| If I could only grow one vegetable it
would be tomatoes. Nothing tastes better than the
taste of a home-grow tomato. I no longer buy tomatoes in the grocery because they have
no flavor. Tomatoes are easy to grow, there are just a few "rules" to follow to ensure
a bountiful production.
Follow these tips and you'll enjoy juicy and flavorful
tomatoes:
- As always,
your garden is only as
healthy as the soil it is grown in. tomatoes like rich well-drained soil.
Before transplanting, I amend the soil with compost. I
generally mix 3:1 ratio soil to compost. I either add fertilizer designed for
tomatoes or add Epsom salt.
-
 Tomatoes
do well planted directly in the garden or in containers. I do both.
I keep large pots on the patio in which I plant Sweet 100's.
The disadvantage is that these succulent fruits never make into my salads. They
don't make it into the house, I pop them into my mouth.
- When planting, lay the tomato on the side. This encourages
more roots. More roots = healthier plant. Healthier plant = more
tomatoes.
- They do best in sunny, warm locations.
- They do best when you maintain a deep watering schedule.
- Because the fruit is heavy, tomato plants need to be staked, caged
or trained to a trellis. My preferred method is to stake them. I use 3/4"
PVC plumbing pipe and tie the tomatoes as they grow.
It seems to variety of tomatoes is endless.
 I grow
Sweet 100’s and when I can find them at the nursery, I like to grow the pear-shaped
Roma’s. In my backyard I have always had great luck growing the yellow tomato called
Golden Jubilee. It
is rapidly becoming my favorite. To round the crop, I generally plant Early
Girl, Celebrity, Big Boy, and Better Boy.
If I had the space indoors, I would grow them from seeds. Instead I transplant
nursery grown plants.
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