Meadowwood Garden is pleased to introduce our first Grow Guide for Growing Tomatoes!
Each Grow Guide will feature just about everything you need to know to successfully harvest a healthy and abundant crop of each vegetable. Topics include variety choices, how to start seeds, how to plant outdoors, when to harvest, storage, pest and disease information, how to save seeds, plant history, recipes and much more!
As the name implies, each Grow Guide is designed to do just that — it will “grow” as we discover additional information. Our goal is to have the most comprehensive resource available online for each vegetable variety. YOU can help by submitting your growing tips/tricks and any other information to growguides@meadowwoodgarden.com.
If you love tomatoes and plan to grow them in your garden this year why don’t you stop by our Tomato Grow Guide and take a look?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Very nice guide on tomatoes! Makes me wish I was in a tomato friendly climate again. Thanks.
@ Braden — Thank you! There is probably a variety you can grow in that desert climate — maybe cherry tomatoes that grow fast?
Excellent guide! I have a question – when should you begin pruning the suckers off the plant? Is there a minimum height/size at which you should start doing this? Also, is there a way to protect them from hail? We’re guaranteed a hail storm every summer….
A tip – I haven’t tried this as I’m on my first garden – but some resources highly recomment a red mulch for tomatoes. Any red plastic mulch will do. Here’s a description from Lee Valley – a local tool retailer:
“From time to time research comes up with some astounding results. This is one of them.
When this red plastic mulch is put on the soil under tomatoes, it will increase yields by up to 20% over black mulch, and makes the fruit set earlier. It works by reflecting a certain spectrum of light back to the plants, which in turn triggers photosynthesis to stimulate rapid growth and development.
The research was done by a number of universities and our own tests proved it accurate. It also conserves moisture, blocks weeds and warms the soil to encourage growth. “
@Coldprairie — Great questions — begin pinching off the suckers as soon as you start seeing them. They start appearing when about the second or third branches develop, in height terms when the plant is a foot tall or so above ground.
Hail could be a problem. Do you have any warning when it will be a hail storm vs. a regular rain storm? If you had a warning you could cover the tomato plants with a tarp or other covering, taking care to not break or smother the plants.
Otherwise tomatoes are pretty darn hardy plants. Last year ours survived 75MPH hurricane remnant winds with almost no fruit loss and no real damage except they all fell over!
We have read about the red mulch be haven’t tried it. Tomatoes are so prolific we always have more than we need/can use. In your colder climate the red mulch might make more sense because it will help the bed heat up faster and hold that heat in better. You could try some with it and some without and see if there is a difference — we’d love to know!
This year we plan to experiment with fertilizer and seaweed extract and see if either makes any difference with the tomatoes. More on this as we start getting the plants into the garden.