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OliviaThomas
October 24, 2023
It is impossible to imagine any garden without tasty, aromatic tomatoes. Most tomatoes are grown from seedlings. You can also grow excellent tomato seedlings at home. To do this, you need to take into account several important nuances; at one time, this article from GardeniaOrganic helped me a lot to understand everything in more detail. Tomatoes are demanding of nutrients and during the growing process they greatly deplete the soil, therefore, it is very important to fertilize the soil with organic fertilizers for the winter to prepare the soil for planting next spring.
Jeremy B.
May 9, 2015
Do you leave a little slack in the string of your trellis so you can continue to wrap it around the plant as it grows?
The S.
August 23, 2013
Great suggestions on tomatoes Amy. I always enjoy reading your thoughts. I just wrote some tips last week such as go by feel rather than color to determine ripeness. http://thesolocook.com/2013/08/20/tips-ripen-tomatoes-how-to-garden/
Amy M.
September 30, 2012
How long do you expect tomatoes to grow in Colorado this summer? Until it starts getting cold (which looks to be heading towards us the first week in October)? Do you ever cover your tomatoes to try to make it through to the next warm spell or is the first time we freeze it for Colorado tomatoes? This is my first year with a Colorado garden and I have hundreds of green tomatoes right now with 38 degree weather predicted in the coming week and I'm not sure if I should pick all the fruit and let it ripen indoors or if I can try to put blankets over it. Thoughts? Advice?
Amy P.
August 17, 2012
This was a great question from a reader, so I'm posting here:
HI!
I live in Denver- I have 6 tomato plants and the cherries have doing well. The smaller tomatoes like the green zebra and plums are starting to grow/ripen too, but the other larger tomato plants either make flowers that dry up and fall off or have no flowers at all! They are all heirloom which I know can be tricky. The plants themselves all look amazing and I've never had this issue. Any ideas on how to help them? I can't bare an end of summer tomato-less depression!
Oh- and I was good at removing those suckers earlier in the summer, but did not think I could prune them so big- so I can do that now and see if it helps. And by removing the green leaves do you just mean nip off lots of the leaves or are there stems that only produce leaves and not fruit?
Thanks! A timely article.
Hello!
Apologies for the tomato delay. Happy to hear your smaller fruits and cherry tomatoes are coming in! Sorry to hear about the fatty heirlooms. It could be a number of reasons, so I can't pinpoint for sure. Basically, it speaks to the plants being stressed in some way - too hot for too long/too cold for too long/watering too much or too little. There may also be a nutrient deficiency - have you ever fertilized the plants?
As for pruning, yes there are stems that are just that - stems that don't bare blossom or fruit. You can take those out! And as it's late in the season, now is the time to start removing any blossoms that are just coming in - there isn't enough time to produce full mature fruit and it's better for the plant to spend energy maturing any that are already formed.
GOOD LUCK!
amyp
HI!
I live in Denver- I have 6 tomato plants and the cherries have doing well. The smaller tomatoes like the green zebra and plums are starting to grow/ripen too, but the other larger tomato plants either make flowers that dry up and fall off or have no flowers at all! They are all heirloom which I know can be tricky. The plants themselves all look amazing and I've never had this issue. Any ideas on how to help them? I can't bare an end of summer tomato-less depression!
Oh- and I was good at removing those suckers earlier in the summer, but did not think I could prune them so big- so I can do that now and see if it helps. And by removing the green leaves do you just mean nip off lots of the leaves or are there stems that only produce leaves and not fruit?
Thanks! A timely article.
Hello!
Apologies for the tomato delay. Happy to hear your smaller fruits and cherry tomatoes are coming in! Sorry to hear about the fatty heirlooms. It could be a number of reasons, so I can't pinpoint for sure. Basically, it speaks to the plants being stressed in some way - too hot for too long/too cold for too long/watering too much or too little. There may also be a nutrient deficiency - have you ever fertilized the plants?
As for pruning, yes there are stems that are just that - stems that don't bare blossom or fruit. You can take those out! And as it's late in the season, now is the time to start removing any blossoms that are just coming in - there isn't enough time to produce full mature fruit and it's better for the plant to spend energy maturing any that are already formed.
GOOD LUCK!
amyp
winegirlnc
August 7, 2012
How do you keep the squirrels (and other critters) away? I've resorted to chicken wire, but it makes it a giant pain to get to the plants for pruning, picking, etc.
aargersi
August 7, 2012
we have to enclose everything in bird netting or deer, squirrels and especially mockingbirds will get it. It's a pain in the rump but it works.
aargersi
August 7, 2012
I have been wondering about pruning for quite awhile, and have read mixed opinions, but I think you have me convinced! My tomatoes are long gone (ours peak May / June and then get completely sunburned by July - time for fall planting here!) but next year I will get after the suckers. What about topping cherry tomatoes? Mine get ridiculous, seriously 10-15 feet tall, then flop over (I have them in 5' hog wire cages that Mr L built) and I wonder if I should chop them back a bit next time ....
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