SUPERMARKETGURU FOOD &
HEALTH WEEKLY NEWSFLASH!
Growing Tomatoes In The South
Published on: July 30, 2004by Scott Smithwick
Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables grown in home gardens. Found in a wide variety of recipes including salads, pasta sauces, sandwiches, and more, it's hard to believe that this healthy vegetable was once considered toxic. It wasn't until a New Jersey man in the early 1800s brought them back to America from a trip overseas and proved that tomatoes were not deadly by consuming an entire basket before an audience in Salem. Since then, modern studies have shown that the red pigment contained in tomatoes called lycopene acts as a powerful antioxidant protecting us from free radicals that can cause prostate cancer. Here are some tips on growing your own.
Tomatoes can be set out after the last frost. Start seedlings indoors in February or you’ll have to buy seedlings from the nursery. Select a site that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight. I prefer to build a raised bed of dirt. The bed should be six to eight inches deep and eighteen inches wide. A raised bed will help with drainage when heavy rains come. You can till the earth and build your bed from that dirt or buy planting mix and build your bed from that. There is so much rock in my yard that tilling is impossible and a raised bed is essential.
Most planting mix is ready to pile up and plant directly in it, but it is an added expense. Whether you buy dirt to plant in or till your own, the soil should crumble when you squeeze a handful of it. We have clay in the South and it sticks together. Peat moss, hummus, or mushroom compost can be added to change the consistency of the soil. Till one or a combination of these soil amendments into the soil until the soil will crumble in your hand. Once the ground is tilled and a bed is built, you are ready to plant.
I set my plants out around April 15th. There are usually so many healthy varieties at nurseries where I buy my plants. A good sandwich tomato is a big beef or a whopper but there are varieties to suit anyone. Set tomatoes deeper in the ground than they are growing in the container. The deeper you plant them the stronger the root system will be. A stronger plant will give you bigger and better fruit. Open a furrow(a small trench) with a pointed hoe down the center of your bed as deep as you want to plant.
Fertilize your tomatoes as you plant. I use a 15-15-15 all purpose fertilizer to start with. Take a small clay pot with a hole in the bottom and fill it with fertilizer. Use your finger to plug the hole in the bottom of the pot. Walk along the bed and remove your finger from the pot allowing fertilizer to fall into the furrow. Set your tomato plants in the furrow spacing them two feet apart. Pull dirt back into the furrow.
Set cages over tomatoes as soon as you plant. As your plants grow, they will climb the cage. I use gardening tape to tie branches to the cages once they get too big. I find that I have to stake down my cages once my plants get to a certain height or they will fall over.
After six to eight weeks I fertilize again with a 5-10-15 all purpose fertilizer. Take your pointed hoe and make a trench several inches deep in the side of the bed. Fertilize just as you did when you planted. This is called side-dressing. Do this every six to eight weeks. Plants should be watered well when planted and when you fertilize. Depending on the weather, you may be watering every few days or not at all. Take a look at your plants every day. I don’t water mine unless I see the leaves begin to wilt. It’s best to soak the soil and roots of the plant rather than the leaves.
Pick your tomatoes when they are turning red but still a little green. Sit them on a window sill or some bright location, and they will finish ripening. A tomato sandwich makes a great healthy summer snack!
