Guide Growing Tomato from Seed to Fruit

Guide Growing Tomato from Seed to Fruit

Information for Sowing and Growing Tomatoes of all types: Sow in Spring, depending on the temperature of the place where you live, Tomato Seeds are planted between March, April and May, I personally plant them in Tuscany, Italy, in mid-April so that after two or three months take the best sun of the year which is that of June and July to give tastier and larger fruits. Germination takes 4 - 10 days at an optimal temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, so there is no need for a heating mat, chamomile bath or lamps, in fact, germinating tomato seeds is very easy.

 

Every year I am asked which are the best tomatoes to grow, for this season I suggest these:

 

- Tomato White Beauty
- Wild Galapagos Tomato

- Indigo Rose - The Perfect Tomato Purple outside and Red inside!


 

Sow the Seeds in a Seedbed or inside plastic cups that you will have previously laundered, keeping them indoors at a temperature of 15 - 20 Celsius degrees, no more; use good Sowing Soil, for Tomatoes a Universal Soil is also fine.

 

If the home of your tomatoes is in the pot instead of in the garden, for the transfer I suggest 5 - 10 liter pots and this soil: Vigor Plant Complete Transfer Soil

 

Avoid like the plague buying soil in a cheap supermarket because they fill it with sawdust or taking soil from the garden or in the countryside as it will be full of fungi and other pathogens. When the seedlings have grown enough on 10 cm - 20 cm, usually quite quickly in two or three weeks, decide whether to put them in a larger pot, of at least 5 - 10 liters or directly in the garden, not before April forwarded, or March if you are in the South.

 

A few days before transplanting into the garden, I suggest placing the seedlings still in pots outside in partial shade, to gradually get them used to external conditions. Choose a soil in a warm and sunny position. The seedling, complete with the earthen block, must be buried leaving a slight depression in the ground. If you want to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse, choose the coolest location for them.

 

Tomatoes need sun and substantial nourishment, therefore the portion of the garden dedicated to them must be fertilized abundantly with manure or manure, I suggest this totally organic one: 25 kg of manure in organic pellets

 

When the seedlings have reached a height of 40 cm it will be necessary to support a brace to which to tie the plants, the classic bamboos are fine. If it produces too heavy fruit, several braces are fixed together. Throughout the summer it will be necessary to regularly remove the small shoots that grow in the axils of the leaves (defeminating), if you don't know what it is, it is a simple operation that I describe in this video of mine: How to Remove Femminelle from Tomatoes and why

 

At the end of the season, remove the growing apex to accelerate the ripening of the last fruits, practically cutting the top of the plant. The harvest of tomatoes, as they ripen, is staggered from July to September. The last Tomatoes, which will not be able to ripen on the plant, can be ripened at home, taking care to pick them with the whole branch.

 

All Tomatoes, apart from the Cherry Tomatoes, are subject to what is called "rotten ass" or "black ass" i.e. the dreaded Apical Rot, there may be various reasons why the top of the tomato fruit turns brown until it all rots the fruits and make our work in vain, but basically there are always two reasons, too much water or, in most cases, a lack of calcium. This thing almost always happens even if the earth seems excellent because the tomato needs high quantities of calcium, so to avoid this problem I always give it in a preventive way and therefore a long time before seeing the first tomatoes, starting from the beginning of May every two weeks, you can choose according to your needs one of the following products, both valid:

 

 

- Bio Fertilizer for Tomatoes specific to prevent Apical Rot with Calcium and Magnesium

 

- Fertilizer for Tomatoes with Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium

 

 

Diseases and parasites of the tomato: fungal diseases are the most frequent, to prevent them it is necessary to give the copper a couple of times a month usually after it has rained and pay particular attention in general not to water too much, in fact the tomato plant, once she is an adult and in her permanent home she needs little water: Copper Sulphate for Organic Agriculture

 

 

In summary, therefore, the two operations to be done to be sure of obtaining a good harvest of tomatoes are to give the calcium and to give the copper, always in the preventive phase and not when the problems have already manifested themselves. Be good or else Carlo gets agitated!