Tomatoes a Quick Overview...

So today I wanted to talk about Tomatoes! Yum!

 

Nothing fancy just a quick overview.

 

The tomatoe "Solanum lycopersicum" as the proper name is originally native to mexico after the Spanish conquered Aztec city of Tenochtítlan, now Mexico City, in 1521, it was shipped to Euorpe and cultivated there, though some think that it goes even as far back as Christopher Columbus. 

 

And I used to always think that tomatoes were from Italy!

Basic Needs for Tomatoes:

Sun:

Tomatoes enjoy full sun for most of the day. So if you are in the western hemisphere make sure they are south facing.

 

Water

Tomatoes in general like to be watered once a day in my experience. It also depends how often you water them. Also if you are watering with a gardening hose make sure to not water the leaves because this can increase the chance of getting diseases and we don't want that! Instead water the soil directly. In general though especially in warm climates watering them daily will do the trick.

 

Soil:

A rich loamy soil with good drainage is good for tomatoes. They also prefer their ph 6.0-6.8. I generally don't follow the ph rules, I like too make sure that my soil is getting plenty of compost as too increase the microbiology of the soil. I always encourage you if you are not already to be adding compost to your soil as to improve it's microbiology, or add compost tea. See the bottom for more details.

 

Nutrients and Fertilizers: 

The three most common ingredients in fertilzers are NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) they will be labeled on the bottle and for example 1-4-1 in the order of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium. Now I will break these down as to show you which functions each of them serve.

 

Nitrogen- 

this ingredient is responsible for producing leaf growth, although a fertilizer 10-1-1 will give you a massive tomatoe plant but with little tomatoe production.

 

Phosphorous- 

this is what encourages flowering in plants.

 

Pottasium- 

this is what the plant uses to produce the actual tomatoe. yum!

 

Encourage Microbiology!

That being said I highly encourage you to use organic fertilizer and avoid commercial fertilizer because commercial ones will tend to give your plants the NPK but will generally made from petroleum and will end up damaging the LIFE in your soil and killing the microbiology. And what good is soil if it is dead? 

 

If you want to bring the microbiology back in your soil and make it ALIVE, check out this site:

 

http://www.boogiebrew.net/

 

Here's a youtube video from one of my favorite gardeners John! Interviewing the boogie brew man.

 

Enjoy!

 

 Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/much-water-tomato-plant-need-day-55659.html

http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/tomato.html