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organic gardening / articles / Grow tomatoes: Organic gardening tips
Grow tomatoes: Organic gardening tips
Apr 29, 2011 - Charlotte from Peaceful Valley

tomatoes organic garden

 

Let’s hear it for the summer tomato harvest! Get your tomatoes growing organically with our new video on tomato transplanting, culture, supports, and fertilizer.

We have organic gardening tips to make your tomatoes the best ever. We’ll help you prevent blossom end rot and keep the dreaded cutworms at bay.

What’s your tomato story for the summer?

WHO

Who do you want in your garden?

Determinate or indeterminate tomatoes? Get a quick review of these terms and how you can use those different types of tomatoes.

WHAT

What kind of  growing space—container, raised bed, or in the ground? Choose a harmonizing size plant:

* Cherry tomatoes produce small fruit but the plant height can range from dwarf to basketball player.

* For container gardening get something described as midget, patio or dwarf.

* Standard tomato plants will grow a minimum of five-feet tall.

WHERE

Full sun of course (at least six hours a day) . Space tomato plants three to five feet apart.

Somewhere near an easy source of water for the deep and regular irrigation tomatoes love.

Dig into good soil, with liquid kelp or powdered kelp added for slow release of micronutrients. No high nitrogen fertilizer! That leads to lots of leaves that actually signal the bad bugs to “come and get it”. Add Azomite for calcium and more micronutrients—and to help prevent blossom end rot.

WHEN

Plant your tomatoes when all danger of frost has gone. Can’t wait until the last frost date? You can start earlier with our season-extending tools:

* Agribon floating row covers admit light and water

* Mini-greenhouses called Wall-o-Water surround your plants

These tools can make the “local” climate for your plants many degrees warmer.

HOW

How to keep your plants healthy and strong? Train them up on Hortonova trellises, bamboo teepees, or tomato cages. Make that really fun when you use our Duratool Taper to attach the plants to the supports. Keeping the fruit off the ground is a huge step toward keeping the bad bugs away. The increased air circulation also aids the plants.

Protect the base of the plant from weeds with red plastic mulching film, or try the handy Tomato Crater that snaps around the plant to keep down weeds and protect from cutworms.


Solutions: Cut Worms

Categories: Vegetable Starts, Tomato Seedlings, Vegetable Seeds, Tomato Seeds, Heirloom Seeds, Heirloom Tomato Seeds, Organic Fertilizer, Liquid Fertilizer, Powdered Fertilizer, Organic Weed Control, Mulch Plastic, Greenhouses, Frost Protection, Row Covers, Plant Support, Bamboo Stakes, Garden ties, Plastic trellis, Container Gardening, Organic Gardening 101, Urban Gardening & farming


BillCindy Says:
May 1st, 2011 at 10:27 am

“We love the Wall-o-Water - we get 4 to 6 weeks earlier production from our tomatoes! How does the Tomato Crater protect from hornworms? My husband just went to get some gas for the roto-tiller. He asked the lady if she would exercise her ““right to refuse service”” for him so he would be able to put off rototilling for a little while - no gas. She said Nope - sorry my boss wouldn’t be very happy about that! He said Well my boss is going to be very happy that you sold me the gas!!”

Charlotte Says:
May 5th, 2011 at 11:33 am

Glad to hear the Wall-o-Water is working so well for you! Great story too about trying to get out of garden chores grin My typo was saying hornworms instead of cutworms. Corrected that—the Tomato Crater creates a physical barrier for the cutworm. Adult hornworms: pick and discard; if they have white eggs on them leave them be those eggs are from the beneficial insect a parasitic wasp.

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