Tomato Planting
You can start your tomatoes indoors as early as the beginning of March.
Around Memorial Day bring the tomato plants up to the Eagle Heights Gardens to put them in the ground. There is no assurance that in June the weather will be suitable for tomato growing, so here are some precautions.
- Mark out a straight row across the garden plot with a string or eyeball.
- Then about every 18 inches or two feet dig a wide hole with a shovel about a foot deep and a foot and a half wide. Do this for as many tomato plants as you want to transplant. The soil that comes out of the hole is piled around the hole for the time being.
- With the little hand trowel make an insertion deep within the hole, and gently place the seedling in the insertion.
- Gently cover the roots with soil and press down very gently. When pressing down, do not press close to the stem.
- After all the seedlings have been planted, take the hose and water gently, letting the water flow around the hole and not directly on the plant. Soil will begin to flow around the stem, and this is exactly what we want. The hole protects the plants from cold nights and wind.
Around the 4th of July most of the reserved soil around the hole has been leveled off and returned to the hole around the plant. By now the plant is about a foot or more in the ground, and growing all kinds of additional roots. The plant should be thick and bushy by now.
- At this time I make sure that stakes have been put near each plant.
- If there was a warm and favorable June, the plants may need to be tied and thinned. Thinning is another issue. But staking and tying are essential.
- The fruit must be kept off the ground.
- After the first tie take your shovel and turn over the soil in and around the plants and along the path between the rows. Growing weeds are turned over, and the soil is aerated and loosened up.
By mid-to-late July there may be a need to tie again and cultivate again. By mid-August, depending on the plant's output, you may need to tie one last time. For tying I use as dense a material as possible. Old T-shirts cut into 18 inch strips are good. You don't want to use thin string that will cut into the stem of the plant.