Grow-How: Tomato Seedling Clinic
Leaf color, ominous blotches, short stature–for whatever reason, maybe your tomato plants aren’t thriving, this guide will help you diagnose your seedlings’ possible ailments and prescribe the best steps towards recovery.
Tomato support | Staking, Trellising, Caging
What’s the best support for tomatoes? Pretty much anything.
Tomato plants sprawl by nature, and left unsupported, will trail on the ground. If left to sprawl, the plants are more disease-prone and fruit quality can suffer. A good trellising system lifts the plants off the ground, and allows for air circulation. There are many different trellising approaches and systems. Whatever support system you use, make sure it’s strong enough to withstand storms and wind—avoid having to re-trellis a tomato!
Just like pruning a fruit tree helps keep the tree healthy (improving air circulation, removing damaged or diseased branches, increasing the amount of sunlight reaching the inner leaves), pruning a tomato plant does the same.
Pruning tomato plants is all about selecting your leaders, then nipping off suckers and removing extra vegetative branches (those without fruit).
Leaders are the branches of a tomato plant where all the growth of the plant is concentrated. In other words, the leaders are the growing tip of the plant that lead the direction of growth.
Suckers, or side shoots, are the thinner stems that grow straight up from the junction where a leaf meets the main stem. They start small, but left alone will grow as tall as a main leader.
Pests & Diseases | Part 1 and Part 2
Know what pests and diseases look like to troubleshoot before they get in your garden beds. Many stubborn diseases affect tomato plants. Early blight, powdery mildew, bacterial leaf spot, viruses, and soil-borne fungi can quickly put an end to the harvest.
Some tomato varieties have disease resistance—they can block infection. Others are disease tolerant—they become infected but continue to grow and produce fruit. Learning which varieties are disease resistant and disease tolerant can make for a better harvest next year. Seed catalogs often include letters after a tomato plant’s name to indicate disease resistance. The most common ones are F (fusarium), V (verticillium), LB (late blight), TMV (tobacco mosaic virus), and N (nematodes).
- Check your plants at least every two days.
- Once harvested, set your fruit in a single layer, on a counter or windowsill, until you have time to eat them or preserve them.
- The easiest preservation methods are freezing and drying.
- To encourage your indeterminate plants to continue producing, stay on top of the harvest and do your best to clean up the lower leaves of the plants, which will likely become blighted and crispy as the season moves on.
- If a fall frost threatens, cover your plants with sheets or scrap plastic (or even Christmas lights). The day before the deep freeze arrives (forecasted lows below 28 degrees), harvest as many green fruits as you can.
Roma Tomato Bruschetta with Purple Basil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
- ½ cup fresh purple basil, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 roma tomatoes, diced
- 2 garlic cloves (to rub on bread)
- 8 slices Italian bread, sliced about 1-inch thick
- 2 tablespoons grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Whisk together the garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and basil. Drizzle in the olive oil and whisk. Add the tomatoes, and let the mixture sit for 20 minutes at room temperature. Toast the bread. Rub one side of each slice with the whole garlic cloves. Place the slices on a cookie sheet and top them with the tomato mixture. Sprinkle the cheese on the slices and broil them until the cheese melts.