Tomaato, Tomoto, Tow-mater, ‘mater…no matter what you call them, they’re good and a dad-gum must in my garden. I just love to make salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, ‘mater juice, well just about anything that has to do with tomatoes. So I grow them. Keep in mind, my good friends, I’m no expert. I just do what I do in my garden to support my tomato habit and I’ll share what little I know.
Tomatoes are a vine from the deadly nightshade family. (Kin to potatoes.) That name, deadly nightshade, should be enough to scare anyone from knawing on the leaves. At least I hope so anyway, they are poisonous. So don’t be getting a hankering for a tomato leaf salad while your out in the garden.
Whether you buy your plants or start them in the house, when you plant them in your garden, plant them deep. Remember, they are vines, so they can start roots about anywhere on their vine. I plant mine up to the first set of leaves. Planting that deep will turn all that steam into some good strong roots.
After I plant mine, I like to put tomato cages around them, build a fence for support or just let them crawl. It’s up to you. I like to keep mine off the ground so I made my cages out of some old wire we pulled out of some weeds. Silly Ben was going to haul it to the dump. But free stuff is my favorite stuff, so we reused the wire for this.
Now for the hot growing tip from my mom…who got it from somebody at work..who got it from…Lord only knows where…
After you get your gold into the ground, take some epsom salt and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of epsom salt for every foot the plant is tall. In other words: if your plant is one foot tall, is gets one tablespoon (1′=1T, 2′=2, 3′=3T etc…) Here’s an example.
Or…if you measure like me…
I don’t care how you measure. Don’t have an OCD moment, like I do sometimes. This is supposed to be fun.
Sprinkle at the bottom of the plant.
Peat. And Repeat. ( I love that joke.) Until your ‘maters look like this.
I’ll do this throughout the summer as the tomatoes grow and the salt disappears.
Okay, I showed you mine. It’s your turn to show yours. Do you have any gardening secrets to share?
What are you waiting for? Leave me a comment and tell all.
Happy growing.
Sandhill Sis
PS …”There’s only two things money can’t buy…that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes….” I love this song.
Tags: growing tomatoes, maters, simple gardening tips, simple life, tomato, tomato growing tip
If fertilizing, be sure not to use a fertilizer (such as “all purpose” or “house plant”) high in nitrogen–the first of the 3 numbers listed on the fertilizer/plant food package. Nitrogen encourages leafing (as will using a lot of grass clippings as mulch), higher leafing usually leads to less fruits. You should aim for a higher 2nd and 3rd number, and low first number….for veggies. For lettuce or broccoli, higher nitrogen is fine.
Never tried to epsom salt. I wonder if I could use it, since I just fertilized my maters my second weekly feeding? Do you think the salt would hurt them being teamed up w/ fertilizer?
Hey Aaron, great info. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing it with us. (Aaron likes to talk garden too. Check out his blog by clicking on his name.)
I’ve done both, but I now just do the epsom salt. If you’re concerned, you could wait until your next scheduled feeding…
Regardless, come back and let us know how it worked for you.
Many Blessings.
Sis
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