Growing Tomatoes Naturally

What is the top vegetable grown in home gardens? Tomatoes! The flavour of a vine-ripened, sun-kissed tomato is unsurpassed by anything available in the supermarket. They’re practically different vegetables!

With so many gardeners wanting to grow tomatoes, there are a few tricks that can help with the success of tomato production. The first is to understand that tomatoes love long hot and dry weather. They are native to the arid areas of Mexico and Central America where summers are long and hot.

The short summers of Saskatchewan can often leave much fruit on the plant unripened so choose your tomato varieties carefully. Early maturing varieties that develop fruit in under 100 days can ensure a good crop is had before first frost.  While this used to mean that gardeners were restricted to bush tomatoes, new vining types have been developed that are early maturing. Cherry tomatoes are often a good bet as they tend to produce early and continuously until frost.

Preparing the Soil

Before transplants are even planted outdoors, choosing the right spot and the right soil is critical. Tomatoes need a minimum of 8 hours of direct sun to ripen well. Full sun also helps ensure that dew or any water droplets from watering evaporates quickly and doesn’t encourage fungal diseases.

The planting hole should be dug roughly double the depth of the pot. In the hole is where gardeners can add their fertilizer to ensure a good production of fruit. Tomatoes are medium feeders. Because they are in the ground for months, a sizeable amount of fertilizer is required. However, too much nitrogen will encourage an overly leafy plant that doesn’t develop fruit in time.

Composted manure, approximately ¾ of a cup, mixed into the bottom of the hole, is a great source of organic nutrients. To this, many gardeners swear by 1 tsp of Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate). Still others will recommend a banana peal. And many gardeners cannot do without eggshells in the planting hole.

Which advice to choose? If tomatoes in the past have looked pale, the magnesium in the Epsom salts will help the plants green up. Low fruit production? The potassium in the banana peel will help encourage flowering and fruit set. Finally, if blossom end rot, where the end of the fruit turns black and decays, has ever been a problem, the calcium in the eggshells will be a big help.

Tomato Care

Once tomatoes are in the ground, they require very little care. In the early days, when evenings may still be cold, protecting the young plants with a plastic cover may be required. A four-litre milk jug with the bottom removed can act as great mini greenhouse.

All tomatoes require some sort of support to keep the plant upright and easy to pick. Bush varieties can be grown with tomato a tomato cage while the vining varieties will require a stake, at least 4 ft tall.

Vining tomatoes, also called indeterminate, benefit from frequent pruning. They tend to sucker profusely and although removing these suckers will decrease the total amount of fruit that the plant will produce, the remaining fruit will be larger and will probably mature earlier.

Because they are native to arid areas, the plants themselves are not used to growing in wet or humid conditions. When this happens, fungal diseases can proliferate. Gardeners can exert some control on the severity of the issue by keeping plants as dry as possible. Soaker hoses or drip systems are a much better choice for watering that overhead sprinkling.

Blossom end rot is a common issue in tomatoes grown on the Prairies. While it looks like a fungal disease, the condition actually occurs due a lack of calcium at the growing tip of the fruit. And, because calcium travels in the plant in water, even soil moisture is key to preventing the disease. A thick mulch of grass clippings or compost around the base of the plant will help keep the soil from drying out between watering.

With a few tips, growing tomatoes can be both easy and tasty! If they haven’t found a place in your garden, there’s still time to get them planted so do give them a try.