Tomatoes are really easy to grow even if you’re not used to gardening. It’s that easy actually that it has now become the most common home-grown vegetable in the country! You too can participate in this easy yet fruitful interest by planting your very own tomatoes in your back garden or patio. Just adhere to the steps below to get going!
Grow Fresh and Juicy Tomatoes in Five Steps
1. Preparing Your Tomato Plants or Seeds
To start with, you need to get your hands on good quality heirloom tomato seeds. Seasoned gardeners might use seeds, but newbie gardeners might want to use plants from a reputable nursery initially to help make the process easier. When you become better at gardening, you will eventually discover ways to grow fruits and veggies from seed.
Now, just how many tomato plants do you require? A good tip will be to have as a minimum 2 plants for every member of your household. This way, you’ll have enough for all. You could up the number to Four if you’re planning on canned tomato products.
2. Raising Your Plants
Now that you have your plants ready, you want to raise them in a warm area first before transferring them to your actual home garden. A great location is in a greenhouse or inside your house by a window that will get enough daylight.
3. Moving to Your Garden
After a month of raising the young tomato plants indoors, you will be able transplant them to your back yard. Here are the specific ways to direct you during planting:
- Select an area that gets about seven hours of sunlight every day. This can be critical to be able to grow great-tasting produce.
- Use excellent soil which has lots of organic matter in it.
- Bury about 1/2 or 3/4 of the plant for improved support.
- Leave 30-48 inches of space between the plants to help fight the occurrence of disease among the tomatoes.
- After planting the tomatoes in place,get yourself a gallon of tepid to warm water and feed it over every plant. Do this at once to keep the plants from going through shock during transplanting.
- Adding adequate levels of slow-releasing fertilizer during planting can also be great for growing new and juicy harvests.
- Cover the stems of the plants with wax paper for cutworm prevention. On the 3rd or 4th week, the stems are going to be much stronger and cutworms shouldn’t be a challenge anymore.
- Cage or stake your tomato plants as well. This won’t only allow you to get more harvests,but also enhances air flow and prevents pests in your garden.
4. Watering Your Tomatoes
To guarantee the health of your tomatoes, you’ll need to water them properly. After transplanting, wait for a week and start giving each plant around sixteen ounces of water daily.
After your second week of transplanting, you’ll be able to water the plants around two times a week. They should get about 0.75 to a gallon of water every week. Increase the amount slightly during hotter days and when the plants are getting bigger. It’s also best to do your watering early in the morning so your plants will be dry by evening time.
5. Maintaining the Plants
Just because your tomatoes are now growing steadily doesn’t mean you can just allow it to be. You’ll want to manage it regularly if you want a steady supply of fresh tomatoes. Prune the plants once in a while and make certain they always receive the correct amount of water and sunlight.
So these are the five basic steps to growing fresh and juicy tomatoes in the comfort of your home. Just keep on mastering this process and you’ll have outstanding produce right away. You can even plant different varieties to provide lots of tomatoes from which to choose!