3 BOOKLETS GROWING TOMATOES/CONTROLLING DISEASES/ORGANIC GARDENING VEGETABLES $9.95

Growing Tomatoes Organic

Growing Tomatoes Information : The Fruit for the Home

What is the one thing any home vegetable garden needs that isn’t actually a vegetable? That’s right: Tomatoes! This fruit should always be included in the list of your home grown organic delights. It’s healthy, it’s delicious, and it’s easy to grow! Especially with the growing tomatoes information you can find here! Read on and you’ll soon be growing your own tomatoes at home.

How’s the Weather?

Tomatoes can be a bit sensitive to the right climate. They prefer warmer temperatures, something like 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and around 60 degrees at night. Because of this, you may want to try the month of May as your prime planting month.

Let’s talk Space

Tomatoes want a little space between them and the next tomato. This is to ensure their roots don’t start to compete with each other, impeding their growth. They should be happy with about one to three feet of distance between each other, depending on your choice of tomato species. Some of the larger species actually need trellises and cages. These can require even more space than their smaller brethren.

Sunshine (and Water) Brightens the Day

Tomatoes need sunlight and they should get about 6 to 8 hours of it a day. You also have to water them regularly as they need the moist soil to stay healthy. Again, some factors depend on the species of tomato you are trying to grow. Be sure to take that into consideration when planning their average sunlight and water requirements.

Prune for Success

Prune the parts of the tomato plant that do not bear fruit; namely the non-fruit bearing branches and some of the leaves. This should help the rest of the plant get more sunlight. It also makes spotting insects and other pests easier. However, take care not to over-prune your plant. The leaves are important for the final flavor of your tomatoes as they provide the sugar the fruit needs.

Growing your own tomatoes is not only easy, it is very healthy too. You can make sure that your tomatoes are 100% natural and organic, which are becoming a rare thing in market places nowadays. With so many pesticides and non-organic growth supplements being added to your average market place vegetable (or fruit) the idea of growing your own seems to get better and better. So don’t delay! Go out and start growing your own tomatoes.

I live in the Uk & would like to try to grow organic tomatoes this spring/summer.can you help?

I’d like to grow them in pots or troughs and I’ve never grown them before. can anyone give me some tips on how to get started?

You can buy organic seeds for tomatoes, meaning the parents have been grown organically.

Sow in mid to late march, indoors, in a steady temperature of 18 degrees Celsius – centigrade. (65F), in a fine ORGANIC compost that is also organic and specially for seed germination.

Choose a variety that is suited to whether growing indoors or out, and also your preference for normal, large or small fruited. When larger, pot onto ORAGNIC growing compost.

Once germinated, let the seeds grow on a bright windowsill or wam greenhouse. They will not take any frost!

If you move young plants outdoors you need to acclimatise them gradually, so that they don’t get any big shocks. You can do this by moving them for a few hours each day outside, weather permitting. Keep them in a sheltered spot too. A couple of weeks is normally about right for this.

You can buy organic feed – I prefer the liquid type, made from seaweed, produced by Vitax: they produce a few different varieties though I use their general type (green plastic bottle), not specific to tomatoes-but they do a red coloured bottle that is blended for tomatoes. This can be bought from Wilkinsons or most major garden centres. Check their website for stockists.

Your growing instructions will be determined by whether you are growing in a greenhouse, outside in pots or the ground, or even on a windowsill.

Overall –
tomatoes need heavy feeding once they start to flower as well as regular watering – not sporadic, as this will cause fruit to split.
If you use 1 type of fertiliser, then feed about every 2 weeks. The main ingredients of fertilisers are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium. (Abbreviated to NPK on products. Eg. 15-15-10 would mean 15% N, 15% P and 10% K in the mix). Higher potassium (K) levels are beneficial to flowering – and thus fruit growth. You may want to change to a mix with higher Potassium levels after flowering starts. I’m economical and just use the same 1 all year – you may want to do better than that.

They also generally need to have side shoots pinched out, so that 1 main growing stem is left, with side branches of tomatoes.

If you get infestations of insects, these can be treated with non-chemical insecticide or non-chemical methods.
eg. Fatty acid based sprays.
There are also natural predators that you can buy that will kill the predators. Eg. ladybirds, lacewings – which will come naturally or can be bought.

The type of predator will need to be selected for the type of problem, eg. insect or spider type (there are some aggressive ones called Red Spider Mites that suck suck from under leaves). www.crocus.co.uk sell predatory attackers for various problems.

Other problems such as fungus infection can also be treated organically,eg. with sulphur. Or hand picked off, attracted to ultraviolet light and a variety of other methods.

As you’re going to be eating the tomatoes, all treatments will need to be safe for you to eat afterwards -sometimes a short delay is needed.

Come back with more questions on specifics.

Good luck! Rob

Tomato Plants — Plant Tomatoes & Grow Tomatoes

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