Tomatoes

Q. I bought some Roma tomato plants. I want to know what is the best time of the month to plant them into my garden. How much water do they need? What is the best soil to use in the garden beds?

A. Plant this wonderful tomato great for making tomato paste outside after your last frost date. If you do not know it contact your local cooperative extension agency part of the Ag department.

Plant them in a well-drained rich in organic material soil. Add humus compost dried leaves peat moss little steer manure and/or blood meal. Spade it down at least two feet and remove any stones or limbs.

Prepare the soil well and it should not be necessary to fertilize the plants again for a month or so. Overfeeding can encourage too much foliage growth instead of fruit production. However should the plant leaves begin to turn a little off color during the growing season then a light feeding may be necessary. Use tomato fertilizer or vegetable garden food for this feeding. I recommend a 20-20-20 not a 30-10-10...too much Nitrogen which leads to lots of green foliage and little fruit.

When possible use the irrigation method letting an open hose run at the base of the plants. In other words try to keep the water off the leaves. Water heavily then allow the soil to dry considerably before rewatering.

It is not necessary to remove suckers from tomatoes. Nor is it necessary to prune them unless the foliage gets too thick making a need to get more air and light into the plant. Late in the season when it is obvious that the top flowers will not have time to produce fruit go ahead and prune them back so the energies of the plant are devoted to the development of the fruit already on the plant.

There are several ways to provide support for tomato plants. In the past the most popular method was to tie the plants to stakes as they grow. Many growers still do this but consider the wire cages available to support the vines.

Q. When is the best time to start tomato seeds?

A. One mistake many folks make when starting seeds indoors is doing so too early. For instance tomato seeds need to be started 6 to 8 weeks before you will set them outdoors in the garden. Yet you cannot plant them outdoors in the ground until spring frost is over.

If you are in Zone 6 where the last spring frost is about May 15 count backward from there. March 20-April 3 is about the right time to start. Add another week for germination and you have the indoor planting date for your tomatoes: March 13- March 20.

If you start them in January as some folks do in their excitement and desire for spring what happens? You get plants that really want to be outside but can't because of the weather. They need bigger and bigger pots.