A Garden Guide to Growing Tomatoes

A Garden Guide To Growing Tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the most common plants for the backyard vegetable garden. Popular due to the versatility of their fruit and the ease with which they grow in most gardens, just a few tomato plants can yield a large and delicious crop with proper care and nourishment.

Choosing Varieties

When selecting varieties to plant, be mindful of the two basic types of tomato plants. Determinant varieties stop growing new vines when flowering begins, leading to a large, single crop. Indeterminant varieties continue to add new growth throughout the growing season, producing fruit from mid-summer until the first frost.

Tomatoes are prone to a number of common garden maladies, including verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt and nematodes, but popular disease resistant hybrid varieties are available to avert these potential problems. Disease resistances should be indicated on the seed packet or plant tag.

Tomatoes are also classified by their harvest time, as early, mid or late season, as well as by the type of fruit they produce. Planting a mix of tomato types can extend your harvest season and provide the perfect tomato for every use. Slicing tomatoes tend to be large and meaty, with pockets of seeds. Sauce tomatoes are more solid and fleshy, with fewer seeds. Cherry and grape varieties produce small fruit perfect for snacking or salads.

Planting

Tomatoes are warm weather plants, and must be started indoors in most U.S. climates. Starting tomatoes from seed requires carefully controlled growing conditions to ensure strong, healthy seedlings, but doing so can allow the home gardener to select from a much wider selection of varieties than are available to purchase as seedlings.

Tomato seedlings take 6 to 8 weeks to reach transplant size, and should not be moved to the garden until 2 weeks after the last frost date for the area. Sow seeds ¼" deep in a high quality seed starting mixture, and maintain temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees for proper germination and growth.