Park Seed Garden Journal

Ah yes, Labor Day is here, the kids are going back to school, autumn is (almost) in the air…. it’s time for the annual Find the Tomato Contest on Park Seed! For those of you who haven’t participated in the past, it’s very simple:

We’ve placed this drawing of a tomato somewhere on our website. If you should happen to run across it, click on it. You’ll be taken to a screen where you will be given instructions on entering our drawing for a $25 Park Seed Gift Certificate! On Wednesday, September 28, we will randomly select one random winner from all who have spotted the wily little veggie fruit, and send them their gift certificate. Good luck and happy hunting!

There are plenty of questions asked about how to grow tomatoes, one of the most popular plants grown in American garden. I received a question this week about a particularly interesting problem, tomato plants that grow and produce plenty of fruit, but then the fruit doesn't ripen. After a little research, I discovered that there are two very simple reasons that this might happen.

Why won't your tomatoes ripen?

1. The temperature is too low.
   Tomatoes need heat to ripen. If the temperature is too low, they will just stay green. To help them along you can try mulching with black plastic or landscaping fabric. The dark material will hold the suns heat into the evening, hopefully prompting riper fruit. Or you can just pick the fruit to ripen inside, keeping it in a warm dark place until it the color deepens to your liking.
2. You are watering too much.
   Most people know that too much moisture will cause the fruit to grow too fast and split, but it may also prevent proper ripening. The fruit will be bland and watery. Cutting back on the watering before harvest will make the fruit sweeter, and it will ripen more quickly.

Click here for more information about how to grow tomatoes

Tomatoes are the most popular plants among fruit and vegetable gardeners: they produce lots of fruit per plant; the seeds are inexpensive; and, they are easy to grow from seed. You will need to sow your seeds indoors about 6 weeks before the last frost of the spring to maximize their growing potential.

Moisten your planting medium to prepare it for your tomato seeds, a store-bought seed-starting mix is perfect, but many veteran gardeners will have their own recipe of vermiculite, clay, and sphagnum. It's up to you, just don't use soil from your garden for seed-starting – it may be contaminates with all kind of fungi, disease, and bests that will make life harder for your seedling.

Steps To Germinating Tomatoes Indoors

1. Sow directly on top of the medium
   
2. Cover lightly (about ¼ inch) with the planting medium.
3. Place your seeds in a warm place – approximately 75 degrees F.
4. Keep the seeds moist (but not wet) until your seedlings are mature.

Your seedlings should emerge in just over a week, and in 5 more weeks, they will be ready for your garden. Don't forget to harden them off – give them a couple of days outside for just a couple of hours to allow them to acclimate to the wind and sunlight. This prevents damage from shocking them with a sudden climate change.

Check out our full Growing Tomatoes Guide for more information.

We are in the midst of yet another food safety scare.  This time it is a batch of tomatoes somewhere that has gotten tainted.  We hear about these events more and more often.  Part of this is simply that these things are getting more news coverage than they once did.  The bigger reason, though, is that our food distribution system is increasingly centralized, with foodstuffs coming in from all over the country and world.  It is difficult in such a complex system to figure out where anything is coming from or going to.  In some ways this is good: it helps to keep food costs down and increases the availability of produce outside of the normal season.  It is also partly bad, though, as it means that your food is less fresh and requires more energy to get to you.

As this system becomes bigger and bigger, more and more complicated, the benefits of growing your own vegetables when you can become greater and greater.  If you control your food supply, you control your food safety.  You can also be sure that your food is truly grown organically (and even use certified organic seeds), or at least know exactly what pesticides and how much are being used on your food.  You’re also decreasing your impact on our delicate environment by reducing the amount of energy used to get your food to you (driving a tomato across the country to you vs. a walk to the garden?  No contest).  Plus, food grown in your garden is more satisfying, healthier, and far, far tastier than anything you could buy.  Even buying locally grown produce at the farmer’s market (a much better choice than the grocery store) doesn’t have as much of these benefits as does your very own back yard (or front yard, or side yard, or windowsill, or rooftop, or fire escape, or. . . .). 

So why mention this now, at not exactly the best time for starting a vegetable garden?  Well, it’s partly because I’ve had killer tomatoes and energy costs on my mind.  But also it’s because, if you’re going to start a new veggie garden come Spring, if you start thinking about it now, it will all go much more smoothly when you do start actually working on it.  Plus, it’s almost always a good thing to start mentally planning garden changes as close to in context as you can.  As you spend your summer weekends out in the yard, grilling, playing with the kids, or just enjoying an evening glass of wine, look around and start thinking about such things as light conditions and how to most easily get water to your plants.  I find that the more I plan things in my head, the more excited I get about them, and thus I’m more likely to actually put in the work and reap the benefits.  Plus, the time to get your veggie garden may be coming sooner than you think.  A lot of the preparations in the garden can be started once the weather cools down.  If you clean up your garden in preparation for incoming veggie plants in fall, you’ll have a nicer garden to look at all winter and a much easier job come spring.  The time to order seeds, too, seems to sneak up on me every year, so I like to start getting an idea of what I’ll want as early as possible.

Once you've got your tiny tomato plants sprouted from seed, it's time to move them into the light.  You'll want to put your seedlings in the strongest light you have available.  For many gardeners this means a sunny window, which will work.  Even better is a strong florescent light or grow light that can be placed just a few inches above the seedlings (an adjustable grow light system can help a lot in this).  The closer and more powerful the light is, the less the light will be diffused, which will mean your tomato plants will grow stockier and not get leggy (tall and spindly).  If you don't have powerful enough light and the plants do get leggy, it's not the end of the world.  Tomato plants have the interesting ability to grow roots along the main stem, which means that even a plant that's too tall to be stable when you transplant it can just be buried deeper. 

When placing your tomatoes in the light, keep in mind that you don't want the light so close that heat from it burns the plants, and it needs to give room for air to circulate over the seedlings (keep them protected from chilly drafts, though).  Around 14-16 hours of this light a day is optimal.  Some gardeners recommend longer, as much as 20 or even 24 hours a day of strong light.  I've never found there to be any improvement with more than 16 hours of light, and in some cases it can even be harmful.  Plus, conserving electricity is a concern for pretty much everyone these days.  If you're growing your seedlings with a directional light source (a window, a smaller light or one that isn't directly above the plants, etc), be sure to change the orientation of your seedlings to the light.  When I'm growing seedlings in a window, I try to turn them around once a day, so that they don't bend over trying to grow toward the light.

I get emails nearly every day looking for vegetable seed starting tips, especially regarding tomatoes.  Gardeners want all the benefits of starting tomato plants from seed, but they worry about the difficulties of getting the plants started and caring for them until it's time to put them in the ground.  They look online for tips, and the whole process seems a bit overwhelming.  The fact is, though, that it's remarkably easy if you use the right tools.

Once you've chosen your tomato seeds, the next step is to figure out when to get them started.  It is best to start your plants indoors during late winter.  You could sow your seeds directly outdoors once the growing season comes (after night-time temperatures are remaining above 55 degrees), but that will mean weaker plants and a much shorter production season (and thus, fewer delicious home-grown tomatoes).  To figure out when to start your tomato seeds indoors, you need to figure out when the anticipated last frost date for your area is.  The best way to figure this out is to contact a local extension office, garden club, University, or Agriculture Department.  Once you've figured out the last frost date, count back five to seven weeks, and that's your start date (if you're starting later than that, that's OK, but you'll have a shorter season).

Once you've got your tomato seeds and you know when you'll be sowing them, you need to get your seed starting mix.  You could use soil for this, but I strongly recommend using sterile starting mix.  This will protect your tomato seedlings from competition, disease, and pests that will almost inevitably be in non-sterile soil.  Another option is to invest in a seed starting kit.  Starter kits that have individual cells for each tomato plant and a built-in watering system are the easiest way to start seeds of most types.  If you go that route, follow the instructions that come with your kit. 

To minimize work later, you may want to start your seeds in individual containers.  This way you don't have to go through the trouble of splitting the plants later on.  Mix your starter mix with warm water until it is moist all the way through, but not soggy or wet.  This may take a while to mix, because your starter mix should be very dry out of the bag.  Then sow your seeds and cover lightly with about a
quarter inch of moist starter mix.  Then put your seeds somewhere where they will stay relatively warm.  Temperatures between seventy and eighty degrees (F) are optimal, though if it's a bit cooler, your tomato seeds should still germinate, though it could take a good bit longer.  If you don't have a good warm spot (like on top of a refrigerator), a seed starting heat mat can be an inexpensive way to keep your seeds warm.  Keep in mind that it is warmth and moisture that trigger germination for tomato seeds, so be sure to keep your starting mix warm and moist.  I've found that, if you're not using a seed starting kit that controls watering from below, misting very thoroughly with a spray bottle can keep your tomato seeds sufficiently moist without disturbing them with flows of water.

If you keep your seeds warm and moist, and you're using quality seeds from a reputable source, your tomato plants should start to sprout after between five and ten days, and it will be time to move your seedlings into the light.

The first challenge in starting tomato plants from seed is to choose which variety of tomato to grow.  Here's a quick guide to the different basic types of tomatoes.

The most common type of tomato is called (fittingly enough) a standard or slicing tomato.  These are the tomatoes that you generally find in the supermarket.  Standard tomatoes are a pretty good all-purpose tomato and can be used for just about anything.  If you're not growing many tomato plants and will use tomatoes in everything from cooking to slicing onto sandwiches to just eating them off of the vine, then standard tomatoes might be the best fit for you.

If you love a big, tender tomato, then consider Beefsteak tomatoes.  These are the giant tomatoes that are often perfectly sized to slice onto a burger or sandwich.  Some varieties can grow up to two pounds, so they're also great for stuffing and baking.  Despite their great flavor, supermarkets generally don't carry beefsteak tomatoes because their tenderness makes them difficult to transport.  This is no impediment to growing them in your garden, though.

Cherry tomatoes are, as you might guess, small tomatoes, usually growing no larger than a golf ball.  You'll often find these in salads in restaurants because they add a great deal of flavor without needing to be sliced, and are easy for customers to pluck out if they prefer their salads without tomatoes.  They're great as a quick snack, as they don't require preparation and are easy to pack and carry for a picnic or to take to work.  As an added bonus for the tomato gardener, cherry tomato plants are generally very productive, yielding a lot of fruit from a small area in your garden. 

Paste or plum tomatoes are generally used for canning and sauces.  They have no core and a much lower water content, so they cook and stew beautifully.  They also tend to have far fewer seeds.  They are usually on the smaller side and more pear-shaped than most other varieties of tomato.  Roma tomatoes are a popular type of paste tomato.

There are a few other considerations that you might want to take into account.  Heirloom tomatoes are bred from varieties which have been in existence for at least three generations, and these are very popular with many gardeners concerned with maintaining the integrity of plant stock.  You might also want to consider certified organic seeds, which have been bred and prepared using only organic methods.

No matter which type of tomato you choose, it is important when finding seeds to choose a reputable source.  This is the best way to ensure that you get fresh seeds with high germination rates, as well as making sure to get just the type and quality of tomato plant that you're looking for.  Once you've chosen and purchased your seeds, you're ready to start your tomato seeds.

There is this interesting property of tomato plants– they can sense the color red. If the plants sense the color red, it feels as if it is crowded and must step up its game to compete with the plants around it for light and nutrients.

There are products like high yield red Tomato Mulch and the red Tomato Automator that artificially supply the red color and promote enormous growth without the use of any supplemental fertilizers. The Tomato Mulch is a plastic sheet mulch that reflects red like back up to the plant. The Tomato Automator serves two purposes, allowing watering a feeding directly to the roots, and creating that red color that drives the tomatoes wild. If you use one of these products in conjunction with your normal fertilization regimen, the results will be enormous.

Usually, regular watering and feeding plus adding a little extra support, like a stake or cage will be enough to ensure a plentiful harvest. But, if you are looking for a really impressive tomato haul, keep watching the catalogs and the gardening shows because you never know what great idea will come next.

I’ve focused alot on tomatoes this spring, and it would be unfair of me to cut you loose without giving you a few final pointers for a successful harvest.

If your leaves are yellowing or wilting, the most likely cause is too much or too little water, considering how dry this spring has been, it could be very easy to over-do it or to miss a crucial watering. Another possible cause could be a magnesium deficient, quickly rememdied with a scoop or two of espsom salts. Considering how dry it has been in most of the country, many of your fruits will be smaller than usual, unless you have been ignoring your water bill.

For your larger plants, especially the beefsteak varieties with their heavy fruit, a good staking or a well-built tomato cage will do wonders. Also, did you know that tomato plants respond to red light– the color makes it seem like there are lots of tomatoes around and they must grow bigger to compete. You could try the park seed tomato automator which reflects the red color back up to the plant, and the tray also provides a way to evenly feed and water your plant.

This past weekend I helped my dad build a couple of raised garden beds for his tomatoes and peppers. We finished pouring in the topsoil and peat just as it was getting dark, and he asks, "How many more should I build?" Of course, I suggested that we just go ahead and plant his tomatoes and peppers and build more on another day– he never stops working. He purchased mature tomato plants that will be producing fruit within a couple weeks, beefsteak and cherry varieties.

Buying the plant is a great idea, but it’s so easy it feels like cheating. The mature plant is inexpensive, and you don’t have to worry about when to start your seeds or when it is safe to move your seedlings outdoors. I prefer starting from seed, myself, you can get many more plants, and you have more options, but I can understand avoiding the hassle. Also, if it is late in the spring, like now, and you decide you want to grow tomatoes, you still can if you buy the plants instead of seed.

Park Seed is having a great sale on a couple of their most popular Tomato varieties. If you would like to try them for your self: Park’s Whopper and Tomato Plant Beefy Boy