COMMOM TOMATO PLANTING MISTAKES.

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin

If you want to have a big tomato harvest this year, it all starts by avoiding some of the most common tomato planting mistakes when first putting them in the ground. Getting your tomato plants off to a good start is a big key to a healthy tomato crop.

Here is a look at 5 of the biggest mistakes made when planting, and how to avoid them for a great harvest!

1. Planting in the Same Location

One of the biggest mistakes made in vegetable gardens is to not rotate crops from year to year. Planting in a new space each year is one of the best ways to keep your tomato crop healthy and disease free. With tomatoes, a lack of crop rotation can really hurt your crop and many future tomato crops too.

Tomato plants use a tremendous amount of resources from the soil. To boot, they are susceptible to numerous soil and soil-borne diseases. Rotating where you plant tomatoes each year can help keep tomato blight at bay. By rotating where you plant tomatoes each year, tomatoes can find the nutrients they need, and keep disease at bay.

2. Planting in the Cold

Tomatoes are a warm weather and warm soil crop. Planting in the cold causes a whole host of problems for tender, young tomato plants. From potential frost and freeze damage, to rot and mold.

Allow warmer weather to settle in so that soil temperatures can heat up as well. A good rule of thumb is to wait until night time temps stay in the 50 to 55 degree range before planting. It takes a solid week to 10 days of 70 to 80 degree daytime temperatures to warm the soil.

Planting in the cold requires very technical and professional expertise like I mentioned my other article that dealt with frost in tomatoes. It can be costly to have a good harvest.

3. Not Planting Deep Enough.

Tomatoes need to be planted deep to develop strong, healthy, and resilient roots.

Plant transplants deep enough to cover the first two sets of leaves. You do not have to cut off the leaves. They will help to grow new roots. From this you should know when to pick your seedlings from market.

Dig down 10cm to 15cm to create your planting holes, and bury transplants below their first set of leaves as mentioned above. While you are at it, fill that planting hole back in with a good mix of manure to power their growth.

4. Not Staking before Planting.

This is one of the most oft-committed of the tomato planting mistakes. Before you ever plant that first plant, get those tomato supports in place! Putting stakes and cages in days or weeks after planting is a recipe for disaster.

Not only does the process damage plants and plant roots as you drive in the supports, the foot traffic also compresses the soil area around the roots as you work.

That compression can keep roots from absorbing both water and nutrients from the soil. And, even more, stunt growth. Waiting too long can also lead to wind damage from plants falling over and breaking off.

5. Not Mulching Plants.

Last but not least, don’t forget to mulch those tomato plants! Leaving soil bare will cause all types of issues. For one, it dries the soil and roots of the plants out at a rapid rate. And tomato roots need their moisture.

Leaving soil bare after planting leaves the door open for all kinds of issues. Mulch also regulates the soil temperature, keeping it from soaring or plummeting on cold or hot days. Worst of all, competing weeds easily move in on bare soil to steal nutrients from the soil.

Mulch tomato plants with a 4cm to 8cm thick coating of straw, shredded leaves or compost to help insulate and protect plants as they grow.

Hope you get to avoid these tomato planting mistakes and you can now grow your best crop ever!

Farming for Business

Tomato is green gold.