Portable Gardening

TEN TIPS ON HOW TO GROW YOUR BEST TOMATOES EVER:
1. Start your seeds early with the freshest highest quality seed,
preferably organic, in a peat-based, sterilized potting medium.
2. Do not allow your seedlings to get stressed by getting root bound.
Pot them onto 4″pots when the first set of true leaves appear.
3. Fertilize your potted seedlings weekly with a liquid feed of fish
fertilizer or liquid seaweed.
4. Move your seedlings on into one gallon pots when the roots have
filled the 4″ pot. Encourage more roots to develop along the stem by
stripping it of the lower leaves, and burying it just under the
remaining upper truss of leaves. Keep fertilizing as above. Tomatoes
will crop earlier if you keep the young plants in pots until the first
flowers open. Otherwise, when you plant them out, they put all their
energy into growing new roots, delaying the formation of the first
flower truss.
5. Wait until the soil has thoroughly warmed up before moving your
plants out into the garden. Plant in fertile soil in full sun, with a
handful of granular organic fertilizer to feed the plant throughout the
season. Granulated seaweed is perfect for tomatoes. Dig a deep hole, and
encourage the growth of yet more roots along the stem, by stripping off
the lower leaves again, and burying the stem just below the remaining
upper leaf truss. Use cloches, bell jars or landscape fabric as methods
of warming up the soil, and trapping the warmth in at night to avoid
stressing the young transplants.
6. Provide good support for tomato plants at planting time. Staking
exposes the leaves to sunlight and results in an increase of fruit
production. Besides there is nothing worse than finding your loaded
tomato plant collapsed on the ground due to lack of sufficient support.
TIP: Pantyhose makes the best ties for tomato plants, as it does not
cut into the soft stems. Cut pantyhose into stretchy strips and use
these for tying plants to stakes in the garden.
7. As the tomatoes grow, pinch off the tomato suckers from vining or
semi-determinate plants. These are the sprouts which grow between the
main stem and the leaf axils. Removing suckers directs the plants energy
to fruit production rather than vine production. Training your plants to
one or two main stems increases the amount of fruit produced.
8. Remove the tip from the main stem of tomato plants towards the end of
August to stop further growth. This will encourage the fruit already set
to ripen. Defoliate the plant completely to assist the fruit ripening;
despite what you may think, this does not harm the plant, but really
speeds up ripening.
9. Do not overwater. A deep soaking once a week is better than several
light waterings. Fruit splitting and blossom end rot is caused by
erratic watering. If you are worried about tomato blight then water at
ground level only, keeping the foliage dry at all times.
10. In fall mulch the garden with seaweed. This will make a huge
difference to your yields. If you are growing tomatoes in containers,
liquid feed weekly, alternating with liquid fish fertilizer one week and
liquid seaweed the next.