In Tasmania the first half of the season (Sep-Dec) is often too cool and cloudy for tomatoes to really prosper. The tricks below will help make your tomato plants more resilient, healthy and productive in our fickle climate.
Temperature
To perform well, tomato plants need permanent air and soil temperatures of between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. I said ‘permanent’ and I meant it. This is hard to achieve in Tasmania.
In Tasmania simply don’t plant your tomato seedlings in your garden in September or October. Wait until the weather becomes consistently warmer. In most years this will be in November, but there have been La Nina years when it only really became warmer in December.
If tomato seedlings are becoming too large for the little pots you sowed them in, repot them into larger pots and keep them in a warm light spot until temperatures improve consistently.
Planting tomatoes in large black plastic pots that raise the temperature of the soil held in them, rather than in the cold ground outside, can be a really good trick. Black plastic pots in a sheltered or warm spot like a hothouse is even better.
You can sow tomatoes until late-December and have ripe fruit before the season ends (I have done it, it works!), because the second part of the Tasmanian season (Jan-Apr) is nearly always warmer, sunnier and more stable.
Experts recommend that you plant your tomato seedlings deeply, so their first adult leaves are just below soil level. This allows the plant to form more roots. That is good advice. But if you insist on planting your tomatoes outside in September or October, planting deeply will slow them down, as the soil at the bottom of planting holes will be cold.
Mulching the soil around tomato plants early in the season keeps that soil cool, so it is not recommended.
Water
Companion plants
Fertilising Tomatoes
Pest Prevention without head aches!
Food Garden Group member Ross shared with me a recipe that a mate of his had recommended to improve the pest resistance of tomato plants. It didn’t sound credible, but Ross thought ‘there is no harm in trying’. He would like all Food Garden Group members to know about this recipe, because it really worked!!
Add 3 uncoated 300mg Aspirin tablets to a standard (9 litre) bucket of water. Mix thoroughly. When your tomato plants are past their young seedling stage, spray your them with this mix once a fortnight.
This mix substantially increases the tomato plant’s pest resistance capabilities. Why is this so? My research suggests that, when tomatoes are under attack by pests and diseases, they produce a hormone that is similar to the Salycilic Acid in Aspirin. This hormone puts the plant’s immune system into high gear, so it can ward off attacks.
By spraying an Aspirin solution on tomatoes and other members of the Nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum etc.) their immune system becomes fully ready to withstand pest attacks. The result, Food Garden Group member Ross found, is very healthy plants.
Worth mentioning:- Aspirin is not organic. There are recipes on the internet for making your own Salycilic Acid from Willow tree bark or Dandelion stems.
- Watering with this mix is prevention. Tomato plants already affected by pests may respond, but this mix is not a cure.
- Use uncoated Aspirin as coated Aspirin may clog up watering cans and sprayers.
Pruning
The more side branches a tomato plant has, the more effort it puts into forming leaves and stems. Pruning helps tomato plants focus on flowering and fruit.
There are basically three types of tomatoes and they are pruned slightly differently:
- Bush tomatoes (=determinate) don’t grow tall and produce most of their tomatoes around the same time. That can be handy if you grow tomatoes for passata. You don’t need to prune bush tomatoes if you don’t want to. However, Whiteflies may make their dense vegetation their home, so you may want to open up centres of bushes a bit to create ventilation.
- Vine tomatoes (= indeterminate) produce fruits over a longer period of time. Guide vine tomatoes to develop one or (at the most) two leaders. If you decide to have two leaders, allow the second leader to develop from a sucker low to the ground. Remove all other suckers. If a plant becomes too high prune away its top.
- Cherry tomatoes are vine tomatoes, but pruning is a little bit different. Pinch out the first two or three side shoots, but then let the rest go and tie up. If the plant becomes too big, cut off its top and the tips of side branches.
With all tomato types, as seedlings begin to grow, gradually prune away their lowest leaves, especially ones that touch the soil, because pests and diseases may enter plants from the soil.
Fruit Development and Ripening
May your tomato seasons be fruitful.
Max Bee
My sources for this blog post were:
- My own experiences growing tomatoes over decades
- FGG member Ross T.’s experience with lots of tomato varieties over many years
- Tomato videos on the Gardening in Canada YouTube channel
- YouTube video Transform your Tomatoes with this Household Ingredient by Next Level Gardening
- YouTube video Tomato Growing Tips from a Real Nursery Owner by The Yorkshire Plant Nursery.
- Sowing in Pots and Punnets explains how to make a great potting mix for tomatoes.
- Early Tomatoes shows how some Food Garden Group members managed to have ripe tomatoes really early.
- Tomato Car & Repair helps you make things just right for your tomatoes or solve problems.
- Blogpost Large Tomatoes on Show will help you select varieties that produce large tomatoes in Tasmania's climate.
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