How To Grow Great Tomatoes

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How To Can Tomatoes

September 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Select only disease-free, preferably vine-ripened, firm fruit if you want to learn how to can tomatoes successfully. Never choose tomatoes from dead or dying vines for canning. Unripened tomatoes are more acidic than ripened fruit and can be canned satisfactorily. Treat all ripe tomatoes - yellow, green, pink, orange, red, etc. - in the same manner.

Ohio State University makes the following recommendations to ensure safe acidity levels in whole, crushed, or juiced tomatoes:

Acid	Pint	Quart
Bottled lemon juice	1 tablespoon	2 tablespoons
Citric acid	1/4 teaspoon	1/2 teaspoon
Vinegar (5 percent acidity)	2 tablespoons	4 tablespoons

Add acid directly to the jars before filling with product. If desired, add up to 1 tablespoon of sugar per quart to offset acidic taste. Vinegar may cause undesirable flavor changes.

The use of salt is optional in all canned tomato products. Salt is used in canning only for flavor or color protection. Even though both boiling water bath and pressure processing are commonly used when canning tomatoes, pressure processing will result in higher quality and more nutritious canned tomato products.

More information on how to can tomatoes can be obtained here.

How To Grow Tomatoes

September 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Start your tomatoes off by sowing seeds in a seed tray or pot towards the end of autumn. Leave them to germinate in a warm, frost-free location such as a windowsill. If you prefer to grow tomatoes from seedlings, begin at step 4.

1. How to sow tomato seeds

Fill a 7.5cm (3in) pot with seed mix, lightly firm the surface and water gently. Thinly scatter the seeds, cover with a small amount of compost and label the pot. Keep the compost moist but not waterlogged - preferably using a light mist sprayer.

2. Handling the seeds

Once they are large enough to handle, carefully prick out a single seedling using a dibber or pencil, bringing along as many roots as possible. Lift the seedling gently by holding a leaf. Avoid holding the stem as this is easily damaged.

3. Pricking out the tomato seedlings

Take the seedling and plant it in its own 7.5cm (3in) pot of seedling mix, gently pushing it into place. Water it gently and place in a warm, frost-free, well-lit location. Remember to turn the pot daily if it’s on a windowsill.

4. Planting out the tomato seedlings

When risk of frost has passed, drive a stake around 3cm (0.75in) in diameter into a prepared garden bed. The soil should have been turned over with organic matter several weeks before transplanting. Dig a hole a little deeper than the height of the plant’s pot next to the stake, gently place the plant in the hole and firm in; Tomato cages, or trellises can be used for support in lieu of stakes. The tomato seedlings should be planted 45cm (18in) apart to allow the sun to reach the ripening fruit.

5. Staking tomato plants

Use soft twine or special tomato ties to tie the plant’s stem loosely to the stake. As the plant grows, check the ties regularly and loosen them occasionally to prevent stem damage.

6. Remove sideshoots

Regularly nip out sideshoots that develop between the leaf and the stem using your thumb and finger. This helps to channel the plant’s energy into its fruit. Watering and regular feeding with a potassium based fertilizer will ensure a plentiful and healthy crop.

7. Harvesting tomatoes

When the fruits have ripened, pick them by bending back the fruit at the notch on the stem. They can be eaten straight from the plant or can be stored for up to a week in the fridge. Continue to water and feed the plant to help the remaining fruit to mature.

How To Grow Heirloom Tomatoes

September 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Tomato plants are naturally self pollinating and a general characteristic of self-pollinating plants is that they become genetically homozygous after many generations. Since they do not naturally outcross very often, seeds of a tomato will produce plants resembling the parents. Growing heirloom tomatoes was a natural practice long before it was given a name.

Early cultivars did not change much because of this property and were kept in a family or community for long periods of time. Heirloom tomato cultivars dating back over a hundred years are still grown today.

Most heirloom varieties are unique in size, shape or color. Some are black, dark purple, or red with black shoulders, many are green, some have green stripes or are rainbow colored or shaped like peppers. Our course there are orange and yellow heirloom tomatoes and everything in between. Some are cherry sized and some are over 1 kilogram (2 pounds).

Because heirloom tomatoes haven’t been ‘worked on’ by plant breeders, they don’t usually have much disease resistance. However, many diseased can be essentially prevented or delayed by mulching the soil surface to prevent disease spores in the soil splashing up and infecting the young tomato plants. Mulching plus fungicidal sprays mean that heirloom tomatoes can usually be successfully grown in all but very hot humid areas.

Since heirloom tomato varieties have become popular in the past few years there have been liberties taken with the use of this term for commercial purposes. If you want to grow heirloom tomatoes that have been passed down for several generations look for Family Heirloom Tomato seeds.

How To Grow Organic Tomatoes

September 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Tips for  growing organic tomatoes filled with flavor and natural goodness

Organic gardening is often thought of as the preserve of eccentrics who refuse to accept the self-evident truth that twentieth-century progress has transformed the ancient art of gardening. Why fiddle around with compost and garlic spray when modern fertilizers and insecticides are so much more efficient and easier to use?

Opinion has changed and now most gardeners regard organic as the most sensible way to garden as the benefits of twentieth-century technology have come at a price. Chemical sprays and fertilizers have done much damage to the environment. We might not think that we can do much to change the world, but we can take sensible care of the one part of the environment we control: our own garden. And by doing so, we do make a difference, particularly when you add up all the home gardens in the country - and indeed the world - they represent a fair chunk of our environment.

Organic gardening is simply the application of common sense such as people have been practising for centuries. Growing organic tomatoes follow the same principles. It involves digging manure into a planting bed, putting kitchen scraps onto a compost heap, using blood and bone on your tomatoes instead of sulphate of ammonia. There is much satisfaction to be gained from spreading a rich compost you have made yourself rather than a bag of chemical fertilizer. You know that it will benefit not just the immediate growth of your plants, but the health of your soil for years to come. You are working with nature in harmony with her own rhythms.

Tomatoes love lots of compost and manure. Ideally this should be dug into your site at least eight weeks prior to planting to give it time to break down and give good texture to your soil. Time is also required for the nutrients in the compost or manure to be released.

To grow organic tomatoes, spread your compost and fork it in to mix with the soil when preparing a new tomato bed. Around established tomato plants spread in onto the surface as mulch. As it decomposes it will sift down into the soil and the worms will come up and take it down with them.

How To Grow Great Tomatoes - tomato growing tips

September 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Choosing the variety is the first important step to grow great tomatoes. First, consider the climate in your area, this will greatly affect the varieties that you will be able to grow successfully. No one tomato variety will grow well across all regions and planting seasons. You must also consider issues such as fruit firmness, size, shape, flavor and growing habits.

You also need to decide whether or not you want a ‘jointed stem’ variety of tomato. Put simply, do you want a tomato variety that retains its stalk when harvested or one that comes away cleanly from its stalk when picked. Often gourmet and organic tomato growers choose jointed stem varieties because the tomato with its stalk still attached looks attractive to the consumer. However, most non-organic commercial growers and some home gardeners choose jointless varieties.

Another choice to make is whether to grow a ‘determinate’ or ‘indeterminate’ tomato variety. A determinate variety grows to a bush about 3 feet (1 metre) high. At this stage it stops growing and sets a concentrated crop of tomatoes which can be picked over a few weeks. Indeterminate varieties keep growing until they reach a height at maturity of up to 5 metres or 15 or more feet. The fruit from indeterminate varieties can be picked over a period of 12 to 20 weeks. These varieties are frequently grown in a greenhouse. Many varieties of cherry tomato are indeterminate or semi-indeterminate. Semi-indeterminate tomato varieties are often more easily grown by home gardeners. They may require staking and they set their fruit over a longer period.

The easiest way to grow great tomatoes is to start with seedlings from a nursery. Plant your seedlings in a row approximately 18 inches to 3 feet (50-90 cm) apart. If you are planting more than one row of tomatoes the rows should be spaced about 2 feet (60 cm) apart. Leaving adequate space between the plants increases the probability that you will grow great tomatoes that are disease free.

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