Believe it or not, tomato gardens are actually among some of the easiest gardens to grow in the world. While there is some work that you will need to do, as long as you know the basics you will be able to grow some fantastic tomatoes. Here are a few simple guidelines that you should keep in mind when planning your next tomato garden.
- Type. When first planning out your tomato garden, you need to determine what type of tomato garden you want to have. Basically there are two types that you need to think about. The first kind of tomato garden would be what many people consider the traditional garden. This is where you will be planting your tomatoes in either the ground or in a planter and allow everything to grow up, using stakes and other guides to help with the plants. The other is to create a hanging tomato garden. You may have seen some of these on the television recently, but instead of paying an arm and a leg for one, make your own.
- Spacing. When planting your tomato plants, make sure that you properly space everything. If you are creating a hanging garden, then make sure to put no more than three plants per bucket. For anything that you are growing traditionally, be sure that you don't have your plants too close together. Typically you do not want to have the plants closer than six inches to each other. Any closer than that, and you are running the risk of over crowding your plants.
- Warm soil. Tomato plants absolutely love heat. The best way to promote your plants growth is by warming the soil periodically. For traditional gardens, this can be accomplished through the liberal use of mulch. For the hanging gardens, you can use heat lamps, or even simply having your plants hang in direct sunlight as much as possible.
- Light. Tomato plants usually grow the best under lots of direct sunlight. This means that you will need to locate an area of your garden that will have at least eight hours of direct sunlight. This task is usually accomplished a little more easily with hanging gardens, but it is still a vital one. If you are unable to provide the correct amount of light naturally, consider using grow lights to make up the difference.
- Prune, pinch, and remove. Over time, you will want to promote growth for your plants. The best way to do this is by pinching, pruning, or other wise removing some of the first growth of your tomato crop. Removing these early bloomers will help promote the growth of the remaining plants by properly distributing the nutrients necessary.
- Water. Tomato plants are made up largely of water, and as such need lots of water to properly grow.