Tomatoes are a healthy additive to any dish you can rustle up in your kitchen. Having two or three home garden tomato plants in your garden is an excellent idea to keep you supplied with this nutritious ingredient.
While tomatoes may easily grow and mature, maintaining the correct environment becomes crucial once the maturation period of the plant is reached.
Tomatoes are very sensitive to weather. They will thrive well in hot climates and dry soil. The problem begins when rain or snow begins to fall. Too much water will definitely kill a tomato. Daily, intermittent rain showers will soak the soil and cause the tomato plant to rot. Cold temperatures will cause the tomato to die. Tomato plants in cold and wet climates are usually grown and nurtured in a greenhouse. Some gardeners will plant the home garden tomato early in the spring to be able to harvest some fruit before winter arrives. Ideally, California would be a good place to grow tomatoes on a year-round basis.
Other varieties of tomato require the extreme environmental opposite. They will burn rather easily under the sun and will require some shading to survive. Hot temperatures will wither down the tomato if you don't place it under the shade or someplace with cooler temperatures such as a greenhouse. If you are living in a cool climate, the medium-sized early variety tomato will suit your garden perfectly.
Aside from the weather, tomatoes are also prone to several forms of diseases, soil and pest problems. The most common problem a gardener can encounter with the tomato is blossom end rot. This is a brownish spot that appears on the underside of the fruit. This is caused by the plant's lack of calcium intake. A deficiency in calcium is commonly caused by uneven water distribution. The water is the agent that transports and circulates calcium within the plant.
Removing the affected fruits is the immediate and best course of action. This will lessen the demands for calcium and will allow the other fruits to mature better. Mulching around the base of the plant also helps as this will increase the moisture retention properties for the top soil. Maintaining healthy soil pH level of 6.5 will make your tomatoes very happy.
Tomato hornworms are most commonly seen as the doom of tomatoes. The adult tomato hornworm is a moth that lays its eggs on the tomato plant. The hornworm larvae have 4-inch long, green-colored bodies that blend rather well with the tomato's foliage. Fortunately, they are marked with white stripes running down their sides, which, makes them easier to find. The larva also has a black spot on its tail that can be mistaken for an eye. Planting your tomatoes with or near marigolds and basil will help divert the attention of the hornworms from the tomato plant.
Aphids are the next biggest thing in plant terrorism. Aphids are a common insect that can infest plants rapidly. These bugs are green, white or yellow in color and are a rather persistent lot. Hosing down the tomato to get rid of aphids is just a temporary solution because the aphids will crawl back onto the plant. Besides, if your tomato plant doesn't like all that much water, you just my kill the plant if you use the hosing-down method. You can add plants like petunias, coriander and anise to help clear the aphids off your tomatoes.
Caring for the tomato sometimes needs a lot of effort and concentration. If you don't really want to plant anything else besides tomatoes, you can use an insecticide soap to remove all the insects and parasites that infest your plant. You'll have to literally bathe the tomato plant by washing down the trunk, braches, stems and leaves to keep the insects at bay. If you miss a spot during the washing, you'll definitely see an insect attached to it the following day.
The meticulous care and effort you put in towards your home garden tomato plants will be rewarded with, healthy, juicy tomatoes that may be so much better than those you find in the grocery store. After all, a small patch of tomatoes is easier to care for than the thousands of acres a tomato farmer has to maintain.
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