4. Soil Preperation:
With an eye toward transplanting your Early Season tomato starter
outside on April 15th (which is suitable for my growing zone
& may be different than yours), the next step is to prepare
our container. Selecting the container size is important and
related to whether or not the plant is a Determinate Tomato,
or Indeterminate Tomato.
Indeterminate tomato plants produce vines up to and over 6ft
tall, and produce fruit all season long. Since these vine plants
are quite large, it's advisable to grow them in a container
10 gallons or more. A 5 gallon bucket is undersized for an indeterminate
tomato, and better suited for a determinate cultivar. Determinate
plants will perform well in a 5 gallon bucket, but will probably
do even better in a larger container. However, since most people
have easy access to 5 gallon buckets, they should do just fine
for you, as they have for us.
At the bottom of your 5 or 10+ gallon container, drill 2 holes,
on opposite ends, using a 3/8 inch drill bit, to allow water
to flow out.
The trend in gardening these days seems to be to over-complicate
the soil mixture. While this might be fine for an experienced
gardener, beginners should keep it simple. To this end, keep
your mixture at 1/3 organic matter, and 2/3rds top quality organic
soil sold in 1 to 1.5 cubic foot bags under the brand names
of Scott's, Miracle Gro, and Schultz. This soil is a higher
quality than regular, plain top soil which is priced much cheaper.
If you do use regular top soil, use 1/2 organic matter, and
1/2 regular top soil. Suitable organic matter, also sold in
1 to 1.5 cubic foot bags, includes: Peat moss, Manure, and Compost
of various origins. Many gardeners like to buy one of each,
mix them all together, and use that mixture as a their organic
elements for soil.
IMPORTANT TIP!
| Besides the organic ammendments and soil, you'll also
need to mix in 1 to 2 cups of garden lime per container.
Agricultural lime is calcium carbonate which will be necessary
later on to prevent blossom rot, also called bottom end
rot. Blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium getting
to the fruit and IS A VERY
COMMON PROBLEM IN FAST GROWING TOMATOES.
It is much easier to prevent blossom end rot when preparing
your soil, than it is to fix it after it spoils your tomatoes.
Instead of garden lime, you can also use crushed eggshells.
Crush them up fine and work them into your soil. |
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Combine and mix the soil and ammendments together thoroughly.
5. Ideal ph levels for tomatoes are between
5.8 to 7. Inexpensive ph meters are sold in most garden stores.
You can raise ph levels with wood ash or agricultural lime,
and lower it with organic matter.
| 6. Transplant your 6 week old Early Season tomato
starter when nighttime temperatures are above 55 degrees
and a week or two after the last frost for your growing
zone. Dig a hole in the center of your container with a
handsize garden shovel. Dump in some tomato or vegetable
fertilizer pellets (if desired) and a few crushed eggshells
into the hole that you've made. Carefully seperate the tomato
from the container and place it into the hole. (If you are
using peat pots, like the one at right, they can break apart
easily and are biodegrable and you can leave the pieces
in the hole.
Watch the weather for the next couple of weeks and if
temperatures look like they will drop below 55 degrees,
cover your tomato or move the container inside your garage
or shed until the next day. |
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7. A tomato cage or support system will have
to be put in place immediately after you transplant your tomato
starter. It's better to put it in now when the tomato roots
are small, then later on when the roots cover more area and
you have to slide it over the tomato plant.
If you are planting indeterminate Early Season tomatoes, the
3 to 4ft wire tomato cages sold in garden and hardware stores
are going to be too small. Indeterminate means
vines, not a small bush determinate, and vines can easily grow
6 to 8 feet tall or taller. There are many different styles
of cages and stakes that you can use, but make sure you get
one that is tall enough and strong enough to support a tall
plant if you are growing an indeterminate vine tomato. However,
if your early season is a determinate bush tomato, the 3 to
4 ft tomato cages should do just fine.
8. Lots of Sunlight: Tomatoes thrive on 3
things: Water, organic matter and Sunlight. After you have transplanted
your starter into a 5 or 10+gallon size container, and installed
your stake or cage, get your tomato plant in the area of the
yard where it will get the most Sunlight for at least 8 hours
a day, and 12 hours a day is fine too. The nice thing about
growing in containers is you can move your plant around if you
have to.
9. Container grown tomatoes will need to be watered
more than those grown in the ground since their root system
is more susceptable to heat and dehydration from the Sun hitting
the outside of the container. When it comes to watering container
grown tomatoes, keep these 3 rules in mind:
- Always water at the base, directly on the soil, and never
on the leaves or upper stem.
- Water gently and not with a high pressure as this could
damage the roots and splash soil based diseases onto the bottom
level of leaves.
- Water once a day, in the morning, and until the container
fills to the top with water and it's running out of the holes
in the bottom - then stop.
| 10. Mulch and monitor the moisture when the weather
is hotter. Mulch basically means a layer of organic
matter (pine needles, wood chips), inorganic matter (plastic,
landscape fabric) or rocks which keep the roots and soil
cool, and prevents soil based diseases from splashing upwards.
Mulch also slows down the evaporation rate and keeps the
moisture in the soil longer. Personally, I prefer to use
white quartz river rock as this has kept my soil moist for
24 hours and in temperatures in the 80s when the outside
temp was 100 degrees. Click on the thumb to see rock mulch. |
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Moisture meters like the one shown above help
monitor your plant's watering needs. A meat thermometer
with at least a 5 inch stem stuck into the soil will help you
monitor the temperatures for your tomato's roots. When temperatures
get above 90 degrees, fruit production begins to drop off dramatically.
It is the temperature of the roots, and not the leaves and stems,
that matters more.
Fertilizer, Compost Tea & Rainwater
11. After a few weeks, your Early Season tomato plant should
be doing pretty good on it's own. It is recommended that you
fertilize your tomato plant once a week with tomato fertilizer
or vegetable fertilizer. Look for some at your garden supply
store. You can also make a compost tea by allowing organic matter,
either compost or manure, to sit and mix for awhile in a bucket
of water. I prefer 5 gallon buckets filled with rain water.
(By the way, rain water is always 10x better than garden hose
water which is treated, often with chlorine and flouride). Compost
tea is more organic and environmentally friendly. If rain is
in the forecast, place as many buckets and containers outside
to catch as much rainwater as possible and use them. Well water
is good too. If you fear blossom rot as much as I do, mix in
1 cup of lime (calcium carbonate) in with your 5 gallon bucket
of compost tea.
Pruning
12. When your Early Season tomato starts to get about 2 to 3
feet tall, you will need to prune it in order to send the sugars
and nutrients to the places you want, and keep them away from
areas where they will do no good. I could tell you how to prune
your tomato but I found a webpage that
explains it better than I could and they have some nice diagrams
and a video.
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