eBook Review – “How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes”

Authors: Annette Welsford and Lucia Grimmer

Reviewer: Lyd Holland
Rating:

Recently there have been a proliferation of books about growing tomatoes that have come onto the market – particularly on the internet. Most are nothing more than collections of anecdotes, which I found out after buying them.

“How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes” is different. In fact avid tomato growers are raving about this Australian book: they’ve had dramatically improved growth rates and crop yields by following the cultivation advice.

“How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes” has been written for anyone who wants to grow great tomatoes. Whether you’re in a hot climate or cold, on a farm or in an apartment, this book gives you step by step instructions to get started and detailed technical advice to common problems.

This easy to read 88 page book was co-authored by a lady with a Masters Degree in Plant Disease who
is a professional nutrition and disease advisor to the horticultural industry. Despite being a technical resource, it is really easy for the average person to understand. It contains lots of photos and step by step instructions as well as useful tips on organic gardening, watering, fertilising, disease, pests, growing from seed, collecting seed etc. It covers everything. It also contains very useful conversions of weights and measures throughout so whether you use imperial or metric you understand immediately what to do.

Step-by-step advice and tips on how to grow tomatoes you can use to help you substantially increase your crop’s health and yield. Not only that – your tomatoes will have more flavour and be a lot sweeter than you’ve tasted from a store bought variety.

It carries a lot more detail than the other ebooks on offer with a good amount of information on tomato problems and avoiding these problems before they start. Includes a lot of pictures that are very helpful and comes with the reassurance that the writers of this ebook are very knowledgeable and know their stuff!

My Verdict: This is the most comprehensive ebook I’ve seen, and its suitable for all levels of tomato growing ability. It gets a big thumbs up from me – Five Stars

Click Here To Get “How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes”

Plant Foliar feeding is possible due to the specific pores, found on the underside or on both sides of the plant’s leaf. These pores are called stomata, and their main duty is to enable gas exchange between plant and environment during the process of photosynthesis. Besides, respiration as well as water vaporization also occurs in stomata. Thanks to these tiny pores on the surface of the leaves, the plant can absorb water and nutrients dissolved in it.

However, because of certain barrier, only part of nutrient solution can be absorbed through leaves. So, foliar feeding can never be used as the only way to deliver nutrients to the plants. The primary task of foliar feeding or fertilization is to rapidly supply micro nutrients to the plants. Sometimes, using biuret-free urea one can deliver nitrogen via the plant’s leaves.

 Foliar Nutrient Application

In order to provide proper effectiveness of hydroponic nutrient sprays, it is necessary to keep in mind the rate at which plants absorb nutrients and translocate them within the plant. Besides, there are many other factors, which affect the uptake of nutrients within the plant. Some of them are indicated in the table at the bottom of this section.

Of course, it is not easy to consider all of those factors, but some of them are more important than others, so it is important to keep them in mind. First of all, when choosing a foliar fertilizer, choose the one with high quality wetting and sticking agent. It is necessary for ensuring proper adherence of droplets to the leaves, which in its turn will ensure effective absorption of fertilizing solution into the plant tissues.

 Though foliar feeding can be performed on a regular basis, there are certain periods, when plant fertilizing becomes especially important. For example, when the plants are in their active growing phase, or when fruits develop and plants need more nutrients than usual. Usually, during such periods plants gain additional ability to absorb nutrients through their leaves. Foliar feeding is especially beneficial for the plants with damaged root system, as it can partially compensate the decrease in nutrients absorption via roots.

The Role of Foliar Feeding in Hydroponic Gardening

In spite of the fact that hydroponic plants are meant to receive all the necessary hydroponic nutrients through the specially formulated nutrient solution, foliar feeding still provides additional benefits to them. It was proven by studies that those plants, receiving foliar feeding, provide more fruits in comparison to the plants without additional foliar fertilization. It has been shown that potato plants, treated with foliar fertilizers, provide better harvest with larger tubers. Weekly foliar feeding of tomatoes resulted in yield and fruit quality improvements. All the recorded improvements, provided by foliar feeding, allow treating this method not only as a quick fix of nutrient deficit, but also a reliable method to increase harvest.

All Muir Glen tomatoes are grown in the fertile, sun-drenched central valley of California, with no toxic synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Taste the difference!

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Growing tomatoes is fun and a lucrative home  gardening business. Besides being nutritious, it could provide you with a real fresh fruits coming directly from your garden.

You can produce them the way you want it. Producing tomatoes can be done without using chemicals because you’re the one controlling their growth processes.

If you’ll plant tomatoes with other vegetables, the occurrence of pests and diseases attack could be totally minimized or even none at all. Companion cropping or multiple cropping can control pests and diseases attack since they’re protected by the other plants.

Steps in growing tomatoes…

1)   Provide a seed box or germinating tray for sowing seeds. Sow the seeds 12 mm or .5 inch deep in the seed  trays or germinating tray. Slightly cover the seeds with thin soil to cover them.

2)   Cover the seed trays or germinating trays with newspaper or polyethylene plastic. Germination will take about 7-10 days from sowing.

3)   After  the seeds have germinated, remove the cover. Gradually expose the growing seedlings to the morning sunlight to harden them

4)   Prepare a separate seed trays or germinating trays the same manner as when sowing seedlings. Fill with the growing medium and level at least 12 mm or .5 inch below the rim.

5)   Use a dibber to form holes about 36 mm or .5 inch apart, the outer ones  12 mm or .5 inch from the sides.

6)   As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick or transfer them to the individual holes in the prepared seedling or germinating trays. This is to provide the seedlings a wider space to avoid over-crowding while in the seedling or germinating trays.

7)   Now set the individual seedlings to a growing bags or pots.

8)   Support the plants with sticks tied with wires or strings to hold in place.

9)   Feed the growing plants every ten days from planting up to the time when the first truss (bunch fruit) in formed.

10) Remove or prune all shoots growing in the angles of the leaves-snap them sideways. Also, gradually remove or prune the lower leaves to induce ripening of the fruits.

11) Harvest your fresh tomatoes when they’re ripe. You can give or sell your surplus harvest to your neighbors. And they’ll thanks for your generosity.

See, it’s very easy to grow your own chemically free tomatoes for your family’s needs.

Why not try planting your own homemade tomatoes. You’re sure you’ll enjoy it.

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Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes about home gardening and      Internet  marketing tips. You can get a copy of his latest ebook “How to get started in  Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”, also get lots of tips, Free articles, and bonuses  at: www.crisramasasa.com

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First, the best time to plant your tomato plants is early spring. You don’t want to plant them when the soil still has a chance of freezing they will be doomed to failure.

Get Free Help Growing Tomatoes

Secondly. spacing is very important, check the tag when purchasing your plants for spacing instructions. You never want to crowd the plants. If you plant them too close they will never grow to their true potential size. But keep it mind this can be done effectively in large pots.

Third, adding mulch and organic matter such as compost is important for healthy plants. You may also want to feed your tomato plants a liquid fertilizer every three weeks for healthier plants. Tomato plants are considered heavy feeders and therefore require the proper amount of nutrients.

Fourth, proper watering is essential. You must water your plants regularly. If you are growing your plants in containers I suggest you water your plants every two days, but make sure the pots have proper drainage.

Fifth, as your plants grow they will require stakes or cages to support the vines weight. These can be purchased at any garden store for a nominal cost.

Lastly, keep your plants free of weeds that can lead to a home for destructive insects. Beneficial insects such as ladybugs can be purchased to keep off destructive insects. If you follow these simple steps you can be the proud growers of beautiful tomatoes just like us.

Realistically most growbags that are available which can be 35 or 40 litres in size are only enough to support two plants. There are ways in which you can push this out to 3 plants but for the cost of a growbag its probably as well just to stick to 2 plants, particularly if you take good care of them and produce lots of fruit.

If you go for pots then you should steralise them before use, to do this you can use a dilute solution of a suitable disinfectant, something like Jeyes fluid is perfect for this task.

While we are on this subject, you really should wipe down the inside of your greenhouse with disinfectant as well to ensure any residual contaminants that could also cause disease are removed from the glass.

One of the reasons I am suggesting using large pots or growbags for growing tomato plants is because the soil in the greenhouse is going to need to be dug out and replaced every 2 or 3 years anyway to ensure that you get rid of any build up of disease and also because the soil will be pretty much spent in terms of nutrients.

Space is limited in a greenhouse so the best option for plant varieties is to use the indeterminate variety of tomato plant i.e. a vine plant. You can prune the plant to the required size, leaving about 4 to 6 trusses on the main stem, which is about 6′ to 7′ in height, greenhouse size allowing. This will give you lots of fruit over an extended period.  You will have to pinch out the main stem when you have enough trusses to stop further growth.

As an aside, using the bush variety is less convenient for greenhouses because they, as the name suggests, form a determinant size of bush without pruning which is probably a little too large in diameter for the average greenhouse. The fruit also has a tendency to all come at once.

Irrespective of the growing method you choose, you should start to feed the tomatoes at the first sign of fruit and for the duration of the growing period, twice a week should be sufficient. Also as you are in a greenhouse regular and consistent watering is also very important and I recommend 2 to 3 times a day with water that has been allowed to warm in the greenhouse.

As the end of the season nears a way of helping the last remaining fruit ripen is to hang a couple of bananas in the apex of the greenhouse. If that fails to ripen the last bit of fruit you can always use the green tomatoes for making a delicious chutney.

Clearly planting tomatoes in a greenhouse leaves you with limited options, for most people the greenhouse will be relatively small and probably only a little taller than the height of an average man, unless of course you have the space and money for a large more industrial sized greenhouse, but for the purposes of this article I am going to discuss the smaller option that is, I believe, more prolific in the home gardening environment.

This makes it much more difficult to use the tomato plant hanging option for your plants and in practical terms the only real option you have is to plant using the soil inside the greenhouse or to sit pots on the floor of the greenhouse, either way make sure you have a good mix of mulch, compost and fertilizer.

You will still need to be able to support the fronds of the tomato plant and with limited space a good way of doing this is to knock 3 stakes into the ground at each end of the planned run and to tie gardening string between the stakes. When the plants grow they pass through the strings and then hang over them a little like clothes on a washing line.

If you are inside a greenhouse the plants will be totally dependent on you for their water so you have a choice, invest in a self watering system or use hand watering. If you choose hand watering it is also good practice to leave the water in the greenhouse with the plants to allow it to warm a little before use. Takes a bit of discipline but as long as you refill after watering then leave overnight, that should do the trick and you will not shock the plants with cold water.

The final thing you need to take care of is not letting the greenhouse get too hot and or humid, if it is really sunny for a period you can paint the glass with a whitewash to reflect the sun away and you can open the roof light or door to let some of the heat get away but don’t forget to shut them again at night when it is cool.

Other than these few peculiarities the tomatoes should be treated in much the same as they would be if they were being grown outside, so in addition to proper soil preparation and watering, you need to take steps to keep them disease free, pest free and to give them access to plenty of nutrients via a feeding program.

On average a healthy plant can yield as much as 10 pounds of fruit. For a family of four, that’s more than enough tomatoes to feed on for a week.  The plants don’t need much space and can even be grown in containers, which easily moved around.

There are many advantages to growing tomato plants. Growing tomatoes on your own can save you money at the grocery store and ensure the fruit is as fresh as possible. In addition, you’ll know your eating tomatoes that free of pesticides and other dangerous chemicals.

When growing tomatoes you want the soil to be rich in nutrients. It is best if the soil naturally contains all the essential nutrients, however If necessary improve the quality of the soil with compost or fertilizer.

Tomatoes can be grown indoors or out, just be sure they have good drainage. It will help if your get the soil PH correct before you plant the tomato. The ideal range should be between 6.2 and 6.8. When growing tomatoes it’s a good idea to start the plant indoors, moving outside when above 50 degrees or warmer.

When planting tomatoes in the soil only the top two leaves should remain aboveground. This will allow the plant to be hardier and the roots will grow on the stem and branch out allowing the growing tomatoes to settle itself much easier. Keep a space of two to four feet between plants. This is especially helpful when it comes time to harvest the ripe fruit.

Tomato plants need to be staked to stop them from falling over under their own weight. The time to do this is when the plant is first planted in the ground so rot damage in minimized.

Tomato plant care:

When using fertilizer choose one that is richer in potassium and phosphorus than nitrogen. A mixture of 5-10-10 is ideal and can be found at any gardening or home improvement center. The best time to add the fertilizer is two weeks before you plant the tomatoes into the ground. This will allow the nutrients to make their way into the soil, which provide the young plants an immediate food source.

You want to water the plants regularly, and never allow them to completely dry out. It’s always better to give a deep soaking instead of a surface watering. Ideally you want the water to penetrate six inches into ground where the roots are likely found. During unusually hot and dry conditions water more often.

Adding mulch around the plants is helpful. It will protect the roots from becoming too hot and preserve ground moisture. Mulch can also keep diseases in the soil from being spread onto the plant leaves when watering.

The time it takes for your tomatoes to ripen will depend on the variety you have chosen to grow. Some varieties take three month before they are ready to harvest. A tomato is ripe when its color is the same as the type you planted, whether it is red or yellow. Look for color consistency throughout the tomato. With a gentle tug the fruit should easily come off the vine