Growing tomatoes?

Question

Should a new gardener grow regular tomatoes or cherry? Which one can survive heat better? How far apart should i plant them from each other?

Answer 1

I have a brown thumb. But I tell you both are easy.

I plant mine in May or late June. Because I live in a colder area. But in the summer it gets to 100 or so.

I have huge pots of flowers that I place next to my tomatoe plant to guard one side of the main plants. The reason is the tomatoe plant seams to grown straighter becuse it is like a wind guard. And keeps more water in that area because when I water my flowers the tomato gets some. But not to much.

And I like my cherry tomatoe plants in pots. we have birds. So I place a wind chime by them so scare those darn birds away.

I plant my tomatos 18 inches apart to 24 inches.

Answer 2

regular.,just water them in the morning and a little bit in the evening

maybe 2 feet

Answer 3

A new gardener should grow whatever kinds of tomatoes they like or are interested in. That's the best part of growing your own veggies.....you can try to grow whatever your heart desires. As for surviving the heat....as long as they are given plenty of water and proper care, most tomatoes handle the heat just fine. Varieties do vary  tho, so I recommend looking up the different varieties you are wanting to plant. Some varieties grow larger than others....determinate varieties grow to a certain size and yield all their fruit at closely the same time......indeterminate varieties will continue to grow and produce more fruit until the  frost gets it,so if you are container growing I would recommend picking a determinate variety to grow. As far as planting goes...make sure to plant them deep.....they will grow more sturdy if you plant them deep and depending on how much space you have to work with ...plant them 2' - 4' apart. Cages will help tremendously and some varieties will not grow well at all without a cage. Good luck and enjoy.

Here are a couple websites you can browse...they may help you...... www.burpee.com    and   www.tomatogrowers.com

Answer 4

Go to your garden center and get a good variety of tomato plant that is resistant to all the diseases and viruses. The tag on the plant will say "Blah blah type tomato, VFN" or something like that. The VFN means it will resist getting the most common diseases that kill off tomatoes.

When you plant a tomato plant, plant it about a foot to 18 inches away from the next one, and circle the stem with a small scrap of aluminum foil right where it will come out of the ground. This will keep cutworms from eating the plant off level with the ground and killing it.

Put a stake at least 6 feet tall or a "cage" around each plant when small. You don't want to do this when they get big--the stems will break off.

You can then just water it frequently--during hot weather, you'll need to water sometimes every day--but don't OVERwater it. Keep the soil just damp enough to clump together when you pick up a clod of it, but not muddy-wet or sticky. When the tomato plant starts to make new branches and blossoms, you can do one of two things: (1) you can "sucker" the plant for fewer but bigger tomatoes, or (2) not sucker it, for more tomatoes which are smaller. Either way is fine. Some like their plants one way some the other. To sucker a plant, you will pinch out the little branch that grows right in the "V" of the main stem and a larger branch (where the branch comes out of the main stem); this will allow the branches to get larger and grow larger fruits--but you won't have as many of them. You can partially sucker any plant--have both larger and smaller tomatoes on the same one.

Keep the branches supported. If they lean over, tie them up off the ground. This will keep crawling bugs off the fruits and stems.

watch for tomato hornworms--they're large caterpillers with a "horn" on one end, and they are the exact same color as the tomato plant branches--so they are hard to see. Pick them off, crush them up with your trowel, mix the crushed bugs in some water and spray this on your plants for a natural repellant.

When the tomatoes begin to bloom, cut back a bit on the watering--if you water too much at the blossoming time, they won't set tomatoes. Don't worry about not getting tomatoes from the first blossoms, either--it sometimes takes two or three blooming cycles before the plant will set fruit. If it's too hot out, too cold out, too wet or too dry, the plant may not set fruit. Once it starts, though, you'll have tomatoes.

Weed around the base of each plant. Don't let crabgrass get a hold in your tomato patch.

Watch for signs of trouble: webs or bugs on the leaves, leaves with chewed places around the edges, tomatoes with holes and rotten stem-ends or blossom ends. Pick them when they are red--of course you know that. But what I mean is don't pick too early. They will ripen off the plant, but they won't taste as good!

A lot of heat is not good for tomatoes, but they are pretty tolerant of most heat--if there is too much, and your ground dries out too quickly, put some newspaper mulch around the base of each plant--shred up some NON-colored newspaper, or lay some flat around JUST UP TO, but not overlapping against, the stems. This will cool the roots and make them happier.

Don't use black plastic--or grass clippings, or pine/wood bark or shreds. These are NOT recommended.

A good way to grow them is to make furrows that are actually like hills---i.e., raised beds, or hilled beds--and keep OFF these; the ground will be more able to drain off excess water, and the tomatoes will love the fluffier soil.

you can buy something called "floating row cover" which you can keep on top of your plants when young to keep the birds and other insects off, and later when they get older to keep the plants from drying out in severely hot weather. I recommend it highly. All the sunlight and water they need will simply penetrate right through and you won't have some of the problems gardeners have with seedlings.

You can always leave a tomato or two on the vine at season's end and let it go to seed. I had one that re-grew in the same place every year that way---and I never had to do a thing or buy another seedling. These are called "volunteers."  A lot of hybrid tomatoes won't reseed or come back, but the heirloom varieties might!  

At the season's end, if you still have green tomatoes on the vine and you don't want to throw them out or mulch them up, you can do this: pull the ENTIRE tomato plant out of the dirt and hang it upside down (roots up!) in your basement or some other place where it won't freeze with the tomatoes still on it--they wll slowly ripen and you'll have fresh tomatoes almost through the winter!  

With cherry tomatoes, you are pretty much limited to your container. Any tomato can be grown in a container--make sure the pot is at least a foot across, and at least 2 feet deep for best results. A small trash can works well. Tomatoes prefer deeper roots to wider ones. The advantages of any container tomato is that it can be moved out of the too-hot sun, or the too-wet rain, and it can be placed anywhere. The disadvantage is that it will dry out much much faster than the ground. You'll need to water EVERY day.

Don't water during the heat of the day--wait until after dinner, or do it very early in the morning. Never water at night, though--the water on the leaves will not evaporate as quickly and it will promote rot.

Grow some basil, or parsley between your tomato plants. The herbs will thrive there and the tomatoes will love them.

have fun! It's not as hard as it might sound. Once you do it one time, you'll get it!

Answer 5

Usually, beginning gardeners plant tomatoes and are very successful. There is no real trick in growing them and they give a lot of satisfaction and good eating!

Answer 6

I am also a new gardener and I would say any tomatoes are great but cherry tomatoes start turning red sooner than ones like better boys or beefsteak tomatoes. I live in OK and they all can survive the heat if you water them properly. I water mine every night to every other night. Be sure to water right at dusk so the sun doesn't burn the plants. Also I learned an important lesson, don't plant them less than 2 feet apart because they grow fast and can crowd each other.  That's just my 2 cents!!! :-)

Answer 7

dont buy store seeds. buy a tomato and take the seeds out. they will grow better. i own a tomato farm in nj and my son has his own garden, he is 9 and planted seeds for large tomatos and they are huge!

Answer 8

you can pick some tips here

http://gardening-tips-idea.com/

Tomato-gardening-tips.html

http://gardening-tips-idea.com/tomatopla...