The Greater Tomater, Part II

This week, we continue our journey into tomatoland.No, it’s not too late to plant them—in fact, this is the perfect time. And even if you wait several more weeks, the local garden centers will have plants in larger pots that will have made up for your procrastination. But the longer you wait, the slimmer the pickings in terms of varieties. For everyone else, the plants should be in the ground.

In case you haven’t planted yet: Have you considered fertilizer? Tomatoes are heavy feeders, and for organic gardeners that means adding fertilizer to the soil prior to planting, then adding fertilizer by banding the plants several times through the growing season. Banding is simply creating a circle of fertilizer around the plant at the drip line, and raking it into the soil to a depth of about 1 inch.

Organic gardeners also can add liquid fertilizers to the soil, and you can also make foliar applications, but this type of feeding is much less effective than allowing the roots to do the work and not the foliage. And, remember, a tomato’s worst enemy is wet foliage.

Traditional gardeners also can use banding as a feeding method, but even more convenient is to add a time-release fertilizer, such as Osmocote, at planting time or as a band after planting. This type of fertilizer releases slowly over the growing season, and only one application is necessary.

Another thing to consider just prior to planting is the addition of a mulch. You want to be careful what type of a mulch you use and understand how it will work.

Organic mulches, such as bark chips or shredded bark, will keep the soil cool and encourage slugs. On the other hand, a black plastic mulch will control the slugs and keep the soil warm, which tomatoes prefer. But better yet is a red plastic mulch, which is available online and at some garden centers. University research has shown that the use of the red plastic mulch will increase plant yields by as much as 20 percent.

The plastic mulches can be laid just prior to planting, making sure that all the edges are secure (buried) so they won’t blow away. An X slit is placed at each place a tomato will be planted, with the excess plastic tucked into the ground. Watering should be done only at the Xs. If you’re using a trickle system for watering—the best for these plants—an emitter can be placed at each opening in the plastic.

Then the age-old dilemma: to cage, stake or sprawl? Tomatoes that are allowed to simply sprawl without any support are prime candidates for fruit rot, diseases and rodent damage. Staking or trellising is the best method to use for indeterminate plants, as the vine can be tied to the stake to control its tendency to wander. Determinate plants do best in cages, as they tend to be shorter and bushier. The cage can be in the form of a ring or an open grid wire cage that is four-sided and allows you to reach through the cage to remove fruit.

So it’s somewhat critical to know if your plants are determinate or indeterminate, and also use this knowledge to plan where the plants will have their homes. The taller-growing indeterminates should be in spots where they will not shade other plants, while the determinates can go just about anywhere.

Be prepared for both insects and diseases. Using disease-resistant varieties is the best defense, but, as I noted last week, there can be trade-offs.

And remember, remember, remember … watering from the ground and not from above is your second-best defense against diseases. Some gardeners even build structures over their tomato areas to keep rain off the plants (called hoop or high tunnel houses), and this can almost guarantee a disease-free crop and foliage that never gets wet.

Insects are inevitable, and early control, as well as season-long monitoring, are critical. The main insect issues are whitefly, aphids and tomato hornworms. Aphids need to be controlled at their first occurrence, using an organic insecticide, then following up regularly. They are difficult to control but a prime distributor of viruses as they feed. Aphids also are vectors for diseases but are easier to control—though you still need to continue scouting.

The tomato hornworm is a large, striped caterpillar (green with yellow) and a horn at the end like a barb. When found, they can simply be picked off; if missed, they will lay masses of tiny white eggs on the undersides of the leaves. The adult caterpillar will eat the foliage, and a couple can pretty much strip a plant of its leaves in several days. Just pick them off and put them away from the garden.

You may get a disease or two, especially on the heirloom types. There are some organic materials you can spray for some diseases, but viruses cannot be controlled or eliminated. What’s most helpful is having a chart or key to refer to in order to identify what disease, insect and other issues you’re dealing with. You can find a great one here: http://bit.ly/2qh3K6l.

When it comes to watering, the key is in being consistent. Don’t water simply because your plant has wilted. You can have wet soil and your tomato may still wilt on a hot, sunny day. This is called temporary wilting, and many plants do it. As the sun goes down or as the air cools, the plant quickly revives itself.

But wilting due to a lack of moisture in the soil, especially once the fruit begins to mature, will lead to the fruit cracking, and in some cases when you have a dry situation and suddenly add water, the plant will quickly soak it up, the moisture goes to the fruit, and it explodes from the sudden change in the water content. Be consistent.

Pruning your tomato is as much an art as a science, so it takes practice. Most plants should be pruned to one or two vigorous stems by snapping off “suckers,” or stems growing from where leaf stems meet the main stem, when they are 2 to 4 inches long. In the case of indeterminates, tie the stems to a stake with a loop, forming a figure-8, with the stem in one loop and the stake in the other. This gives the stem room to expand without restriction. Start about 12 inches above the ground and continue to tie at similar intervals as the plant grows.

Now, if you’re reading this column in mid- to late June, all is not lost. You’ll still find plants at the garden centers, and you may have a plant that’s tall and leggy that you’ve presumed is beyond hope. It’s not. Even a leggy tomato has a chance, and a good one.

You can use one of two methods. The first is to simply plant the tomato very deep. It will root along the main stem, and as long as the stem doesn’t rot, you can still get decent fruiting, though a bit later.

The second method takes a few days longer. Lay the leggy plant horizontal on the ground for a few days. The growing end will begin to turn skyward, at a right angle. Once it’s made the turn, dig a shallow trench and lay the plant in it so that the stem is buried, except for the upturned end, which should face the sky. The stem will re-root and all will be well—but, again, a little late.

Final tip: Never overplant a grafted tomato. If you plant the graft below the soil line, your plant may fail, the graft may rot or other bad things can happen. Most grafted veggies come with a stake or marker that shows where the graft is. This should always be above the soil line at planting.

Hope your crop is great. Keep growing!