Photo: Honey Drop tomatoes courtesy of Marla Koss
by Linda Carloni, ABG Board member and Master Gardener
Tomatoes are one of most popular plants for home gardens. Alameda’s climate and soil are not optimal for all varieties of tomatoes, but with some knowledge of Alameda’s eccentricities, you can enjoy home grown tomatoes. Using tomato seedlings rather than seeds requires less gardening time and a lot less advance planning.
Site and soil
Tomatoes like sun and heat. In many summers, neither of these is particularly abundant in Alameda. The warmest, sunniest spot you have is best for your tomatoes. If you can find a sunny spot adjacent to a sidewalk or pavers, the sunny pavement will keep your plant and its soil even warmer. Many types of tomatoes will grow in containers, but containers should be large and at least 18 inches deep.
Tomatoes need a lot of nutrients!
Alameda’s soil is generally sandy, which means that nutrients wash out easily. To counter this, add 4 or 5 inches of well-aged manure (chicken or steer are available commercially) to your tomato bed or container, dig it in to the top foot of the soil, water well, and wait a week before planting. If you don’t have manure, 6 inches of compost used in the same way is fine. Fertilizers high in nitrogen (fish emulsion, etc.) are not recommended for tomatoes- they tend to encourage leafy growth instead of tomato fruits.
Variety
This year it may be trickier to find tomato seedlings because of limited supplies from growers, limited store hours and higher demand from new Victory Gardeners. To meet this need, Alameda Backyard Growers is planning a no-contact vegetable seedling sale on April 25. Stay tuned for more details on this possible plant purchase opportunity.
Many varieties of tomatoes work well in Alameda, but it all depends on the micro-climate of your tomato patch, and of course how warm the summer turns out to be. If you don’t have a very warm spot, sticking to varieties with relatively fewer days-to-maturity may be safest. (Days-to-maturity is a measure of when you can expect to harvest ripe tomatoes. It should be available at the point of sale or on the plant tag.) Determinate (bushy more compact plants) and cherry tomatoes tend to have a shorter maturity period, but some of the indeterminate (large vining plants) varieties are also early. If you have a nicely warm sunny spot or are patient enough to wait till later in the season for your tomatoes, you could give some varieties that take longer to mature a try. If you are planting in a container, a compact plant or a variety developed for containers may serve you best. Our vegetable seedling sale will feature many varieties of tomatoes for many different situations, with lots of information about their growing time and pattern.
Planting
April is a great time to plant tomatoes. Once your bed or container is ready, dig a deep hole. Roots will form along the buried portion of the stem, so you can bury the plant up to its first leaves. If the plant is big enough, you can even carefully remove the lowest leaves and bury the stem from which the leaves were removed. Just leave a few leaves at the unburied top. Leave a few feet between plants to improve air circulation. Try not to plant tomatoes and other plants in its family (eggplant, peppers, potatoes) in the same spot year after year to keep soil problems from building up.
Make sure the soil is moist when you plant and keep the soil moist for 3 – 4 weeks. After that, you can cut back the moisture so that the 2 to 3 top inches of the soil dries out before you water. But don’t let the tomato roots dry completely out before watering – inconsistent moisture causes problems in the fruits. A mulch of dark chips will help keep the soil warm as well as keep moisture in and weeds down.
Tomatoes need support (as do we all in these trying times). But tomatoes will be satisfied with a tomato cage, lots of staking or trellises. Placing these at the time of planting will avoid the mistake I’ve made (too often) – waiting until the plant is hard to wrangle into its support and damaging the branching stems. As the plant grows, tie the stems loosely to the support structure to keep the branches off the soil.
For much more information on tomato growing:
http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/EdibleGardening/GreatTomatoPlantSale/
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/tomato.html
We wish you happy and successful tomato growing and a bountiful crop!