Random: tomato plants

[lostinfaith225]

Hello! I have a random question for ladies with a green thumb. I have a plant box on my deck....if I wanted to plant tomatoes, what time of year is best? What do I need?

I am clueless!

Paging cabbagecabbage !

[cabbagecabbage]

Haha. I will tell you I'm not the best tomato gardener but I grow them every year. You will need either to buy plants later in spring or start seeds around now. Tomatoes like deep soil, so I'd only put them in a deep box. They like a lot of sun and big waterings that get down to the deep roots. They grow tall and big, so ample space. They aren't strong plants, so cages or posts you can tie them to are important too.

When you plant them, plant them deep. Bury the bottom set of leaves and they will become roots and make a stronger plant. I always sprinkle a crushed eggshell in the hole first too.

[TheTuna15]

I do mainly tomatoes. If this is your first year doing them, definitely buy the plants. Seeds don't take unless you have heat mats/grow light/etc. Around Mother's Day you'll start seeing smaller plants that you can buy. But your container for tomatoes should be at least 18" deep. You can get away with 12" but then you need to buy something like a "tiny Tim" variety, which is determinate and produces smaller cherry tomatoes. Either way, in a box I would still recommend a determinate bush variety type of tomato.

When you get the plant, I usually throw some crushed eggshells to keep grubs away and a teaspoon of Epsom salt at the bottom of the hole. Bury deep. If there's leaves toward the bottom, cut them off and bury part of the stem. If leaves get soggy, you can get rot. You never want leaves touching soil. Never water in the middle of the day. Best time is in the morning and you want to directly water roots. Like avoid wetting leaves at all. Also, it wouldn't hurt to put a small basil plant near the tomatoes. It keeps away aphids and enhances the taste of tomatoes.

Any other questions let me know. I've been doing tomatoes since I was a kid. Many many moons ago. Haha

[lostinfaith225]

Thanks ladies!!! I am not sure if I am going to start this year or next when I am not pregnant. I do want to try!!

[lostinfaith225]

There are so many details I didn't think about!

[Ray]

Also - peat moss is like crack for tomatoes. If you mix some peat into your soil you will have more tomatoes than you j ow what to do with lol +1 for them needing a lot of sun and water.

[lostinfaith225]

I'll have to measure the box tomorrow. It is attached to our deck. Maybe I should start with cherry tomatoes and work my way up! Haha

[housecarder]

There is a tomato thread on parenting too right now. I have no advice, #blackthumb

[harlowjune1984]

We do a large garden every year, and I agree....go for the tomato starts. Starting from seeds if you don't have a lot of space (or greenhouse) blows. My husband always wants to start from seeds, so that means little containers everywhere in our house during the crappy parts of the season, and moving them in and out of the house on nice days. Then replanting them each time they start to outgrow their container. Starting from seeds is the part I hate the most about having a garden.

TheTuna15, pretty much summed up everything else I was going to say.

[allison7]

I have done tomatoes before and I find the cherry tomatoes to be the most forgiving. Something like the sweet100s. You will get a gazillion of them and the plants are better to learn on than some of the finickier.

[harlowjune1984]

lostinfaith225, the other thing that you can do which is pretty easy, if you like salsa, is tomatillos. Every year we do about 10 plants, and we hardly have to do anything to them, but add supports, just like the tomatoes. After they are ready for picking, we roast them for a bit on our BBQ, and put them in the food processor with some cilantro, jalapeño, and onion to make green salsa (we do huge batches so we end up canning it to eat throughout the year).