For most southern folk, the time period between mid-August till early June is a little sad because we have to buy our tomatoes from a store somewhere. Although better than nothing, we enjoy eating them about as much as we enjoy going to the dentist! They are often tough skinned, bland flavored and the fleshy part is... well...it's just a sad time if you like tomatoes! Here's how I grow tomatoes every year.
I set my plants in basically the same spot of ground every year because it seems to suit them very well. Once every 5 years or so I cut in some lime. This helps prevent the bottom rot on the fruit. Other than that I just use commercial fertilizer (13-13-13) and ammonia (34-0-0).
I order tomato seed around the first of December each year. Better Boy hybrids are my favorite, but, Big Boy, Celebrity, Marion, and Early Girl are also good choices. Beefsteaks hold up good in hot and dry weather, but have too much of a stem core to suit me. Heirloom varieties are good too, but, my wife likes her tomatoes red! I plant the seed one at a time in seed trays about the middle of January to have them big enough to set out by March. It's trouble having to move the trays in and out from the cold and keeping the plants watered, but once they get two sets of leaves on them, they are ready to go.
Here in the deep south, the weather usually agrees and the ground begins to warm around the first week or two in March. Sometimes (as it was this year) I have to cover the plants overnight to keep frost from killing them but those that survive will produce by early June. In the meantime I fertilize them generously, set a wire and stick each plant. As the vines grow, I tie them to their stick with jute string and prune out every sucker branch keeping only the main vine climbing the pole. Tomatoes really like ammonia, so about every week and a half or so, I pitch about a table spoon at the base of each plant, but not directly touching the plant. Ammonia causes the stems to thicken which makes the plant much more hardy and it also causes the plant to produce more fruit. I use a garden tiller to keep the middles clean and an old fashion hoe to work between the plants.
The next thing to consider is bug control. In my little piece of the world, I must defeat aphids, white flies, spider mites and horned worms. Aphids are stem and leaf suckers while white flies and spider mites ruin the blooms. Tomato worms consume the leaves and stems. Later on in the summer we are beset by stinkbugs. You can buy various products that supposedly will control each pest, but, that can get expensive and may or may not control them. You also must be a little concerned about consuming the chemical products, so, be sure to read the labels! I discovered by looking at a label for a certain pest control product that it contained 95% canola oil and sold for $16.95. Well shoot, you can buy a jug of canola oil for less than 3 bucks, so I bought some and found that if you mix a cup of canola oil to a gallon of water and spray it as needed, it will keep these pests off. I still use Sevin dust for the worms and I've also found that dawn dish wash soap mixed in water kills stink bugs. So there you have it.
This year I have around 225 tomato plants in my garden. I am getting some fine tomatoes now and I have about 90 plants that are just getting big enough to stick. A home grown tomato tastes nothing like one bought in a store or from a green house. The flavor and acidity make all the work worth while. We eat them every day while we have them fresh from the garden. Two pieces of loaf bread with mayonnaise and a big ol slice or two of fresh cold tomato will make a fellow want to slap something!
They are also delicious as sides for other meals. Sometimes we just peel and slice one, salt it a little and just eat plain tomato! Green tomato slices coated in meal and fried in hot grease are plumb sinful. They make salads taste totally different and tomato juice keeps several years in mason jars, so my wife puts up a lot of juice each year to make stews and soups for all my family.
It does take a little hard work and time spent to have good tomatoes, but, in the end when you taste one you will be glad. I also very much enjoy giving some away to my neighbors. Most all of us love tomatoes but not all are able to grow their own.
If you can keep the plants watered and mostly free of bugs, they will make until frost so, set out some tomatoes around your house somewhere and enjoy the fresh juicy taste of a home grown tomato. I promise there's nothing else like it!
