The tomato is one of the most popular garden vegetables! If you're looking forward to growing your own tomatoes for the first time this summer, keep these tips in mind:
Plant tomato transplants deeper than they were growing in the tray; the deeper, the better.
Pick a location that does not hold water and receives as much direct sunlight as possible.
Try to pick a variety with as many letters after the name as possible. The letters all have meanings: F means fusarium tolerance, V means verticillum tolerance, TMV means tobacco mosaic virus tolerance, and N means nematode tolerance.
The two types of plant growth for tomatoes are determinate and indeterminate:
Indeterminate means varieties grow, blossom and produce tomatoes throughout the growing season. Because of this abundant lush growth, pruning and staking is recommended.
Determinate tomato plants are relatively compact and produce a full bushy plant ideally suited to growing in cages. The plants flower, set fruit and ripen in a short period of time so that the main harvest is concentrated into a few weeks.
Tomatoes need an inch to inch and a half of water per week throughout the whole season, whether that be through irrigation or rainfall.
All tomato plants must be supported off the ground in some manner to prevent loss of fruit to rots and sunburn. Wooden stakes, placed at planting time or shortly after, are the most common type of support.
Tomatoes start ripening from the blossom end. For the sweetest, most flavorful tomatoes, allow the top of the tomato to get red before harvesting. The riper the tomato, the less acidic it tastes.
These tomato tips are brought to you by Mississippi State Extension Service. Submitted, but not written by Shannon DeWitt