8 Tips for growing tomatoes

(and basil, in Sydney)

 

1. The worm condo

If you want good tomatoes, you need a worm condominium! For an easy way to set one up, just go the ABC Gardening how to build a worm farm.  There are two reasons for the worm condo, firstly it will give you worm juice for weekly fertilizing, secondly the worm castings are perfect for soil preparation.

2. Soil recipe

I have only 3cm of soil then solid sandstone, so I had to import soil.  I got a mixture of soil, manure and  compost.  If your soil does not have much in the way of organic matter, just add compost and manure.   To this I add the following before I plant my tomatoes:

• Crushed egg shells that have been saved, put through the microwave to dry them out, then pulverized in the blender.  This adds calcium into the soil, and stops blossom rot.
• As much worm castings as I have available. 
• A handfull of lime.
• Any ground coffee I have saved and frozen in the freezer.
• Any compost I may have around.

And... I usually plant a winter crop of peas, as these will fix nitrogen into the soil for your tomatoes to use.

3. The seaweed dip

When you buy tomato seedlings, water them and sit them in the shade until the sun has gone down before you plant them out.  Fill a container - an old ice cream container is good - with a very weak solution of water and seaweed extract.  It should look like very weak tea.  As you plant out your seedlings, dip the roots into the solution first.  This seems to give them a better start than just watering in seaweed solution.  Once they are all planted out, water the seedlings with what is leftover.

Just another thing about planting - vary your tomato varieties each year and you will soon find out which ones suite your area better, and always plant basil as a companion.  A few seeds will soon come up once the sun hits them.

4. Prune for larger fruit

You must prune out the laterals if you would like good sized fruit!  This year I let one of the cherry tomatoes go on its own, with no pruning as an experiment.  Yes we had lots of fruit, but they were tiny, and mostly skin and seeds.  Not much use those!   For a good tutorial on laterals, just look here.

Another point about pruning- if the leaves look a bit old and dry, just cut them off.  I also cut off the first couple of leaf stems at the bottom of the bush as this helps stop viruses from the soil.

5. Weekly lunches

I feed my tomatoes with a week solution of worm juice and either seaweed solution or tomatoe food every week.  When I say feed, I mean not just the soil, mostly it goes on the leaves.  This seems to keep the pests away as well as keep the tomatoes happy.

6. Dust after rain

Sydney is a major fruit fly area, so after a good rain you must dust with tomatoe dust to keep them away.  There is no other way I have found unfortunately.  This means that tomatoes must be washed very well before eating.

7. Three square meals a day mulch

I use Lucerne to mulch my vegies, and on the tomatoes it goes on about 3 times during the season.  Lucerne mulch will break down and add to the soil, feeding the worms along the way.  Other mulches will tend to take nutrients out of the soil, so be very careful what you use.

Lessons from summer 2014

Some lessons I learned this summer:

• Snap and sugar peas do not like mulch or too much water
• Zucchinis don't like humidity
• Everything likes worm tea
• Best tomatoes were black russian, sweet bite and sugar sweet
• Herbs grow well in pots
• Keep cutting rocket for sweet leaves.  Old ones are horrible!
• Mini Cos lettuce is great
• Mint is fickle

..............................

Autumn update

So the last of the tomatoes have been taken off and the bed has been upgraded with lots of compost.  I  also harvested most of the basil, but found that the rain had brought in a pest who had munched on a lot of it, and made a home in one of the leaves!
But there was still quite a bit to cut up and freeze in ice cube trays.  You can do the same with parsley and other herbs, I pack them into zip lock bags once they are frozen - great for soups and stews.

The fun begins with the planting

After a day that got to 40degrees C, (that is really HOT), it rained overnight so my beds are perfect for planting today.  The soil is warm and wet.  This is the great thing about living where I do, we face south and are on the top of a hill, so my house was built to passive solar standards to take advantage of this.  When we get a hot day in Sydney, it is usually followed by a southerly buster - rain and wind from the south.  I just open the doors and in comes the cool air.  I doubt I will ever move!

So the plan today is :
Bed A

1. two tripods for snap and snow peas,
2. a row of radish, rocket and pac choy seeds which is repeated every 3 weeks so we have a continuous supply.
3. flowers in one corner - courtesy of a wedding my son went to where he received seeds to plant as a thank you gift - lovely, and some marigolds if I can find them,
4. parsley in the other corner to keep away pests and encourage good bugs

Bed B

1. Yellow cherry tomatoes
2. Grosse Lissie grafted tomatoe
3. More tomatoes
4. Basil
5. Lettuce that can be continuously picked.

After a trip to the shop for seedlings, this is what I actually planted

So, all the things in bed A are seeds, and only the basil and flowers are seeds in bed B.  As the soil already has manure and compost in it, I only added lime to the lettuce and tomatoes, and worm castings to the bottom of the tomato holes, and coffee grounds on top of the soil around the tomatoes.

4 peas have been planted at the bottom of each tripod, 2 per stake, and I will put in another 4 under the other stakes in about 3 weeks, that should keep a good supply going.  The beds currently look like this:

Here are some tips I used at the plating stage

• Add a bit of lime to the soil for tomatoes and lettuce
• Take off the bottom leaves of the tomatoes so that they don't develop fungus or virus diseases.
• Put some worm castings into the tomato holes.
• Sprinkle ground coffee (not instant) around the tomatoes.
• Water Epsom salts over the peas to help the seeds sprout, and over the lettuce because they like it.  (I did this the next day)
• On the second day I watered everything with a mild solution of seaweed extract and worm juice.

By the bye,  I set up a very successful worm farm for next to nothing, here is the link on how to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN3cACBUWjI  - and thanks to Gardening Australia.  I have used this method and it works.  I bought my worms from a place in Oatley though, as they are much fresher than if you buy them from the hardware store.  Check out  Able Worms -   Myall St, Oatley NSW 2223

Here is a picture of my worm farm, I got the boxes for free at the Sydney Markets.

When I judge art,

I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower.

 If it clashes, it is not art.
...Paul Cezanne