For optimum growth, a 2- to 3-inch layer of organic mulch is ideal to help conserve soil moisture and keep soil evenly moist. While tomatoes respond to fertilization, too much can damage the plant and result in poor fruit production. Side dress plants with fertilizer or compost every two weeks when the tomato fruits are about 1 inch in diameter to allow for maximum growth.
Justine Harrington is based in Austin, where she writes about current trends in health, wellness, community, gardening and sustainability. Home Guides Garden Soil Care.
Tomatoes are sun-lovers and require full sun, which means that they need unobstructed, direct sunlight for hours a day, no cheating or skipping. Many people chronically overestimate how much sun an area receives. Determine actual sun exposure, either with a watch or a sunlight meter, before you position your pots. Also, the amount of sunlight that reaches an area can change dramatically over the growing season, so re-check every week or so to make sure nothing is obstructing access to sunlight.
Along with lots of sunlight, tomatoes like warm temperatures. While it might feel like you're getting a jump on the season by planting tomatoes early, they will not thrive until temperatures are consistently warm. If you do want to get a jump on the season, you can either cover your tomatoes with plastic when it's cold or put them on carts and wagons and haul them in and out of an enclosed area like a garage until temperatures warm up.
If going this route, don't forget to harden off your seedlings. Tomatoes are heavy feeders and need to be fertilized regularly if you aren't using a pre-fertilized potting soil. Most potting soils contain very few of the nutrients your plants require to grow and be healthy, so you will need to add those nutrients to the soil or supplement the nutrients already present if your mix is heavy on compost. You have many fertilizers to choose from, but some good options are an all-purpose, organic slow-release fertilizer or one designed especially for growing tomatoes or vegetables , which you can mix into potting soil.
Waiting too long to stake or cage a tomato plant is a chronic mistake. Tomatoes grow quickly, and it is best to stake or cage them at planting time before they grow large and unwieldy.
Container Grown Tomatoes. Penn State University Extension. Growing Tomatoes in Home Gardens. University of Minnesota Extension. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Poor water management creates problems: Due to water stress, tomatoes suffer from physiological problems. The most common are flowering that aborts without fruiting. Continuous fluctuation of water or overstressed watering affects fruit development and inappropriate calcium intake by roots.
During fruit growth, it is important not to fluctuate the amount of watering to the plants because fruits may end up being cracked from inside. Also, rain or prolong foliar wetting would encourage diseases and crack.
Tomato irrigation: 4 watering points that every farmer should know. Kitchen Gardening. Typically, if the soil dries in less than 24 hours, your tomato plants require either more water or transplanting to a larger pot. Full-grown tomatoes grown in containers often require daily watering. The exact amount needed may range from a quart to a gallon or more, depending on the rate of growth, weather conditions and the pot size.
As a rule, watering your tomatoes until water runs freely through the bottom of the pot and again when the soil feels dry to the touch 1 inch below the surface provides them with the water they need to thrive. Because tomatoes grown in the soil can send their roots deep into the soil when the surface soil dries, they often require less frequent watering than tomatoes grown in containers.
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