With the decision to start an outdoor vegetable garden, planting a few tomato plants is a must. Growing your own tomato plants is easy to do and a great way to enjoy fresh, organic tomatoes.
With over 7,500 thousand tomato varieties, there are many different ones to choose from. You might be interested in a smaller size of tomato like cherry tomatoes. Or you might be interested in making your own sauces and salads in which case Early Girl or Beefsteak tomatoes will be the right ones for you. Which ever variety you choose, you can be sure that you will have plenty of tomatoes to go around by the time the harvest comes around because of the ease of growing this plant.
Planting tomato plants in an outdoor garden requires warm weather. Tomato plants can not withstand frost. They prefer to be in temperatures that are between 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and no cooler the 60 degrees Fahrenheit at night. In most places, this means that the weather is ideal at the end of May for tomatoes. Tomato plants should not be planted too close together. They have roots that fill out underneath the soil and therefore need the room. Plus, plants that are too close together can easily share disease and pests. They could also inhibit the growth of the fruit by offering too much shade from leaves that are too close together. Tomato plants should be place between 12 and 36 inches apart depending on their varieties. Types of tomato plants that require to be grown on a trellis should be further part then their dwarf variety cousins. Trellises or cages for larger tomato plant varieties offer support for the tomato vine and helps to keep the fruit off the ground. Fruit that lies on the ground becomes rotten and therefore cuts down on the crop you are producing.
Tomato plants love sunlight and should receive at least 6 to 8 hours of it a day. They also need to be watered on a constant basis. They do well in soil that is moist and aerated. Tomato plants can also be pruned to aid a good harvest. Try trimming one non-fruit bearing branch. These are the branches without fruit or blossoms. You can also trim some leaves so that the fruit gains access to more sunlight. But be careful not to trim too many leaves since it is the leaves that will proved the fruit with the sugars to aid in its flavor. Plus, trimming the suckers that grow in the joint of the branches will aid in the health and the growth of the plant as well. Removing the suckers will remove the energy that the plant uses to grow them allowing the plant to gain more energy to grow a nice crop.
Growing tomato plants in an outdoor garden is both rewarding and simple to do. They are a hardy plant that can withstand the efforts of event he most inexperienced vegetable gardener. Once you have tried a tomato from your own home grown garden, it will be hard to ever buy the fruit from the store again.