GARDENING BY RICK VUYST
GROWING TOMATOES:
A Beginner’s Guide
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them up. Place them in a spot that allows for sunlight and air movement around the plants. A determinate tomato sets terminal buds, so they stay at a more manageable size, making them perfect for container growing. A semi-determinate tomato is between the two in size. These tomatoes need support but can be grown in large containers or in the ground. With any container garden, remember to make sure that plenty of room is available in the pot for root growth and stability. They’re going to grow!
Plant foods can be polarizing: From Brussels To grow great tomatoes, make sure you have a good sunny spot and have prepared sprouts to beets, celery to cilantro, olives the soil with lots to mushrooms of organic matter. and kale to lima Tomatoes like a moist, beans, everyone If you haven’t grown well-drained soil. If the seems to have vegetables before, try some soil gets dry between an opinion. tomatoes, the gateway plant watering, you are While some likely to have cracking to vegetable gardening. want bacon and and zippering of the maple syrup fruit. They also like with their Brussels sprouts, others would a boost of calcium to avoid blossom–end rather just pass altogether. Are lima beans rot on the fruit, so look for a fertilizer that a rich and buttery delicacy, or do they taste more like wallpaper paste? Some will defend has micronutrients including calcium. lima beans voraciously and attempt to make converts of others. The key is to find foods you love and grow them. You need sunshine, good soil, nutrients and love.
Tomatoes
Remember to look at the tag of the tomato plant you are buying. The tag will tell you if the plant is indeterminate, determinate or semi-determinate. An indeterminate tomato will grow large and not set a terminal bud, meaning that if it doesn’t freeze come October, it will keep growing to the size of a large shrub! These are best planted in the ground with good plant supports to hold
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Another way to ensure good moisture availability is to plant them deep in the soil. You will see the main stem above the soil line on the young plants is “hairy” in nature. Roots will grow from that stem if planted deeper. Pluck off a few bottom leaves and place the tomato plant deeper than the existing soil surface in the pot. This will increase the depth of the roots searching for moisture and nutrients. ■ Rick Vuyst is CEO of Flowerland, host of the Flowerland Show on NewsRadio WOOD 1300 and 106.9 FM as well as Mr. Green Thumb on WZZM–TV 13.
