Florida Urban Homestead

Tomatoes are by far the most popular thing grown in the backyard garden and they really are easy to grow if you start our right from the beginning.  First off you need to get the soil ready for planting.  If you are planting directly into the ground it is a good idea to test the soil first.  Tomatoes do best in  a neutral to slightly acidic soil with a pH range of 6.2 to 7.0. If your soil is to acidic, you may need to apply some lime, if to alkaline, a great way to boost the acidity is to mix 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water and spread over the garden bed a few days before you plant.   Tomatoes also  love plenty of compost so don’t be stingy with it.  You can buy compost from the store or make your own.  If you are going to plant in a raised bed you can make you own mix of soil.  I like to use 3 parts top soil, 1 part compost, and 1/2  part peat moss. You can start from seed a few weeks before you plant, or buy the plants as starts but you first need to decide what kind of tomato plants you want.  Although they are many varieties of tomatoes, the fall into just three basic

Tomatoes ripening

types:   Indeterminate, Determinate, and Cherry.    Determinate tomatoes grow to a predetermined size that is in their DNA and once they reach this size, the stop growing and produce fruit. Determinate plants fruit tend to come ripe all at once and stop producing.  Indeterminate plants keep growing until killed by frost or pests.  They blossom and fruit the whole season and the fruit ripens at different times on the same plant.   Indeterminate plants can become huge, so it’s a good idea to pinch them back once they reach as high as you can reach and they may need to be caged or staked.   The last kind of tomato is the Cherry.  The Cherry types are smaller plants that produce small tomatoes that can range from the size of a cherry, to the size of a plum.  These are popular in salads.  Tomatoes don’t just come in red either.  Look for yellows, pinks, purples, greens, and even stripes!  Once you have your plants ready, plant them in your garden deep, all the way to the last few leaves.  Tomato plants can grow roots anywhere along their stem so this provides a deeper root system.  I like to add some bone meal to the bottom of each planting  hole to prevent blossom end rot latter on. In any case, keep the soil watered enough to keep the soil slightly moist but not drenched.  Also, do not try to make up for missing a few waterings by dumping too much at one time as this can cause splitting of the fruit.  Feed your plants every 2 to 3 weeks with an organic fertilizer.  if you have a fish tank you can use the waist water from cleaning the tank, or you can use  compost tea.  You can make compost tea from compost steeped in water.  I use old socks or stockings and stuff them with compost and drop them into 5 gallon buckets of water to steep.  I then remove the teabags and pour onto the base of the plants.  If these aren’t your cup o tea, they are many commercial organic fertilizers available.  If the local pests start bugging you, you can use a product like Organocide, or make your own.  Just add a few drops of natural soap and a little sesame oil to a spray bottle of water.  You can also add garlic oil and pepper oil to the mix.  The soap breaks down the waxy coating bugs have and as a result, the dehydrate and die.  The oil also smothers some bugs, especially ones that breath through the skin. the spray wont hurt the plant, but it will kill the bugs and you can use it right up to harvest.   Also, just picking the little buggers off and killing them works well too.  Before long you will have some great tasting tomatoes ready for salads, sauces, and of course the sandwich.

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