Growing tomatoes is a significant part of the focus of the garden. The objective is to have a plan that tells you what to do at every stage of tomato production, so that it doesn't crash somewhere along the way.
At each stage of the process, you have a plan and the tools for production, and an eventual outcome. What so often happens is that you don't have one step of the plan worked out, so that the whole effort is disrupted and all the work you've done up to that point is wasted.
Pre-Production
So it's January and you are looking down the pathway of the long season ahead of you. You need to decide at this point:
- Which types of Tomatoes you will grow: Roma, Cherry, Slicers.
- How many plants of each type you will need.
- Then, find the seed packets with the variety that grows best in your area.
I typically grown 3 -4 of each type and keep the seed packets in a ziplock in the refrigerator.
Propagation
Tomato seeds readily sprout in a propagator and can be grown out in 3-4" pots for several weeks indoors under lights. I use the Aerogarden with the seed starter kit.
Tomatoes need to be planted in May. I have a whole post on the timing of the tomato planting but the shorthand is 3 weeks in the propagator from seed, and three weeks growing out in pots. That means I need to begin seeding 6 weeks before I want to transplant them. Transplanting in mid-May means seeding in early April. That gives me the timing and tools for this stage.
Transplanting
Tomatoes need to be transplanted in May. Any earlier and they sulk and do nothing; any later and you begin to lose the growing season. Major disease can begin to be a problem in mid July.
Indeterminates like the Big Boy slicers and the cherry tomatoes need to be trained to poles. I use two-piece poles of galvanized iron. So these poles need to be put in place just as the transplants are put into the ground.
Determinates like Roma need sturdy tomato cages to keep the sprawling branches off the ground. Again, these need to be installed when first transplanted.
Growing
Growing tomatoes need a steady rhythm of fertilizer/ kelp tea, trimming, and spraying of baking soda or hydrogen peroxide to help combat fungus. In other posts, I've worked out what works best for me. As we mentioned earlier, we have a limited growing season to establish the plants, put on the leaves and set fruit.
Harvesting
At first, the harvest of tomatoes is a delight, but soon the major and ongoing production will overwhelm your palate for fresh tomatoes and you need to think about preserving. The classic solution is to can your tomatoes as salsa, sauce and diced tomatoes. If you don't have time to can them right away, you can freeze them in zipper bags, and bring them out in the fall to complete the processing.
Preserving
Tomatoes will eventually be canned. One of the challenges of this step is to know how many cans of each item you will use during the year. For me, this is 12-18 pints of salsa, sauce, and diced tomatoes. Anything more will not be eaten and will hang around until next year.
For the preserving process, I use all the canning equipment, the juicer attachment and all the rest.
Eating
The last step of this long process is actually enjoying the tomatoes. We've been eating them fresh all along but now that they have been canned, we must continue to find ways of including them in our cooking. That means that we need to find recipes that use diced tomatoes, or tomato sauce. We need to use one per month to make sure we eat everything.
