Tomato Growing Tips for New Gardeners
by Barbara Bowmar
Okanagan Master Gardeners Association
Red, luscious, sweet, tomatoes grow extremely well in our sunny and warm climate. Tomatoes can be grown in the ground, in containers and, yes, in hanging baskets. “Tumbler” tomatoes grown in a hanging basket will provide you with masses of small tomatoes for many weeks. Patio tomatoes are short and have sturdy stems eliminating the need for staking. Bushy tomatoes are determinate varieties and grow 45cm to 60 cm. Other varieties of tomatoes are described as indeterminate and will grow to 2 m. These plants need to be staked, caged, or trellised. Some tomatoes mature in as little as 55 days; others, such as the beef steak tomatoes, require a longer growing period. If you choose several varieties you will have tomatoes maturing over an extended period.
Jon Alcock of Sunshine Farms in Kelowna suggests the following as a mix suitable for growing vegetables in containers:
- 1 part worm castings
- 3 parts peat moss or coconut fibre (coir)
- 7 parts compost, 30 ml organic fertilizer to every 20 liters of planting mix
- The fertilizer might contain a blend of bone meal, blood meal, glacial rock dust and alfalfa.
Don’t put your tomato plants outside until all danger of frost has passed. If the leaves on your tomato plants turn blue, your plants are cold. Early in the season, protect your plants with row covers, purchased cloches, milk cartons with the ends cut out or plastic bottles with the ends removed.
At the end of the season, if your tomatoes are not ripe and you suspect there will be frost, pull up the tomato plants by the roots and hang them upside down in a protected area. There is enough nutrition in the roots and stems to ripen the tomatoes.
Tomatoes are relatively free from pests and diseases. You can avoid infestations of flea beetles (these insects aren’t fleas but are so named because they jump) by covering your tomatoes with row covers. Once you find all the holes in the leaves it is too late to prevent the damage.
Horn worms should be picked off the plants by hand and destroyed.
Blossom end rot is a brown patch found on the bottom of the tomato. In the Okanagan it is usually caused by inconsistent watering. Most books suggest adding lime to the soil to prevent blossom end rot. Because our soil is alkaline, this is not usually the answer. However, if you are growing tomatoes in pots or in soil that has been imported to the Okanagan, or in purchased potting mix, adding crushed egg shells to the bottom of the planting hole can resolve the problem.
Resources:
Emery, C and Edwards Forkner, L. 2009. Growing Your Own Vegetables. Sasquatch Books. Seattle, WA.
Sears, LJ. (ed) 2007. Gardening in the Dry Interior of BC. Friends of the Summerland Ornamental Gardens. Summerland, BC.
