Tomatoes: the Queen of the Garden Growing guide

 A guide for growing tomatoes.

Determinate vs Indeterminate:  Determinate tomatoes grow to a specific size, then sets all its fruit, which all matures at the same time.   Theses are typically Roma tomatoes, and commercial varieties like Celebrity.   Most of the popular tomatoes for home gardeners are indeterminate, which means that they grow and continue to set fruit as long as they live.

The best producers are indeterminates.  Cherry tomatoes will grow 10 ft tall.  Giant Beefsteaks will be shorter.

Staking: Tomatoes are trained to a single vine that is staked on a long pole. The pole traditionally is an 8 ft furring strip (1x2).   This is driven a foot into a ground. More recently, I've been using 1/2" electrical conduit, which is solid, easy to handle and drive, reusable.  I've cut it into 5 foot lengths for the base an an additional 2.5 foot length for the top, joined by a simple coupler.

This means that the plants are not bushy but you can plant several of them closely together.

Fertilizer:  Use a garden fertilizer that gives phosphorous and potassium, rather than a lot of nitrogen.  A typical vegetable fertilizer is 10-13-11, or 4-5-5

• Begin by incorporating an organic fertilizer such as alfalfa into the garden bed in late fall when you are putting the beds away for the winter.  Fertilize again in May when they are just starting the transplants.
  
• After you begin to see flower and fruit production, top dress with additional fertilizer to keep them producing.
• I found that adding a weekly liquid soluble fertilizer in a weekly drench was very effective.  I used a kelp/fish emulsion fertilizer mixed with water, and gave each plant 16 oz.  Miracle Gro also has a LiquaFeed Tomato-Fruit-Vegetable (9-4-9) plant food that I mix with kelp micronutrients.
  

 

Pruning:  The lower leaves must not touch the ground.  Leaves close to the ground can transport disease up to the lower parts of the plant, and from there upward.  Removing lower leaves can promote air circulation among the plants, reducing the moisture that facilitates disease growth. The commercial recommendation is to remove all lower leaves up to the first fruit set.  Alternatively, prune leaves from the lower 8-10" of the vine.

Single stem pruning will increase airflow, reduce diseases.  It will tell the plant to focus energy upwards rather than laterally, decreasing the shading of internal leaves. 

Remove all suckers growing out of lateral leaf nodes.  Remove leaves growing in deep shade, that might be growing into the interior of the bed or shaded by nearby plants.  These shaded leaves are susceptible to blight, aren't contributing much energy to the plant, and are restricting air flow.

Harvest:  Harvest early and harvest often.  Don't leave fully ripe tomatoes on the vine.  Pick the fruits when there are still orange areas on a red tomato.  Allowing the tomatoes to go to complete ripeness signals the plant the fruit production was successful and it will slow down flowering.

Blight:  All tomatoes are prone to disease.  A typical tomato planted in April/May will usually develop a debilitating case of "blight" by August and may die if the infestation is too bad.  Properly handled, that same tomato can continue in production through October.

Blight is a fungus.  Those mold spores need moisture to proliferate.  The key is keeping the leaves dry.  This is accomplished in three ways:

1. Water the root zone only, and do not water the leaves.
2. Remove the leaves from the lower 8" to 10" of the mature vine, so that mold spores in the soil do not have easy access to the leaves.
3. Maintain air circulation throughout the plant.  Prune back suckers that inhibit air flow, and train the plant to a single leader that is extended up a pole.  Prune leaves that are growing in shade, interior leaves, leaves crossed by other leaves.
   

 In addition to the planting structure:

Spray regularly with a baking soda solution.  In 1 Gal water, add 2 Tbsp baking soda, 3 Tbsp vegetable oil, 3 drops of dish soap to emulsify.  Shake well.  Apply with a spray bottle.  Once every two weeks.

Planting Calendar

Tomatoes are planted into the garden in May, on or before Memorial Day weekend.  Having said that, it can be useful to stagger your planting so that not all of your plants are at exactly the same stage.  Later transplants are certainly viable, but run into hot temperatures in July and become senescent just about the time they reach full production.

So if May is the pivotal month, our timeline extends in both directions from there.  Tomatoes in my propagator sprout in 10 to 14 days.  They can grow for 2-3 weeks until they are ready to be potted.  They grow out in pots for 1 week and harden off for 1 week with some flexibility built in here.   That gives 6-8 weeks from first seeding to transplant into the garden.    

For my timeline. 

March 15, seed in the propagator

March 28- 30th: sprouts and seedlings will emerge. 

April 1st to 20th: Grow in propagator.

April 21st to 28th:  Transplant into pots under lights, indoors.

April 28- May 6th: Begin hardening off process, setting outside for increasing daylight hours

May 7 -14th:  Transplant into the garden.   

May 15 - 21st:  Grow in garden to overcome transplant shock and get established.

 

May 28 - June 1st:  Stakes established.  Single leader chosen.  Organic fertilizer as a side dressing.  Add compost to hill the main stem.

June 7th:  Spray with baking soda.  Prune suckers from indeterminates. Tie up leader.  These last two, you will do every week.

June 14th:  Liquid fertilizer in the root zones.  Prune and Tie.  Begin harvest.

June 21st:  Prune suckers from indeterminates.  Spray with baking soda.  Prune, Tie, Harvest.

June 28th:  Organic fertilizer as a side dressing.  Prune, Tie, Harvest.

July 1st:  Spray with baking soda.  Prune, Tie, Harvest

 

 

 

Planting onions over Winter

 The thinking is changing on planting onions in the South.  The original thinking in the deep South was that onions are best planted in the Fall and grow slowly over the winter.  But the winter should not become so cold that the plant goes into dormancy, like it can in middle latitudes in Virginia and North Carolina.  The best idea in those locales is to start seeds indoors and transplant when the ground can be worked, typically March 1st.

The key to this process is selecting Short-Day varieties.  (Red Creole, Texas Early, White Bermuda).  These varieties will develop all winter, establishing extensive roots, and beginning to bulb. 

Long-day varieties require 14-16 hours of daylight.  Virginia gets about 14 hours of daylight starting in May and running through August. (The Vernal equinox on March 21 theoretically has 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness)  If you inadvertently plant long-day onions in September, you won't get much bulbing until May and they may be ready to harvest in June.  

You may have to harvest them before they are ready, if the temperatures climb quickly.  The heat may cause them to go to seed even before the bulb develops, and the stalks and leaves will begin to toughen.  If that happens, harvest the rest of the crop and use the white and light green lower parts as if they were green onions.

 Millenial Gardener:

1.  Grow onions from seeds.  (Not Sets).   

Onion sets are started from seed, but then when they reach about 1" they are harvested and dried.  Theoretically, when you plant the bulbs they resume growth.  But often that period of dormancy fools the onion into thinking that they are in their second year, and will proceed directly to flowering without producing any bulb to speak of. 

 2  Use short-day onion seeds.  This is not an area to experiment with. You have to carefully pair your variety to the latitude of where you live.  As usual for the Hampton Roads geography we are on the border of two growing types. Southeastern Virginia is exactly on the line between Short Day and Intermediate Day varieties.  But, because we live in the corner of the growing zone 8B that sticks up into Hampton Roads, we have warm enough temperatures in the winter to successfully start our seeds early.

Find the type that works in your area and always use it.  Yellow Granex.  Red Creole. Red amposta.

3.  Work out the timing of seeding, planting, and harvest.  Yellow Granex matures in 110 - 160 days, so we'll take an average of 140 days. 

Harvest will be in mid-July.  Lets take July 19th as the harvest day.  140 days before this date, will be March 1.  This is when we want to plant our onion transplants into the garden.  From seeding to transplant size is about 6 weeks, so we will start onion seeds indoors after January 15th.

4.  Initially plant with high nitrogen fertilizer.  Then, switch to a balanced fertilizer. You cut back on the nitrogen so that the plant will grow bulbs, not leaves.  The restriction of the nitrogen is critical to a beautiful bulb.

4.  Grow onions in loose and loamy soil.  Not dense or compact.  Mix in 2-3" of compost at the top of soil.  Mulch heavily after planting. 

5.  When you transplant your onions  Fertilize initially with a balanced fertilizer:  5-5-5, 10-10-10.  They should establish in a few days.  Once established, us a high-nitrogen fertilizer like Miracle-Gro to feed them.  When they get ready to bulb, stop the high-nitrogen, and switch to a balanced fertilizer like the 10-10-10.

 

 Onion Seed Schedule

January 15th.  Start onion seeds indoors.  Will need 6 weeks for germination and seedling growth. This will take us to March 1.

March 1st.  Transplant onion seedlings into garden under low tunnels.  Onion plants are hardy to 20 F, so planting out is safe.  Plant seedlings 3" apart.

May 1st.  Thin onions to 6" spacing.  This will give you an early harvest as well as giving the remaining onion bulbs space to grow.  Transplant pepper plants into the same bed to provide shade as the summer gets hotter.

June 1st.  Trim onion leaves to 8".  Spoon onions to give bulb room.  You want the bulbs to be exposed, but not the roots.

July 10th - 20th.  Plan to harvest your onions.  The bulbs won't grow much bigger than this and may start to shrink in preparation for winter.

 

 1870's Homestead

1.  Grow onions from seed and transplant.

2.  Top the onion leaves at 10 - 12 weeks to send growth down to the bulb.  Trim the leaves back to 8".  The trimmings are nutritious and should be used in the kitchen.

3.  Spooning the onions.  Lightly clear the soil away from the tops of the bulbs.  This includes a bit of soil so that the tops of the bulb is exposed.  Give that bulb room to expand. You want the bulb to be exposed, but not the roots.  This allows the bulb to expand unhindered. Thin any onions that are growing too close, so that you have 4" between plants.

4. Onions are heavy feeders.

5. Intercrop with peppers

6.  Shower watering to keep surface roots wet.

7.  Stay on top of weeding, since onions don't shade out the surface of the soil.

 

Onion Harvest:   In Virginia, we harvest alliums from late May through June, but harvest dates vary from year to year according to the weather, and also depend on if a crop is planted in the fall or spring. 

Prior to harvest, the neck region of multipliers weakens and the green tops begin to fall down. Do not water them during this period. When approximately 50% of the tops have fallen, the crop has sufficiently ripened and is ready for harvesting. There is no advantage to breaking over the tops of onions still standing (in fact this may shorten the storage life of certain varieties). Not all the tops fall over at the same time. Harvest the mature onions every few days. Those with tops still standing after 7–10 days should be harvested and kept separate from the rest. Eat them first because they will not keep as well.

 

Perennial Onions are also planted in the fall as bulbs.  This includes Walking onions, which are harvested for their greens, and Multiplier onions and shallots which produce multiple bulbs. 

Plant bulbs from mid October to mid December, with early to mid November being optimal. After sprouting, cover with a 2" layer of mulch to overwinter.

Egyptian Walking Onions can be harvested for their fresh greens and bulbs from fall through spring.  White multipliers are harvested in the spring.

 

Hydroponic Lettuce Farm

 I'm growing lettuce indoors hydroponically as an experiment of actual food production.

Materials:

• 48" LED shop light.  $19 at WalMart
• Electric timer.
  
• 12 32oz mason jars, regular mouth, with rings and lids. $30 at Amazon
• 2" net cups.  Pack of 50.  $10 Amazon
• Rock wool growing cubes
• Grow Big nutrient solution
  
• 2 one-gallon water jugs for mixing nutrient solution
• Paper sleeves to cover the mason jars
• Clear plastic storage container with lid, shoe box size.
• Lettuce seed, Basil seed
  

Week One:

1.  Begin by mixing up a 1/2 gal of nutrient solution at half strength.  Soak 12 rock wool cubes in this weak solution in the plastic storage container, which is now serving as your germination chamber.  When the starter cubes are fully saturated, leave the cubes standing with their feet in the water, just the lower 1/8th inch.  Make sure the solution does not come up higher and flood the seed.

2. Place 1-2 seeds in each cube. The last two cubes will have basil instead of lettuce.  (Keep your unused seeds in a zipper bag in the refrigerator).  Replace the lid of the container to maintain humidity around the seeds.  Lettuce seeds germinate at cooler temperatures so try to place your box in a cooler location out of direct sunlight until the seedlings emerge.  

Germination will take roughly 7 days. Check your germination chamber regularly to make sure there is adequate nutrient solution, so that your seeds and seedlings do not dry out.

Week Two

3.  Once the seedlings emerge, continue to grow them in the storage box until the first true leaves emerge.  This will usually take an additional week, leaving our timeline at 14 days.  During this time continue to add the weakened nutrient solution so that the cubes stay moist, but not flooded.

4.  During this week prepare the materials for the next stage:

• Suspend the 4' LED light over your growing area on its adjustable chain.  Set the electric timer for 18 hours on and 6 hours off.
  
• Arrange 12 mason jars with 12 net cup lids in the growing area
• Mix up additional full strength nutrient solution and fill each jar so that it barely touches the bottom of the net cup.
• Prepare the paper sleeves that will cover the jars and exclude the light, preventing algae from growing in the water below.  Fold the sleeve so that it has four distinct sides as it wraps around the jar.
  
• On each sleeve, Number each of the four sides (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4)
• On the first side, write the date of transfer from the germination chamber to the jar.
• Then, determine what the date will be 3 months later and write that under the transplant date.  This is the expected productive life of this plant, after which we will need to replace it with a new one.
• The seedlings will remain in the plastic box until you see roots emerge from the cube.
  

Week Three

5. Transfer each young plant from the germination chamber to the net cup in the mason jar.  Pack a little filling material around each rockwool cube so that it fits securely into the net cup. (This could be additional rock wool, or hydroton balls, or glass pebbles or pool noodle bites.)  The tips of the emerging roots should reach into the nutrient solution.

Continue to grow in their new mason jars for an additional week.

Week Four

6.  The lettuce and basil plants are beginning to reach a mature size.  Let them grow an additional week undisturbed.

Week Five

7.  This marks the beginning of the harvest period.  Arrange all the jars so that "Week 1" is facing you.  To harvest, use scissors and snip off one leaf on the side facing you. Start with the bottom and outer-most leaves.  Initially, these first leaves will be on the small side, but the plant will continue to grow as the harvest continues.

Week Six through Eight

8.  At the start of the week, turn all the jars one quarter turn so that "Week 2" is now facing you. Then, harvest a leaf from each jar from this new side.  You will gather 10 or so lettuce leaves and 2 basil leaves for your salad.

Each subsequent week, you will turn the jar and harvest a new side.  This gives each trimmed side 4 weeks to recover and put out new leaves.

Remember that it took 4 weeks to bring a new lettuce plant into production.  We marked the end of production date on each jar.  So 4 weeks before that end date, you will need to get out the germination chamber and start a new set of seeds in rock wool

9. When the time comes, instead of snipping only one leaf, harvest the entire plant and clean out the net cup.  Replace the rock wool with a new transplant from the germination chamber.  Replace the nutrient solution with a fresh batch and update the sleeve with the new dates.

At that point, you will be able to continue the weekly harvest rotation.

May in the Garden

At the beginning of May, it's time to check in with the outside garden. 

According to the schedule, the Spring garden should be in full swing.  Seedlings we planted in late March and April should now be reaching maturity and in the process of being harvested.

For the Red Romain and Buttercrunch lettuce, that is definitely the case.  I did a series of plantings about a week apart, and the earliest plantings are fully mature and ready for harvest.  In fact, I have harvested outside leaves as well as one whole heads of buttercrunch.  The red and white radishes have been plentiful as well.  Growing beside them, the onions have leafed out and are holding their own.  Their height is allowing them to thrive, even though the lettuce is crowding them at the base.

The other bed was planted later, with Bok Choi, Swiss chard and Garlic.  Despite  later start, the Bok Choi have grown tremendously from their seedling stage and have put on plenty of major leaves in a short amount of time.  Both of these beds have been mulched with grass clippings to retain moisture and help with weeds.

At the far end of the bok choi bed, I've already planted three peppers and two basil.  While they are not suffering at all, they aren't actually growing and putting on any new leaves, either.  The truth is that the weather is still too cool for summer crops, or has been until recently.  While we've had pleasant days in the 70s, we've had just as many days in the 50s and nights in the 40s.  All the peppers can do is sulk and hopefully develop their root structure.

The general guideline is that summer crops like peppers and tomatoes really won't do much in the garden until after Memorial Day.  That's the  marker for putting in tomatoes.

Inside, the summer seeds have all germinated, but they are proceeding at different rates:

The roma and cherry tomatoes have exploded with growth and are ready to be transplanted into pots.   The peppers are taking their time, as are the big boy slicing tomatoes, who wish the roma would go away and give them some light.  On the right, the basil are holding their own, but in between are some seedling big boys.

At the other end, the peppers have sprouted along with the ground cherries, both of which are growing with modest enthusiasm.

Planting Summer

Just a quick note that I started the seeds for the summer garden in the propagator today, April 21st.

The seeds were:

• Anaheim Pepper
• Carnival Sweet Pepper
• Cascabella Pepper
• Ground Cherry
• Basil
• Cherry Tomato
• Roma Tomato
• Better Boy Tomato

For my raised beds, I only need three of each pepper and tomato, but I planted 5 of each, in case something happens.  I will plant all 5 basil and ground cherry, if they all germinate.

I continued to harvest another cabbage today for dinner.  I added it to the pineapple teriyaki chicken, where it was delicious.  These very successful red cabbages are making way for the tomatoes I've just started.  I'm looking for them to be ready in 6-8 weeks.

Below are the former residents of the Aerogarden, now growing in pots under the lights:

Strawberries

I've been talking about a perennial strawberry bed for a while and this past Sunday I finally got my start.  I had the middle bed basically dormant under a tarp this past winter, and I had planted nothing in it all last year. This spring it was ready for the strawberries. 

At the same time, a new load of compost was ready in the tumbling composter, So i was pleased that I got to use it on this application.  I also amended the soil with organic fertilizer and bone meal.  I planted 5 plants on 2-foot spacing, removing any flowers or fruits to allow the plants to establish well and hopefully get fruit next spring.  The variety I planted was called Eversweet and it is supposed to be everbearing.

Finally, I mulched it with a mixture of mostly mulched pine straw and a few hardwood leaves.  I ran the mower over it and collected it in the bag to chop it up a little before applying. I went with a good thick layer, to help hold soil moisture and prevent weeds.   When the time comes to root the runners, I will have to clear away a little of the mulch to let the runners actually touch the soil.

The area in the back will be used for the Ground Cherries, which are more of a summer crop, like tomatoes.  I am starting them from seeds in the propagator now and they should be ready to plant out in May.

Friday Update: April 17th

Today was a mix of the front yard and the back:

In the front yard, I weeded the front bed with the Japanese maple.  Then I put down two bags of mulch.  The entire front bed will take about 5 bags but my style is to get a good start on it and then use my progress to estimate how many more to get.  This keeps me from buying too many, but it means that I can't get the job done all at once.

Also in the front yard I put down weed and feed mixed with Milorganite organic fertilizer.  Because milorganite is pelletized and very dry, it makes a very good dispensing medium for other materials that have a tendency to clump.  As an organic fertilizer, it is almost impossible to over-apply.

In the Back yard.  I mulched the upper bed with grass clippings, finally.  I had been waiting to mulch it until most of the squares had come up.  I was hesitant to bury my tiny radish seedlings and make it much harder for them to reach the sunlight.  Now that most things are well established in the upper bed, it is much easier to mulch around them. 

The mulch will hold in the moisture, and in celebration I watered both the upper and lower beds.

I uncovered the middle bed and got it ready for planting.  I'm going to start with three strawberry plants on the uphill side of the bed.  The taller ground cherries will be going behind them so they don't block the sun. 

I'm working on two resolutions this summer.  One is to not leave projects half-done.  Like the mulch in the front bed; rather than waiting one or two weeks to finish mulching, instead, just go ahead and buy the mulch and put it out.  Then it will be finished and I can move on to other things.   It seems that I have a psychological issue with finishing things.  I feel more comfortable with things "mostly-done" and I'm not sure why.

The other resolution is to leave the yard in a clean state. I need to get in the habit of putting things away, putting tools away, putting materials away.  Don't leave trash out in the yard.  Don't leave hand tools or even power tools out overnight.  Don't leave waste wood or old concrete blocks lying around the job site after they have been used.  Instead, put them away by the shed so they won't end up broken or in the way.