How to Correctly Plant Tomatoes to Get 5–8ft Plants

How do we plant a tomato, you might ask?  With a ridiculous amount of stuff in the hole, is the answer.  When someone ropes me into telling them and I start the long answer, I eventually see their eyes glaze over.  That’s the point where I say, “Then you throw in the kitchen sink and cover it all up.”  To date, no one has laughed at that joke. I think they’re just either too overwhelmed by the real stuff we put in there, or they actually believe we’re throwing in a sink.

This is how we plant a tomato.  First off, let’s take a look at our sexy specimen here on the left.

We started this beauty in our heated greenhouse in late January. We potted it up to a gallon container about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  It will go into one of our freshly prepared beds, shown to the right.

The tomatoes are placed three feet apart. I’ve learned over the years that spacing them closer than that means less fruit.  We dig a nice deep hole to accommodate all the additions – the exact depth is dependent upon how tall the seedling is that you start with.  We want the plant to be almost completely submerged into the soil, and the fish head and amendments put into the hole need to be covered with a bit of soil, so we plan accordingly for the depth.  This particular hole ends up being almost two feet deep, and is ready for our first goody, these impressive fish heads.




We get them from the restaurant we grow for, Manresa.  You might be able to get them free from a good butcher or fishmonger.  I even know of someone who called a few restaurants in their area and was quickly rewarded with a nice bounty of juicy fish heads.  Fish tails, spines, guts, as well as shrimp, crab, or lobster shells are all good as well.  Some of you may worry about critters digging these up later.  We’ve never had a problem with animals digging up my tomatoes, and we’ve got three dogs, two cats, and what seem like an endless supply of raccoons living on the property.  I stress the point that this is the first thing that goes into our very deep planting hole.  That may help keep it from getting dug up.  You can see the six inch long fish head staring up at us from the bottom of the hole here.

If you’re reticent to put the fish head in the hole, or simply can’t get your mitts on any, we recommend using fish meal as a substitute. Two handfuls is about right. We get ours from Gardner & Bloome.

The next thing that goes into the hole are a couple of aspirin tablets and some crushed chicken egg shells. The aspirin is to help jump start the plant’s immune system.  You can read more about that science here.  We’ll put three or four crushed egg shells into the hole as well. You can see our three colors of eggs from our fancy chickens – yes, those are green eggs in there. The eggs supply a nice calcium boost, which will help prevent blossom end rot, that nasty brown patch on the bottom of tomatoes that lack calcium (the fish head bones and bone meal also help with that).

Bone meal is the next to go into the hole.  We put in a heaping handful of bone meal.  This is a nice organic phosphorus source, which is essential for blossom production.  More blossoms, more fruit.  Bone meal also increases calcium availability for the tomato. This is also a Gardner & Bloome product.

We then put in two handfuls of Gardner & Bloome’s Tomato, Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer. It’s an all-purpose  organic fertilizer that contains the essential macronutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassiun. Their mix is a very nice 4-6-3 of those nutrients.

We also recommend putting a handful of pure worm castings in the bottom of the hole.  We amend our beds with worm castings and we also spray a worm casting tea on the plants while they grow.  Really great stuff.  Worm castings are available for sale at our tomato plant sale.

The hole is complete (sans kitchen sink) and we’re now ready to pop in the tomato plant.  We trim off the lower leaves, be there one, two, three or more, leaving only the top-most leaves.

We put an inch or two of soil on top of the amendments in the hole.  The plant is eased out of the pot, and before it’s placed in the hole, I sprinkle a third of a cup or more on the rootball with a product called Xtreme Gardening’s Mykos, which is a mycorrhizal fungi that attaches to the roots, growing as the root ball grows.  It protects the plant from some diseases, such as verticillium and fusarium wilts.  If there are any “silver bullets” here, it is this healthy addition of mycorrhizal fungi.

Once the tomato is in the hole, we double check the depth by judging how far out of the ground the plant will be sticking.

If it’s going to be too far down, we’ll remove the plant and add some more soil.  If it looks like it’ll be up above the soil more than we want, that’s too bad because we ain’t gonna be fishing them fish parts and all that other stuff up out of that hole and digging it deeper.  No siree.  So we try our best to gauge the depth of the hole according to the height of the plant we’re putting in.

We then back fill GENTLY – only one quasi-firm push settles the soil around the plant.

Please do not man-handle the soil around the plant by stomping on it or pressing too hard.  That’s not necessary and it expels all the air out of the soil.  Believe it or not, the roots need oxygen down there just as much as they need nutrients and water.

A temporary well is then made around the plant base to catch the first watering. The first watering is the most critical.  We do it multiple times.  Water it in once, twice, three times at least.  Wait a few minutes to allow the water to drain through.  If you have a deep hole, likely way more than 12 inches deep, you will be amazed at how much water it will take to wet the root ball a foot or more under the ground.  So don’t be stingy with the water the first day. Thereafter, you can back off the watering.  Here’s our finished bed.  You can see the tomatoes are spaced pretty far apart:

Drip irrigation will be repositioned on the bed, and staking and mulching has yet to be done.  In the meantime, please feel free to email us or leave a comment below with any questions.

If you’re still not getting the results you want, then consider taking this Tomato Masters class.

You can find more information all about tomatoes on the World Tomato Society website.

Good luck, folks!

[via RealFarmacy, Grow Better Veggies]

8 Healthy And Delicious Take-To-Work Snacks

These nutritious treats on crackers are going to annihilate your midday junk food cravings and show NO REMORSE.

Most healthy snacks offer very little textural contrast — they’re either all smushy, like smoothies and oatmeal, or all crunchy, like pretzels and granola bars. Having a little crunch with a little something creamy is more satisfying. I like crispbread crackers (like this) for the task because there is just the right amount of surface area to make things interesting without overdoing it. Their size also gives you a nutritional assist in the moderation department.

There are many brands of crispbread crackers, but one Swedish brand in particular (Wasa) is easy to find and has lots of variety, like sourdough, multi or whole grain, and sesame. All are attractive options as they are low in calories and fat but high in fiber, and they are often recommended by nutritionists as a satisfying, moderate snack. Really, it’s a crunchy, hearty alternative to sandwich bread.

3 TIPS FOR HEALTHY SNACKING AT WORK

1. Keep an arsenal of snack enhancers at work so you are not schlepping stuff back and forth.

• small bottle of good olive oil
• kosher salt
• nice pepper grinder
• honey
• small jar of cinnamon

2. Keep a few tools at work too.

• cutting board
• cheap paring knife

3. Pack smart.

• Pack your crispbread in Tupperware to keep it from cracking. You may even want to wrap it in plastic wrap so other ingredients in your snack pack don’t get moisture on your cracker. Wet crackers are the worst.

1. Apples and Honey with Nut Butter

Pack a whole apple in your bag. Smear peanut, almond, cashew — whatever butter you are into — onto your crispbread. Drape a small sheet of plastic wrap over the nut butter so it doesn’t smear all over, then pack it up. At snack time, thinly slice your apple, and drizzle with honey and cinnamon, which you hopefully have at work. You can substitute the apple for a banana to mix things up.

2. Avocado and Mozzarella

At home, slice your fresh mozzarella and wrap in plastic wrap. Pack your crispbread and a whole avocado to go. When you are ready to eat, slice your avocado. Top the crispbread with the mozzarella, add your sliced avocado, drizzle with olive oil, and season with kosher salt and pepper.

3. Hummus, Carrot, and Cucumber

Before work, use a vegetable peeler to make long strands with your carrot and cucumber and pack in a plastic baggie or container. Pack your crispbread and a container of hummus. When ready, spread your hummus on the crispbread and lay down those carrots and cukes.

4. Egg White Salad

This is a good one to plan the night before. Hard-boil 2 eggs (place in a small pan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover with a lid, and let stand for 12 minutes. Drain the water, then place eggs in a bowl of ice water to cool.) Peel the eggs and then, using the whites only, chop them up and put into a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill, and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir to combine.

Load the egg white salad into a container and pack your crispbread separately. Spoon over crispbread at lunchtime.

5. Dates and Goat Cheese

Cut up some goat cheese and place into a container. Throw in some chopped dates and sliced almonds, separated from the cheese by a plastic baggy. Pack your crispbread to go. Ready to eat? Smear the goat cheese on to your crispbread, top with dates and almonds, and drizzle with honey from your stash.

6. Tomato and Feta

Slice some tomatoes and place them in your container, then cover with plastic wrap. Crumble some feta into a pile in your container and sprinkle with dried oregano or Italian herbs. Pack your crispbread separately. When you get hungry, top your crispbread with tomato, feta and herbs, and drizzle with your stashed olive oil and freshly ground pepper.

7. Pineapple and Chipotle

At home, slice your pineapple (or you can use canned slices in juice), and scoop out ¼ cup cottage cheese. Place both in a container and sprinkle with a pinch of chipotle powder. Pack up your crispbread separately. Don’t assemble this one until you are ready to eat or you’ll have a sad, wet cracker. :(

8. Strawberries and Spice

At home, slice up some fresh strawberries and place in a plastic container. Spread a tablespoon of cream cheese on your crispbread and sprinkle with nutmeg, cinnamon, or vanilla salt. Wrap it in plastic wrap and pack in the container. When the time is right, layer the strawberries over the crispbread.

[via Buzzfeed]