Tomatoes for the Neighbourhood

by | Nov 27, 2024

All home growers would agree that its one of the most exciting veggy we all want to grow. Be its bright colour or beauty or a more than a hundreds way to use it raw and cooked or just the love for tomatoes, most of us are super thrilled to see the red bunches hanging in the garden. Unlike easy greens, fruiting plants and specially tomatoes need a little expertise in care to bring success. Of all, I myself took a few years to get the hang of it and still learning. So here are a few tomato hacks I slowly learnt over the years that will help you bring a bumper harvest.

Like they say,” teach a man to garden and the whole neighbourhood will get tomatoes.” And that is going to be perfectly true once your really get these hacks into practice its one crops that gives you a raining harvest all through the crop cycle. And once you are tired of enjoying salads and gravies, making dips and chutneys, sun dry them to keep, freeze them for summer, you will still have them enough for neighbours.

6 Hacks for Growing Tomatoes

1. Perfect Soil Mix

Tomatoes love well drained, slightly acidic soil that high in nutrient value. So make your soil mix rich in compost when you start. Give a side dressing once or twice through the season. Add calcium and phosphorous rich bone-meal or egg shells before flowering time.

2. Plant it Right

Plant the saplings really deep or go multiple transplants i.e. From sapling tray to 6″ pot  to 12″ pot or beds.
Burrying the hairy stem helps develope a better root system which in turn leads to healthy growth

3. Remove Suckers

Small shoots that grow from junction of a main branch are called suckers. Pruning them early improves the quality of fruit as they squeeze away nutrition.
Its can be a great idea to root them they are capable of flowering and fruiting.

4. Pinching

When your plant is 10″ pinch the apex. Every pinch brings new branches and bushier growth to bear more flowering

5. Stake them Early

Both bush and climber varieties of tomatoes need support. As soon as you transplant them in their final pot or bed, stake them firmly with good quality sootli or sticks. This protects the plant from limping with weight, once the fruit sets in.

6. Clear Lower Leaves

As the plant grows, keep clearing the lower leaves which will protect the plant from pest and disease from the soil. It also brings concentrated energy to fruiting as spent leaves no longer waste water and nutrients