Maintaining My Tomato Plants
How are your tomato plants doing? Mine are growing excellently with careful planning and maintenance.
Tomatoes, Solanum lycopersicum, grow on vines, so it is crucial to provide strong structures to which the vines can cling and climb. Some use pre-made tomato cages. I like to use bamboo for the supports. Bamboo is attractive, easy to find, and can be reused year after year. I also use natural jute twine to carefully secure the plants to the bamboo canes. Last week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, did some maintenance to the tomato crop - trimming unwanted growth and suckers, and tying the vines to keep the growing fruits off the ground.
Enjoy these photos.
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- We planted our tomatoes at the very end of May. Some I got from a friend, some came from Bonnie Plants, one of my longtime trusted vendors, and some were planted from seed in my greenhouse. Tomatoes grow best when the daytime temperature is between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. They stop growing above 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomatoes also need full sun and warm, well-drained soil.
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- My tomato plants are always planted deeply. Doing this helps the plant to develop more roots, and more roots mean more ability to take up water and nutrients. The stronger root system also helps the plant better survive the hot weather. This applies to tomatoes planted in the ground, in a raised bed or in a container.
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- My bamboo tee-pee like structures were put up last year and then re-secured this spring. Never use chemically treated wood or other material for staking climbers, as the chemicals would likely run off and go into the soil.
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- Two tomato plants are placed next to each upright stake. With nutrient rich soil and warm days they grow pretty quickly.
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- Here they are just a couple weeks after planting – already looking so robust. In all, I have a 120-tomato plants this year.
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- By the end of June, they were knee-hi and taller.
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- All the stakes are pounded into the ground at an angle, so they touch each other at the top.
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- Horizontal bamboo canes are also secured across all the bamboo uprights. Twine is used at each joint. Securing the tomato plants is a time consuming process, but very crucial to good plant growth and performance.
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- I use jute twine for all the farm projects – everything is kept uniform and as natural as possible.
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- By July, the tomato plants are nearly doubled in size.
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- It takes about 50 to 90 days for tomato varieties to reach maturity. At this stage, it is time for the plant vines to be lifted and secured off the ground.
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- Here are some of the first cherry tomatoes growing perfectly on the vine.
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- Norman wraps jute twine around the entire bed. He does this twice at different heights to secure the plants at high and low levels.
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- They look much better already. Tomatoes can get very heavy – one of the heaviest tomatoes I’ve grown was four pounds!
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- Tomato leaves have serrated, or wavy and pointed, edging along the entire perimeter. Tomato leaves are compound with multiple leaflets growing along a common stem, called a rachis. These leaves are also slightly fuzzy to the touch, which is caused by the trichomes, or multi-cellular hairs, on the plant.
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- At the bottom, each plant is tied to the bamboo stakes where needed. A simple figure eight knot is used. I teach all the gardeners and grounds crew members to use these figure eights, so the stems are not crushed.
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- Each plant is now carefully propped up and secured.
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- Nearby, Ryan trims off any dead or extra unwanted growth to redirect energy back to the fruits. He also removes yellowing leaves to improve the plant’s appearance and prevent disease. Periodic maintenance and pruning controls the size of the vine and encourages larger tomatoes. This can be done every 14 days until about one to two weeks before the first tomato harvest.
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- Ryan also removes any suckers he sees — those vigorous stems sprouting in-between a “V” of the stem and side branch. He removes the suckers beneath the first fruit cluster so they won’t slow the development of the fruit. It also keeps the plant open, allowing for good air circulation.
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- And, in addition to selecting different varieties for different cooking and eating qualities, consider planting varieties with different days to maturity to ensure more harvests during the season. Growing early and midseason varieties will ensure a good supply from midsummer to fall.
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- Maintaining the plants and checking them regularly will go a long way in keeping them healthy. There are so many tomatoes growing, Very soon, we will have many to enjoy. I can almost taste them now.
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