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Off & Running: Getting Started, Outdoors & In
by Shepherd Ogden
It may come as a surprise, but there are really only a few steps to growing great-tasting tomatoes. One is choosing the best varieties, and parts of this book are devoted to helping you find those. But there are also a few tips and tricks that you can use to enhance the quality of your harvest, beginning with where you grow your tomato plants.
Laying Out the Garden
Garden location is important, so choose your garden site with care. A spot close to the house—particularly the kitchen—is best. It discourages creatures from making midnight raids at the same time that it encourages you and your family to spend time in the garden, to stop often if only briefly to pull weeds, water or re-tie a wandering stem.If possible, stay away from a "microclimate" that is particularly harsh for your area. In the North, this means avoiding low-lying, frost-prone areas that collect cold air on clear, still nights and northern slopes that hold their snow cover late into the spring; in hot, dry climates, the reverse is true—low spots on a gentle northern slope will require less water and will temper the effects of the sun during the hottest part of the year. The ideal spot—in most USDA zones—is one that receives full sun throughout the day, has protection from wind, has fertile, organically rich soil and is near a reliable source of water.
My first advice to new gardeners is, "Start small." The second thing I tell them is, "Plant in raised beds." Experienced gardeners know the folly of having a garden too big to care for, but many long-time gardeners still grow vegetables in widely spaced rows surrounded by bare ground. Keeping all that unused ground free of weeds requires extra cultivation and lowers productivity on a square-foot basis. If you have unlimited time and space, these may not matter much, but I've yet to meet the gardener who doesn't feel short of both.
If you plant your garden in wide, raised beds, which require two-thirds fewer pathways, you'll need less space to grow the same number of plants. You'll also be able to concentrate fertilizer and compost applications, and since the soil in raised beds rarely gets stepped on, it stays loose and uncompacted. As a result, you can double or triple your average yields.
By volume, productive garden soil is 25 percent air, 25 percent water, 40 to 45 percent minerals and about 5 percent organic matter. One of the basic principles of organic gardening is to feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants, so it's vital to get the soil into good condition.
Ideally, you should start preparing the garden a year ahead by cover-cropping the area. Cover-cropping means growing a vigorous, thickly sown crop of soil-improving plants, such as annual ryegrass or buckwheat, to choke out weeds. In spring, till or spade the cover crop in. If you suspect that your soil is depleted, spread compost or well-rotted manure and mix that in as well; if there is reason to believe the soil is highly acid or alkaline, do a pH test (simple testing kits are available at most garden centers). Tomatoes need slightly acid soil (pH 6.0-6.8).
Once the ground has been tilled or spaded in the spring, the only tools you'll need are a rake, shovel, marker string and stakes. Decide where the beds will be—run them from east to west—and then stretch string lines around stakes to mark the perimeter of the beds. The beds can be any size or shape you want, but their width should be determined by your reach: stoop down, reach forward and touch the ground with your outstretched hand. Don't make any bed more than twice that distance, and you'll be able to reach its center from the path on either side without straining. Length is less important, though I don't recommend making a bed more than 10 or 12 paces long so you won't have to walk great distances to get around to the other side.
Rake soil from the pathways outside the string onto the bed, layering the soil with compost. If your site has particularly poor drainage or thin topsoil, you can shovel additional soil from the path onto the beds, raising them even higher. After the beds are complete, mulch the paths with a thick layer of bark, sand, straw or cinders—whatever is suitable, local, cheap and responsible—to keep them weed-free.
If your garden is an established one, be sure to plant tomatoes where they or their family members, such as peppers and eggplants, haven't grown for at least four years. Tomatoes need rich soil that is not too high in nitrogen (N). Too much nitrogen relative to the available phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) will produce huge plants but few fruits.
Growing Seedlings
At our northern farm, we must grow tomatoes from transplants (if we planted from seed, the plants would be killed by autumn frosts long before the first fruits ripened). But don't be in a rush—a younger plant started later does better in the garden than one held too long on a windowsill. Similarly, a common mistake made by home gardeners who buy tomato plants is to purchase huge, spindly transplants complete with small fruits. Nothing could be worse, since once a plant begins to flower and form fruits, its most vigorous vegetative growth has passed. And the best-tasting tomatoes are the ones borne on plants with the most foliage per fruit.
I start tomatoes in plug trays six to eight weeks before the frost-free date, using a sterile, soilless potting mixture. Sow two seeds 1/4-inch deep in each cell or pot and germinate at 75° to 80° F. Tomato seeds take between seven and 14 days to germinate (bottom heat will speed the process). Once the seedlings have grown their first true leaves—the ones with serrated edges—get rid of the weaker plant. (Cut rather than pull the reject so you don't disturb the roots of the seedling you're keeping.)
Now give the plants as much light as possible—a south window if you have one or, even better, artificial lights (set no more than three inches above the seedlings and keep the lights on at least 14 hours each day). If you're growing seedlings in your kitchen or living room, you may have to settle for the ambient temperature, but research has shown that you can increase the number of early fruits by exposing plants to a "cold treatment": allow the nighttime temperature to fall to 50° to 55° F for the first three weeks after thinning, but keep the temperature 65° or higher during the day.
Other secrets to success? Research shows that you'll produce more sturdy seedlings if you brush your plants. Twice a day, for one to two minutes, run your hand (or a piece of heavy paper) gently along the tops of the seedlings. If your seedlings are getting too large, install a small fan. Experiments by a Canadian researcher indicate that plants exposed to a slight breeze slowed their growth rate.
Fertilize weekly using seedling-strength liquid fertilizer, such as a liquid seaweed/fish emulsion mix (one ounce of each to one gallon water). As the seedlings begin crowding one another, transplant them into larger and larger containers. Each time you transplant, bury the whole stem below the first set of leaves—tomatoes will send out roots from the buried stem—and by the time you set your plants outdoors, they'll have a strong root system.
Moving Outdoors
Just as it's foolish to start tomatoes too early indoors, it's unwise to move them outdoors while the air and soil are still chilly. Tomatoes love warmth. Set them in frigid, wet soil and surround them with cold air and they'll languish. What's more, they won't survive if suddenly moved outdoors, where they must face sun, wind, rain and see-sawing temperatures. To prepare seedlings for these harsher conditions, they must be "hardened off," or acclimated. As planting day approaches, give them a chance to develop defenses by moving them outdoors for a few hours in the afternoon. Gradually increase the time they spend in the open air, until they are ready to face everything Mother Nature can throw at them.
While the seedlings are hardening off, prepare the bed by dumping a shovelful of compost where each plant will be set. I like to toss on a handful of crushed eggshells, too, to provide the extra calcium that tomato plants need. Compact varieties can be spaced as close as 2 feet, but large indeterminates need twice that much space. A week after the danger of frost is past and nighttime temperatures stay above 50° F and daytime temperatures above 65°, it's time to transplant. Incorporate the compost in a basketball-sized hole and set each tomato considerably deeper than it was growing in its pot—burying it up to within three or four branches from its top. The buried stem will send out extra roots, helping the plant take in the nutrients necessary for a bumper crop. Firm the soil and water lightly to remove any air pockets that may remain around the root ball.
Immediately after transplanting, I cover my tomatoes with floating row covers to protect them from wind, sun and temperature variations, and to keep out flying insects until the plants have established themselves. Many gardeners also set a cardboard tube around each stem to prevent cutworms from chomping seedlings off at the soil line. (Half a toilet paper tube works well and biodegrades.) After two weeks, I remove the row covers and set up whatever kind of support—cages, stakes, trellises—the variety requires.
If you're pushing the season—trying to get tomatoes outdoors a bit earlier than may be entirely wise—you should provide additional protection. Homemade shields include plastic milk jugs, rings of old tires and tomato cages circled with clear plastic. Or you can purchase commercial season extenders such as hotcaps or Wall O'Water teepees. But unless you live in a region with only 75 frost-free days, you're better off being patient—wait for the air and soil to warm up.
Once the transplants are well established in good soil, you're pretty much home free. After the soil warms up completely, mulch your plants with straw or dried grass clippings, and water regularly to keep the soil evenly moist. And keep dreaming about the season's first BLT.
Shepherd Ogden, who gardens in southern Vermont, is the founder of The Cook's Garden, a seed company specializing in vegetables, herbs, and flowers for the kitchen garden. A former market gardener, he is a frequent contributor to BBG handbooks and is the author of several garden books, including Step by Step Organic Vegetable Gardening (HarperCollins, 1992).