My Top 3 Tomato Tips
Maybe you have a cherry tomato pot on your patio, or maybe you have 50 paste tomato plants so you're more than ready for canning season.
Tomatoes are one of the most popular veggies to grow because they are so versatile, but proper care is essential to make sure they grow properly.
Here are my top 3 tips for successful tomato growing:
1. Tomatoes need LOTS of water.
It continues to be a relatively dry spring here in Minnesota in 2021, and we have been watering our tomatoes regularly. Upon writing this, we are in our first big heatwave - the past few days have been 90+ degrees. We have been watering our in-ground tomato patch at least 4 times each week during this heatwave.
Tomatoes in pots will dry out quicker, so I encourage watering at least twice a day.
When watering, make sure that you are watering from the bottom of the plant. Tomato blight occurs when dirt splashes up on the bottom leaves, so make sure you are watering as close to the bottom of the stem as possible.
2. In-ground tomato plants will need to be mulched to prevent blight.
We use paper bags and newspapers - both which are compostable - and hay or straw on top. We place the papers as close to the stem as we can and then put a generous layer of hay over the top of them. This will protect the bottom leaves and prevent the dirt from splashing up onto the bottom leaves.
Tomato blight unfortunately can influence the yield of your tomato patch. As the leaves die off it can impact how many pounds of fruit you get from your plant.
3. Make sure you have a method to support your tomato plants.
We use tomato cages to support our in-ground tomato plants. You can purchase them at any hardware store, but you can also build your own using cattle panel. We also have used cattle panel to tie our plants up using baling twine.
Even patio pots will need a support. Some pots come with cages built into them, otherwise you can also put a small cage at the top of the pot.
What questions do you have about growing tomatoes?