Home Vegetable Gardening: Helpful Tips for Better Tomatoes

There are literally hundreds of different varieties and species of tomatoes. You can get them from very small like a cherry tomato to a larger one like beefsteak, and everything in between. Besides the number of varieties you have to choose from, they come in varying colors and shapes as well. Orange, yellow, red, to name a few colors, pear, plum and grape to name a few shapes.

Regardless of which type of tomato plants you decide to grow, following a few steps can go a long way to hardier harvest, producing more tomatoes than you thought possible and tasting a lot better.

Adjust the pH Level

Tomatoes like soil that is a bit more acidic, (pH level of 5.5 to 7.5), than most plants. In case you don’t remember the pH scale, which measures the acidity of something, it ranges from 0 to 14. Anything under 7 is acidic, over 7 is alkaline with 7 being neutral. You can pick up a pH soil testing kit for a couple of bucks at your home or garden center. Simply follow the instructions on the kit to obtain the reading. If you need to bring the pH level down mix in some compost and manure in the fall before the spring/summer planting season.

Start the Seeds Indoors

Tomatoes like the heat and if you live in an area of the country like I do where the heat doesn’t set it until mid to late June, then you will need to start your seeds indoors to give them plenty of time to grow when they are in your garden. Use a planter pot that is no more than 4 inches in diameter. Place one seed per pot and place the pot on a window sill in your house that receives sunlight first thing in the morning. Keep the water moist but not saturated.

Bury ‘em

When you are ready to move your tomato plants from the indoors to the outdoors don’t forget to bury them deep. When you remove your tomato plant from the pot, make sure you bury them up to the first set of leaves on the plant. Tomatoes can develop a root system along the stems on the plant which is why you can do this with them. This will the plant stronger and more developed.

Remove bottom leaves

Now that you have buried your tomato plant up to the first leaves of the plant, wait until your tomato plants are a good 2 to 3 feet tall and then remove the leaves closest to the soil. The bottom leaves are subject to developing various fungus and rotting problems and if you leave them on those problems will spread to the remainder of the plant.

Remove the Nutrient Stealers

Tomato plants develop what are called suckers. These are growths that form in the “v” sections of the plants stem system. They will never bare fruit and do nothing but require the plant to transport resources to them. Simply remove these from the plant so more of the vitamins and nutrients are heading to the branches that will actually produce tomatoes.

Keep in mind tomatoes require full sun and regular watering. Planting your tomatoes in an area in your garden that receives partial shade will do your plants a great injustice. Similarly, watering your plants only once in a while could stunt there growth, and overwatering will cause blossom end rot. Regular, consistent watering will yield the best results.



About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the Rest of Us, available where gardening books are sold. Sign up for Mike’s vegetable gardening newsletter at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com and he will send you a free pack of vegetable seeds to get your garden started.

Home Vegetable Gardening: Vermicompost

It is something that I talk about in great abundance and that is vermicompost. Vermicompost is the end result of varieties of earth worms breaking down organic material. Their castings are what is called vermicompost.

Extensive studies have shown that adding vermicompost to your soil (more on that in a moment) helps improve it’s physical structure, enriches the soil with micro-organisms, increased of microbial activity by more than 20 times than other forms of compost, and improves your soil’s water holding capacity which leads to savings on water since you do not have to do it as often.

When vermicompost has been mixed in with soil, studies have shown that germination is a bit faster, plant growth is stronger and crops yield more. The root structures of plants are shown to be stronger than plants not grown in a vermicompost mix and the growth of roots are more defined.

The best way you can add vermicompost to your soil is by burying your food scraps and leftovers at least eighteen inches deep. When you do this, worms in your soil ingest the food scraps, and their castings create vermicompost. Most worms can eat as much as their own bodyweight every twenty-four hours. There is no need for you to run out and buy worms (unless you are maintaining a vermicompost bin) to add to your garden, although it will speed up the process. Worms live naturally in the soil under your feet and when you bury food waste they will find it.

By continually burying your food waste throughout the year in your soil you are constantly adding nutrients back to your soil and when it comes time to plant your vegetables, your soil will be ready with everything your plant’s need to grow and thrive.

I recommend keeping a Tupperware bowl with your food scraps until and not burying the contents until it is full or a slight odor begins to form. Don’t worry about the odor that is the bacteria breaking down the organic matter. Do not put a lid on the bowl as that will create an atmosphere for anaerobic bacteria and that is not what you want. Without the lid, oxygen is getting in and that gives you the aerobic bacteria which is much better.

Once the bowl is filled, dig a hole in your garden, dump the contents of the bowl into the hole and cover with dirt. Repeat this process picking a new spot in your garden, not repeating the same spot until every area of your garden has been accounted for with organic matter being buried below it. On a side note, never bury dog or human waste, or charcoal ashes in your garden. They are toxic to plants and worms. Cow and chicken manure are fine.

So before you toss out that leftover bowl of spaghetti into your trash can, consider feeding it the worms that live in your soil. They will thank you for it by returning to you wonderful vermicompost that your home vegetable garden will absolutely love.

About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the Rest of Us, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and where ever gardening books are sold. For more vegetable gardening advice, Mike can be reached at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com.

Calcium: A Vital Nutrient for your Home Vegetable Gardening Soil

In people calcium helps build strong bones among the many other health benefits, but it is not just for people. The plants in your vegetable garden need calcium as well and they get it through your soil.

Most home vegetable gardeners have seen somewhere or heard from someone the importance of the N, P, K levels in your soil. These letters represent specific elements and stand for Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). If you look on any bag of fertilizer available at your local home or garden center you will see these letters and usually a ratio values right on the bag, bucket or box.

Although, N, P, and K, are considered the big three, they are only a few compared to the many elements and nutrients your plants need in order to grow or thrive. Just like you need all of your vitamins and minerals from A through zinc, a plant requires many nutrients as well.

One specific nutrient it needs, just like humans, is calcium. Calcium in plants is required for proper cell division during plant formation and growth. If your soil lacks calcium the leaves of your plants will look yellow or pale and blossom end rot will occur more frequently. Other signs of calcium deficiency include bad root formation, browning of plants and small vegetable and fruit formations.

If you have been vegetable gardening for sometime then you already know the importance of composting. If you do just simple composting such as burying your food scraps or keeping a compost pile of leaves, twigs and grass clippings and then adding that compost to your soil, then you more than likely already receive ample amounts of calcium. Of course if you are not doing this then you should begin right away. There is nothing better for your soil than adding organic material that will decompose and breakdown into the nutrients your soil needs.

Good sources for calcium beyond composting include calcitic lime, calcium sulfate gypsum, bone meal, soft rock phosphate, calcium carbonate, and for those of you that have fire places, wood ashes. All or most are available at your local home or garden center with some being a lot more pricey than others. So if you are going to put out some money make sure you get a source that also includes other valuable nutrients. Bone meal for instance is a great source for phosphorus as well and by adding bone meal (a mixture of crushed bones) to your soil you are getting two very valuable nutrients for the price of one.

On a side note, although wood ashes are a great source for calcium and a bit of potassium, never ever use ashes from charcoal. These ashes could be toxic to your soil, your plants and the underlying ecosystem that works hard to break down your organic material that you are burying.

If you plan on using a commercial product, make sure you follow the instructions on the container so you do not add too much or not enough. A soil reading with a home soil testing kit comes in very handy so you know exactly how much calcium your soil contains. You can pick one up at your local home or garden center for just a few bucks.



About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the Rest of Us, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and where ever gardening books are sold. For more vegetable gardening advice, Mike can be reached at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com.

Home Vegetable Gardening: Phosphorus Is Necessary for Seed and Root Development

Phosphorus is very important in the early stages of vegetable plant development. Plants need this element in order to sustain good root development. If phosphorus is in short supply in your soil, your vegetable plant’s growth will slow very quickly or even worse, not grow at all.

A common appearance of lack of phosphorous in your soil is streaks of purple up and down stems or on the leaves and low yield of fruits and vegetables.

Phosphorus makes up one of the five elements needed in plant DNA for the process of photosynthesis, with the other four being carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. All of the pieces to this puzzle must be in place, otherwise during seed development the plant’s DNA will not form properly.

Phosphorus is a slow moving element in the soil. It also one of those elements where having a bit too much of it in the soil is not necessarily a bad thing. With its ability to stimulate early growth and root formation, having an ample supply of it in your soil will help speed up maturity, promote flowering and increase seed production.

To gain a reading of how much phosphorus is in your soil, take a trip down to your local home or garden center and pick up a test kit for less than ten bucks. These kits will give you an accurate reading of how much phosphorus your soil contains and where the level should be for your area of the world.

Once you get your reading and realize that you need to add phosphorus to your soil you have plenty of choices. The most common and probably the easiest and organic (if that is what you are looking for) is to add compost to your soil. I like to bury all of my food scraps eighteen inches throughout the year in my garden. When this organic material breaks down it turns into quality compost that keeps my soil rich in nutrients such as phosphorus.

Other good sources for phosphorus include bone meal and rock phosphate both available at garden centers where fertilizers are sold. Bone meal is a mixture of crushed bones that gives off a slow release of phosphorus. Rock phosphate works best when it is finely ground and creates an extremely slow release of phosphorus in the soil. Either of these sources will work well when you need to add straight phosphorus to your soil. Just make sure you mix them in thoroughly for even distribution, wait a week or two and take another reading to see if you need to add more.

Avoid slow or stunted growth, ugly coloration of your plants, delayed maturity or poor fruit or vegetable production by making sure you add the correct amount of phosphorus to your soil. Your garden plants will love you for it.


About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the Rest of Us, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and where ever gardening books are sold. For more vegetable gardening advice, Mike can be reached at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com.

Home Vegetable Gardening: The Importance of Nitrogen for your Plants

Healthy cell growth and the process of photosynthesis in your home vegetable garden’s plants are two of the many reasons why nitrogen is needed. Without adequate supplies of nitrogen you will be inhibiting both processes and that is not good to produce healthy fruits and veggies.

Due to the volatility of nitrogen, you can easily run short of this important element in no time. Nitrogen can escape in the air and more commonly get washed away when you water your plants too much or receive excessive rain falls.

For these reasons stated above nitrogen needs to be added more often. If you do not have a tester that will give you a reading of nitrogen in the soil, you will easily tell with your eyes when the leaves of the plants start turning yellow and/or brown. Many novice gardeners think, when the leaves are turning color like this, it is due to not enough water. So they water some more and that washes even more nitrogen away making the soil conditions worse.

On the flip side of the argument is having too much nitrogen. Yes you can have too much if you overload your soil with nitrogen rich sources (more on those sources in a few moments). You can tell if you have too much nitrogen if you see a lot of red in the leaves or normally plants that could stand on their own start falling over.

The first thing you should do is invest in an inexpensive soil testing kit that will give the reading of soil’s nitrogen level. When it falls below optimal levels as per the reading on the kit, you can mix into your soil a variety of sources. These sources include blood meal, fish meal, and animal waste such as manure and of course you can grow a “cover crop” of soybeans, alfalfa or clovers which actually put nitrogen back into the soil.

If going organic is not as important to you as it is to others you can pick up nitrogen rich fertilizer at your local home or garden center for under ten bucks. These products work well when the plants are in the ground making it hard to mix in natural sources of nitrogen.

As you can see nitrogen is very important to every home vegetable gardener. Knowing how much your soil has, how much you need to add and the sources for replenishing your soil with nitrogen will go a very long way to increasing the health and harvest of your vegetable plants.


About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the Rest of Us, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and where ever gardening books are sold. For more vegetable gardening advice, Mike can be reached at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com.