Caring for Tomatoes
Tomatoes means summer! I love summer! And I love opening my back door and getting the smell of tomatoes floating on the warm summer breeze!
We eat our tomatoes fresh, we turn some into passata, this year we will do tomato sauce (ketchup), we also do tomato relish. So it's important that our tomato plants give us a good crop. To do this we do a few things to ensure good healthy tomato plants.
1 - Give them plenty of water, but NEVER water the leaves - they will be more prone to burning in the hot Australian summer - thus making it hard for the suns nutrients to get to the plant.
2 - Stake your tomatoes. We put in good sturdy, wooden stakes, and loosly tie the tomatoes to them with twine, every 6 inches as the plant grows. This helps more sun get to the plant, and prevents the tomatoes rotting on the soil.
3 - Sun protection. In Adelaide, sometimes we have weeks were the temperature hits 44 Degrees celcius, so we put up umbrellas, sheets, shade cloth - anything we have to protect our tomatoes from being cooked in the sun!
4 - Taking off the tubers. My dad taught us this, and an old man who had grown tomatoes his whole life taught him! This is important to get the best crop from your tomato plants - the tubers grow in the 'V' part of the plant. So in other words there will be a branch that comes off the stalk, then another branch will grow in that 'V' - rarely if ever will this produce fruit, but they grow so quickly they take a huge amount of the plants nutrients so pull them out! I have put some pictures to show what I mean.
If you follow these 4 simple things to care for your tomatoes - you will have the biggest, juicest tomatoes and the biggest crop of tomatoes, that you've ever had!
What tips do you have for caring for tomatoes?
We eat our tomatoes fresh, we turn some into passata, this year we will do tomato sauce (ketchup), we also do tomato relish. So it's important that our tomato plants give us a good crop. To do this we do a few things to ensure good healthy tomato plants.
1 - Give them plenty of water, but NEVER water the leaves - they will be more prone to burning in the hot Australian summer - thus making it hard for the suns nutrients to get to the plant.
2 - Stake your tomatoes. We put in good sturdy, wooden stakes, and loosly tie the tomatoes to them with twine, every 6 inches as the plant grows. This helps more sun get to the plant, and prevents the tomatoes rotting on the soil.
3 - Sun protection. In Adelaide, sometimes we have weeks were the temperature hits 44 Degrees celcius, so we put up umbrellas, sheets, shade cloth - anything we have to protect our tomatoes from being cooked in the sun!
4 - Taking off the tubers. My dad taught us this, and an old man who had grown tomatoes his whole life taught him! This is important to get the best crop from your tomato plants - the tubers grow in the 'V' part of the plant. So in other words there will be a branch that comes off the stalk, then another branch will grow in that 'V' - rarely if ever will this produce fruit, but they grow so quickly they take a huge amount of the plants nutrients so pull them out! I have put some pictures to show what I mean.
If you follow these 4 simple things to care for your tomatoes - you will have the biggest, juicest tomatoes and the biggest crop of tomatoes, that you've ever had!
What tips do you have for caring for tomatoes?
Didnt know about not watering leaves. We get a splitting problem. Thought it was irregular watering last year. Will try this tip!!
ReplyDeleteThat's right too, not enough water makes them floury and prone to split!
DeleteCan't wait to taste yours! Better get them in! :)