomatoes thrive in warm weather and won’t tolerate cold soils. When the ground is cold, the plant responds by slowing its growth and becomes stressed. A late frost will kill it. Plant tomatoes after the first of May, or better yet around Mother’s Day when the soil and air temperature have warmed and are ideal.
How to plant a tomato is debated. Should it be planted deep or lay it on the side? Tomatoes are one of the few plants that develop roots along the stem. The theory is planting it deep encourages more roots to grow along the stem and results in a more robust plant.
This is somewhat true. How to plant it really depends on the quality of the transplant. Short, stocky plants are the best ones to purchase and can be set slightly deeper, maybe even up to the first true leaf. Leggy transplants that are prone to whipping in the wind can be laid on its side, covering the overgrown stem an inch or two, leaving about 4 to 6 inches of the tip growth out of the soil. Avoid planting excessively deep as it stresses the root system.
Skip the home remedies
Adding Epsom salts, crushed eggshells, chalk, antacid tablets and sugar to the planting hole are just a few of the additives people have told me they use to grow better tomatoes. While their use is somewhat based on facts, they simply do not deliver the benefits.
Some believe adding these extra supplements will reduce the problem of blossom end root by adding calcium to the soil. Epsom salts are magnesium, not calcium, and by the time eggshells compost down, the season will be over. The sugar? It is supposed to make a sweeter tomato.
It might be a little early to add bacon to your shopping list, but you will have fresh tomatoes for your BLT sandwiches soon enough.
Dennis Patton is a horticulture agent with Kansas State University Research and Extension. Have a question for him or other university extension experts? Email them to garden.help@jocogov.org.