With today’s struggling economy, shopping for things like vegetables may be an expense you should consider saving on. So why not grow your own fruit and vegetable garden? Growing your own food is a great way to ensure that your fruit or vegetables are fresh, and also a great way to save money on food expenses. And let’s face it, it can be a fun hobby too! There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your fruit grow into a nice and full food source. For this blog entry, we will look into growing tomatoes. Here are some tips you should keep in mind when growing tomatoes.
- Don’t over crowd seedlings – Make sure you leave enough room for the seedlings to branch out. Overcrowding can inhibit growth. After your seedlings start to grow leaves, move them into 4″ pots about 2 weeks after that.
- Find a good location to plant your tomatoes – Tomatoes need lots of direct sunlight or approximately 12 to 14 hrs under a grow light per day.
- Make the tomato stems stronger - It is a good idea to make sure your tomatoes develop nice strong stems. You can accomplish this by making sure there is a good breeze. You can put a fan next to your tomatoes for about 5-10 minutes 2 times per day. This will ensure your tomatoes are getting a nice breeze.
- Preheat soil – Tomatoes love to grow in warm soil. You can accomplish this by covering the planting area with black or red plastic for a couple weeks prior to planting them. You can buy gardening plastic at home depot. I was lucky enough to get one of their free gift card’s at receive home depot gift card (thank you slickdeals)
I also know someone who got one from here - Bury your tomatoes – Be sure to bury your tomatoes deeper than they were in the pot.
- Remove bottom leaves – Once the tomato plants are about 3 feet tall, you may want to remove leaves up to about a foot because these tend to develop fungus from lack of sunlight.
- Water them- Water your tomato plants deeply and regularly because they may develop problems if you miss watering sessions. When the tomatoes begin to ripen you may lessen the amount of water but not so much that the plant becomes stressed.
