Let’s talk about planting tomatoes. Tomatoes are one of the easiest garden vegetables to grow. Even a novice gardener can produce a bumper crop with very little effort. With over seven thousand varieties of tomatoes available to the home gardener, you can impress your family and friends with a delicious harvest of mouth-watering tomatoes in wildly differing flavors and several colors.
When planting tomatoes, you want to consider the length of the growing season in your area. If you are blessed with a long growing season, you will be able to make successive plantings of early, mid-season and late-season varieties and enjoy the bounty of an extended harvest. Tomatoes should not be planted outside until daytime temperatures have reached 60 degrees Fahrenheit and soil temperatures are at least 55 degrees. Even if you have succumbed to the topsy-turvy hanging planter craze, you will need to wait until air temperature has reached a steady 60 degrees and there is no danger of frost. Tomatoes set fruit best when daytime temperatures are in the low to mid 80′s.
Soil preparation is important when planting tomatoes. Tomatoes are heavy feeders and like rich soil with lots of organic matter. If you have been saving compost over the winter, this is the time to incorporate it into your planting beds. Although tomato plants can survive almost anywhere, a sunny location with loose deep soil will encourage a long root and a sturdy plant. Adding bone meal or kelp meal to the soil will help give your young tomato plants a healthy start.
If you started your tomato plants from seed or purchased young plants which came from a greenhouse, you will need to harden the plants off before transplanting them to an outside bed. Bring the pots outside for a few hours every day, being careful to keep them out of extreme sunlight. Pick a cloudy day for planting tomatoes in their permanent bed; strong sun may wilt and kill a young plant before it has a chance to develop a strong root system. If you live in a northern area, you will need to pinch off the bottom leaves and set the young plants deeply in the dirt, with most of the stem in the soil. Tomato plants grow their roots from the stem, so putting as much stem as possible into the ground will give your tomato plants a chance to develop a strong root structure. If you live in the south, plant the young seedlings at the same stem level they had in their pots to avoid attracting fungus.
Planting Tomatoes – The Conclusion
If you are planning to stake your tomatoes or use tomato cages, you should install these at the same time as you plant the seedlings to avoid damaging their roots later on. Water the young plants in well. Water at the soil line several times a week, and avoid overhead watering. Planting tomatoes is a fun and rewarding task; all you have to do now is sit back and watch them grow.