Growing Tomatoes
Now that the growing season is underway you may be well on your way to producing award-winning tomatoes. However, there are some pitfalls you can easily avoid when coming down the home stretch. Here are a few things you can do to maintain a high quality tomato crop right up until the end.
1. Proper fertilizing is important. Use an organic tomato fertilizer for best results. Otherwise use a low nitrogen fertilizer for best results.
2. Remove bottom leaves. When growing tomatoes it is important to remove bottom leaves to improve air circulation and prevent molds and mildew from attacking the plant.
3. Remove the sucker stems. Sucker stems grow in the crotch between the main stem and branch. They do not produce tomatoes and will use energy that could be better used for growing tomatoes.
4. Remove some of the blossoms. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but if there are too many blossoms the fruit will be smaller as the energy needed to grow them will be spread out over many more tomatoes. By limiting the number of tomatoes on a plant each tomato will grow larger and more luscious.
5. Water regularly and deeply. Tomatoes are tropical in nature needing warm temperatures and plenty of water. Keeping the watering even will help prevent blossom end rot.
To learn the secrets of growing really amazing tomatoes check out the Master Gardeners Guide Now That’s What I Call a Tomato!
