Want fewer troubles with your tomatoes? Consider these ten tips:
- Choose the right location: Tomatoes need at least six hours of direct sunlight a day. Leave plenty of space between plants for good circulation; staking plants also helps.
- Rotate crops: Many disease spores can live in the soil for years. Don’t grow tomatoes or related plants like peppers and eggplants in the same spot year after year. If you can’t rotate crops, plant tomatoes in large containers and change the soil annually. More on crop rotation and plant families.
- Improve soil: Get tomatoes off to a good start by planting them in well-drained, weed-free soil that’s enriched with organic matter like well-rotted compost.
- Water correctly: Deep, slow watering encourages good root formation and is better than short, frequent irrigation. Use soaker hoses or drip irrigation systems to avoid wetting foliage, which can lead to fungal diseases. Water early so plants dry before evening. By keeping moisture levels consistent, you’ll help prevent problems like blossom-end rot and leaf curl.
- Mulch: Reduce weeds and maintain consistent moisture levels by spreading mulch around plants. Leave space around the stem. Mulching reduces the spread of early blight and other diseases by preventing spores from splashing onto plants.
- Encourage beneficial insects: Praying mantises, predatory wasps, lady beetles and toads are natural predators that reduce tomato pests. Keep them happy by avoiding the use of pesticides in your garden.
- Don’t smoke around plants: If you smoke, wash your hands, clothing and tools carefully before working in the garden to avoid spreading tobacco mosaic virus. Remove and destroy infected plants to prevent disease from spreading to healthy plants.
- Keep it clean: Remove garden debris, leaf litter and weeds to keep pests and pathogens away. To avoid spreading diseases, sterilize garden tools in a solution made from one part bleach to nine parts water.
- Solarize soil: Want to control weeds, fungi and nematode diseases? Soil solarization kills weed seeds and diseases without chemicals. Cover wet garden soil with clear plastic sheets to trap the sun’s heat. Solarization works best in areas with long, hot growing seasons, and requires at least four to six weeks.
- Plant the right tomato: Hundreds of tomato varieties are available, so select the types that grow best in your area. Your local garden center or cooperative extension service will have recommendations. Look for healthy green leaves and stems when buying a plant. Avoid tomatoes with roots growing out of the containers’ drain holes; they’ve been in containers too long. Check carefully for pests or diseased plant parts so you don’t introduce these problems into your garden.
Tomato varieties marked with these codes have resistance to these diseases:
F – Fusarium wilt
FF – Fusarium Race 1 and Race 2
L – Septoria leaf spot
T- Tobacco mosaic virus
N – Nematodes
V- Verticillium wilt
A – Alternaria leaf spot
Heirloom tomatoes to try
Tomatoes for cooking and preserving
Classic Heirloom Tomato Sauce Recipe
Portions of this article were published previously in Gardening How-To Magazine.
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Thanks for the tips. We just started gardening and I need all the help I can get. Carla
What do you mulch with if you remove all leaf litter? Numbers 6 and 9 are also contradictory, since any method that kills weed seeds will also kill anything beneficial living in the soil.
I’m not certain that pogo’s theory has been demonstrated to be true regarding soil solarization killing everything in the soil. If that were the case, however, one could presumably add back beneficials with compost, micorrhyzae, Bio-tone, compost tea, etc.
As for mulching, could one not just put a fresh layer of leaf litter over the area? Tomato diseases are remarkably sturdy in terms of overwintering in soil so to leave old debris in the planting bed is just begging for them. Even though the soil might benefit from having leaves turned into it, a one-size-fits-all approach to permaculture may not be the best answer in every growing situation.
Tina: Thanks for your comments. I’m a big believer that tomatoes should be mulched, and there are many different types of earth-friendly mulch that can be used. This includes well-shredded leaves, compost, fine wood chips, etc… University studies have shown that red permeable mulch helps to improve tomato development, although it won’t improve the soil quality, of course. Teresa
Pogo,
Thanks for your message. While leaves can certainly be used for mulching tomatoes, it's best to chop and compost them first, according to the USDA. Here's more on mulching: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/backyard/mulching.html (see chart)
Gardeners certainly want to encourage as many beneficial insects as they can in their garden. But sometimes they need extra help in controlling weeds and pest damage, and soil solarization can be an effective non-chemical method. Here is research from University of California Davis http://ceamador.ucdavis.edu/files/942.pdf
Had no idea on the smoking/tobbaco tip! Glad I don't smoke – just one more reason to avoid it!
Hi WashingtonGardner: Absolutely, keep all your smoking friends from touching your tomatoes… until they are picked, of course. 😉 Teresa
Awesome post!
Smoking is not only bad for our health the same thing goes for the plants also, happy to know that. thanks for the links, those links are really helpful.
Organic gardening, Thanks for stopping by, and happy gardening. Teresa
Try Corn Gluten Meal (not a brand name). It keeps seeds from sprouting. I’m trying it in a couple of my raised beds this year and I am noticing a big difference in the number of weeds I see sprouting there.
Great idea, Demetria. I use Corn Gluten Meal on my turf to keep down weeds naturally. It’s a lot safer than all those chemicals, and available under different brand names including Garden Safe. Thanks for stopping by. Teresa
Thanks! These are great tips. With all the rain, my plants are getting a deluge of water nearly everyday. The drainage is good, but is there anything I can do to help them deal with overwatering? Last year I had fungus problems.
Hi Judy: Don’t forget to mulch well. That keeps soil-based fungal diseases from splashing up on the leaves. Pray for sun, of course. And look for fast-ripening varieties. Some say that ‘Green Zebra’ does well in wetter, cooler temperatures. Good luck!
I agree with all but the second (although I admit that I do it myself)… most home gardens are not big enough for rotation to be a truly effective strategy.
Another tip: plant transplant tomatoes all the way up to their first set of true leaves (starting from the bottom); the stem will form adventitious roots in this zone, and the whole plant will be sturdier and more successful.
Thanks for your comments, and good planting tip.
But I do disagree about your comments regarding crop rotation. I have a normal-sized suburban garden and I ALWAYS rotate my crops. In other words, I don’t plant vegetables from the same family in the same spot for more than once every three years. This practice was good enough for Thomas Jefferson and other wise gardeners, and it’s good enough for me. I always encourage gardeners to practice good crop rotation, as studies show it IS very effective against pests and pathogens. Readers can find out more about crop rotation on this blog, by searching for the topic. Have a great gardening season, and thanks for visiting. Teresa
We can agree to disagree. Home vegetable gardens aren’t mini farms, and I stand by my comment that most gardens are not big enough for this to be truly effective. The cabbage moth that found your broccoli last year is going to find it again next year if the broccoli only moved 20 feet away. (Rotating might be a better practice for getting away from nematodes and evening out the impact of “heavy feeder” veggies, though.)
Sounds like a plan, KK Johnson. If people could only compromise this easily on other important topics, the world would be a happier place. 😉 I do understand your points, but think a bit of crop rotation will only make home gardeners healthier. Have a great growing season, and thanks for stopping by.
You have made some excellent points, rotation seems beneficial in reducing insects and weed pressure. The info about smoking was very interesting.
Thanks! Both the University of California Cooperative Extension and the University of Idaho Extension recommend that gardeners rotate their edible crops about once every 3 years; once every 5 years is even better, if you can. Best regards, Teresa
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