Tomato and Pepper growing Tips

[texasweed]

I have been an avid tomato and pepper enthusiast since I was about 5 or 6 years of age when my Father turned me on to the craft. I have a few tips I would like to share with you.

1. First step is getting good rich Sandy Humus soil and balanced nutrients. Prepare the soil by working in lots (4 to 6 inches) of Mushroom compost. Even better is a product called Back to Earth Cotton Burr Compost.

2. Plant in a location where the plants receive a minimum of 6 hours of direct sun light with 8 hour preferable. If you can find a location that gives them some shade after 4:00or 5:00 pm your plants will appreciate it and reward you.

3. In every planting hole I recommend 1-pound of well-aged and rotted animal manure compost, and 1 Tablespoon of Epson Salts. If you do not have access to quality manure compost, no problem I have a secret recipe a very dear friend of mine came up with. His name is Darrel Merrill from Tulsa OK aka The Tomato Man (RIP Darrel). In each hole add 1 Tablespoon of blood meal (nitrogen), ½ cup of bone meal (phosphorous) , ½ cup of green sand, 1 Tablespoon Epson Salt, 1 whole banana with peel (potassium), and 2 crushed calcium tablets to prevent blossom-end rot. That is it for fertilizing for the season. Do not add any more.

4. Give the plants plenty of room to breathe. 3 foot spacing minimum, 4 foot preferable. This will aid greatly in preventing fungal problems.

5. Bury the plant half way up the stem (does not apply to peppers). You can snip off the branches below grade if you want, but I never do. Roots will grow off all buried parts of the plants (stems and branches). The main stem will set roots in the mulch and that is a good thing.

6. Water when the hole is half full of soil, and again when full of soil. DO NOT let the plant lay on wet soil, or splash water upon the leaves while planting.

7. Mulch lightly after planting to prevent soil being splashed onto the plant from watering or rain. As plants grow, keep adding mulch layers to about 1-foot.

8. This is a MEGA tip about mulch. Use Alfalfa hay as mulch. If not Alfalfa hay, then just use local prairie hay. DO NOT USE wood mulches because the soil can become too hot and acidic using some wood mulches like cedar and cypress. Not to mention wood mulches can float away. Stay away from plastic films.

9. Water properly. Plants need even moisture levels for fruit to develop properly, prevent cracking and blossom end rot. A soaker hose is best ran underneath the mulch with 1/gph emitters at each plant base. Water deeply once or twice a week. If you have to use overhead water, do so early in the morning to give the plant surfaces plenty of time to dry before sunset.

10. Do not get in a hurry to plant, my rule is wait two weeks after your area’s average last frost date. Waiting will not delay fruit harvest. Just keep them until you are certain no more frost will occur.

11. I do not recommend pruning unless you live in the north with short growing season. I only prune the plants late in the season (30 days before first frost in mid-November) by cutting the main stem just below the last set of flowers/fruit. This signals the plant to concentrate all it energy in developing the remaining fruit before it freezes. Yankees you can prune by pinching off the suckers so as to aid in setting fruit early.

[Michael Wise]

Thanks, TW!

About watering.

I was planning on setting up a drip system in my garden with 1 gph emitters.

What constitutes deep? One gallon? Two gallons? Or what signs do I need to look for that I watered deep per my soil conditions?

I have a sandy base with 4.5 inches of compost tilled in for my first year.

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[texasweed]

Just experiment a little. First water for 1 hour, then just dig around with a screw driver to see how deep the water penetrates. You are looking to at least get as deep as the root system and a few inches below that. From my experience with good sandy loam a hour does the trick. If you have real sandy soil probable a little less, but be careful with sandy soil as it dries out pretty quick. I test for dryness with my finger by pushing it into the soil a few inches to see if it is dry or wet.

Just do not over due it as mators and peppers do no tlike wet soggy feet.

[MorpheusPA]

+1 TW. As a general rule, 1 hour with 1 gph equals abut one inch of water over a square foot and a half (a circle about eight inches in radius). In a sandy loam, that should wet it pretty deep, but check.

Assuming emitters are 12-18 inches apart, one hour should be good.

[texasweed]

Assuming emitters are 12-18 inches apart, one hour should be good.

Do not plant mators that close together, pepper OK.

[MorpheusPA]

Assuming emitters are 12-18 inches apart, one hour should be good.

Do not plant mators that close together, pepper OK.

Oh, no, never--that was for the emitter distance if using a built-in. Mine tend to be plant-tuned, with 2 to 3 emitters per established perennial.

Since I change the annual locations, types, and water requirements yearly, I use micro-sprinklers for the rest of it that I can move around or replace the heads on for different output.

[texasweed]

Sorry Morph misunderstood what you were saying. I never use factory made hose and put emitters where needed at the base of each plant. I suppose factory made hose with pre-installed emitters have a purpose for some folks, but not for me. I only use 1/gpm for about everything and run 1-hour when needed. Unfortunately up here in Prescott that is looking like every day.

If you are going to use DRIP IRRIGATION spend the few extra bucks for the pressure regulator and filters.

[MorpheusPA]

Sorry Morph misunderstood what you were saying. I never use factory made hose and put emitters where needed at the base of each plant. I suppose factory made hose with pre-installed emitters have a purpose for some folks, but not for me. I only use 1/gpm for about everything and run 1-hour when needed. Unfortunately up here in Prescott that is looking like every day.

If you are going to use DRIP IRRIGATION spend the few extra bucks for the pressure regulator and filters.

De nada. I like the custom-design myself and do that in my own garden (I have several 1/2 GPH for things that are not happy with a lot of water, up to 2 GPH for things like the hydrangea).

Absolutely on the filter and pressure regulator. It limits snags and blowouts...

[texasweed]

I like the custom-design myself and do that in my own garden (I have several 1/2 GPH for things that are not happy with a lot of water, up to 2 GPH for things like the hydrangea.

Don't have to worry about things like hydrangea, flower beds, azaleas ect up here in Prescott unless you like the dried kind you find at the craft stores.

[MorpheusPA]

Tru dat, and the cactus and yucca don't require much water.

[Ohio2112]

Thanks TW!
Your tips couldn't have come at a better time.

I'm planting 3 kinds of tomatos this year and some sweet red peppers. Last year I grew 2 cherry tomato plants in the tipsy turvy upside down hanging planter that didn't produce a whole lot. Your tips have given me some good ideas on what I've been doing wrong.

I'm trying the peppers for the first time.

What do you use to support the tomatos and peppers when they get big?

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[GaryCinChicago]

What do you use to support the tomatos and peppers when they get big?

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Maters come in two varieties. Determinate and indeterminate.
Determinate are just that, the plant's size is pre determined and will have thick, strong, short, stubby branches. These are often called patio tomatoes. Great for a patio in a container.

Regular tomatoes are indeterminate and will grow branches profusely, often reaching 8 feet tall when caged or trellised, depending on strain. Figure on 6 feet tall minimum.

CRM is your friend for indeterminate tomatoes! Concrete Reinforcement Mesh. There is a formula for it. Cut a length X feet long, roll it and it gives you X inches in diameter. Google "Concrete Reinforcement Mesh + tomatoes" and you'll find it. 18" diameter seems to be everyone favorite size. Stake them with re-bar and fencing wire to hold upright.

These will get rusty, but will last for YEARS!
While goggling CRM, you'll see some neat inventions from those that use CRM but still want to put it away in winter.

Peppers? I just use those cheap $1 wire tomato cages for peppers, plus an added bamboo stick in the middle of it, tied to the main pepper stem at transplant time.

Are you planting sweet, mild or HOT peppers? What about the horseradish? How are you going to make chrzan with hot peppers?

Maybe C&C will see this. After the Daikon radishes, he is now planting horseradish, seeing that St. Louis is very close to the horseradish capital of the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collinsville,_Illinois It sure be awfully nice of him to harvest some, grate it, process it and then mail all of us a quart or dozen this fall!

[texasweed]

What do you use to support the tomatos and peppers when they get big?

Well funny you should ask. I use to live in TX on a farm where we had lots of room. There I use what we call Florida Weave. Google it and you will see what it is. It is just stakes and cotton twine and real easy to implement. Try a sweet 100 with a weave, they can reach 20 feet and produce 500 to 800 mators from a single plant.

But today after moving th Prescott, I will just be using store bought conical cages. Only planting a few tomatoes this year to see if it is even possible to grow mators here. So far so good, but I have not found many people around here that grow them.

[MorpheusPA]

These will get rusty, but will last for YEARS!

Time for a Public Service Announcement (cheesy music)!

When was your last tetanus shot, or TDaP? Are you unsure? Are you sure it was more than ten years ago?

Make an appointment with your family doctor today for one! It'll protect you from tetanus, diptheria, and pertussis (which is now making a come-back in the United States). Get your shot, tell somebody else to get one!

(cheesy music) This PSA paid for by the Tetanus Antibody Manufacturers Association. Tetanus! It sucks!

But seriously, folks, for us gardeners, the tetanus update is really important. Survival rates for full-blown tetanus cases range from 0-30%, and it's a really unpleasant way to go. By which I mean it's a bloody awful, painful, horrible way to go.

[andy10917]

TW, there is only one thing that you mentioned that surprised me - mushroom compost. Most of the stuff that I can get my hands on is absolutely drenched in soil sterilants, because the mushroom growing process is so oriented toward growing a fungus (duh!) that they try to prevent anything other than the established fungus (mushrooms) that they're trying to grow. Do you have a source of mushroom compost without the sterilants, or is it that you believe that the sterilants don't come into play with tomato growing?

[Bavaria]

Indeteriminate and Determinate is how they produce fruit, determinate produces mostly all at once , indeterminate. produces over the long haul of the season.

[Ohio2112]

Thanks for the ideas Gary & tw.

Try a sweet 100 with a weave, they can reach 20 feet and produce 500 to 800 mators from a single plant.

That is amazing!
You mentioned above about not feeding after planting. Do these grow that much without additional feeding too?

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[texasweed]

TW, there is only one thing that you mentioned that surprised me - mushroom compost.

I was wondering if someone would ask that.

Exactly it is sterile, all I am looking for is humus in the soil. Most compost have good and bad bacteria, viruses, ect that tomatoes are sensitive too.

Now with that said look at it this way. Let's say you make your own compost. One mistake people will make is when their tomato plants are done, they take the plants and throw it into the compost pile. Well if there are one or more of the tomato diseases/viruses in the plant , and the compost is not thoroughly cooked, you just added it back into the garden when you use the compost

[texasweed]

You mentioned above about not feeding after planting. Do these grow that much without additional feeding too?

they sure do. I would not count on it if I were you simple because of your location and the short growing season.

But my two favorite tomatoes are Sweet 100 OP, and Sun Gold. One huge benefit of these two varieties is they are as sweet as candy, and a great way to get children into eating mators. When my kids or grand kids went out with me to pick them, many times none ever made it back to the house.

[andy10917]

Thanks! After a bad, bad attack of Early Blight two seasons ago, I am avoiding growing tomatoes and other early blight sensitive plants in that area for 5 years. I bagged the diseased plants and carted them to the curb. No composting at all for them.