All About Tomatoes: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Tomatoes Organically

1. Introduction: Hello. Welcome to all about tomatoes. A Gardener's Guide to Growing tomatoes organically. I'm Tiffany. I'm a master gardener and obsessive organic gardener. I'm so glad you, considering this class as the base ingredient favorite foods like ketchup, spaghetti sauce and enchilada sauce. Tomatoes are a staple in the cuisine of many creatures revered around the world. There is tasty processed in the sauces as they are eating fresh from the vine. Tomatoes are simple enough for beginning gardeners, while more experienced gardeners can have fun growing nontraditional methods and different varieties. Simply put, there's a tomato for everyone, and everyone can grow a tomato plant. Understanding tomatoes and how they grow is the key to success. By providing the right environment and selecting the right variety for your climates, you can grow an easy, low maintenance plants that will provide you with tasty tomatoes all summer. This course covers the basic of growing tomatoes organically, from selecting your seat to planting to summer maintenance 2. Heirloom vs. Hybrid Varieties: There are many types of tomatoes, and each variety of tomato will fall into multiple categories listed below. Does elect the best tomato in your garden? First, understand the differences. 3. Indeterminate vs. Determinate Varietites: tomatoes have to growth habits. Determinate and indeterminate. This classification is based on how the plant grows. Being aware of this distinction will help you determine the kinds of supports you need when to expect your biggest harvests and what will grow best in your client. In most areas, a combination of determinant and indeterminant varieties will provide a consistent tomato harvest where, as long as the growing season lasts as well as a bumper crop of tomatoes for preserving determinants only grow to a certain size and only produce a certain number of fruits per season. Regardless of how long conditions are favorable. Most determinants or hybrid varieties, although there are some heirloom determinants. Mitos determinant varieties air often grown in cooler climates where the growing season is shorter. Some determinant varieties provide fruit and as quickly as 50 days. Growers benefit from the determinant for a variety of tomatoes. Tendency to develop mature for you to call it once, offering a bumper crop of fresh ripe tomatoes over the course of a few weeks. Once the first have matured, a determined implant is spent and will start to die back. The typical tomato cages found a garden centres are made for determinant tomatoes. Indeterminate varieties require more sturdy cages. Since these plants are smaller up to three feet tall, you can fit more determinant plants in your garden. But each plant may produce less fruit over the course of the growing season, depending on your climate. Never prove or pinch early blooms off determinant varieties, or you'll lose some of your fruit production. Indeterminant tomatoes will continue to grow leaves, stems and fruits for as long as the weather permits. Without pruning, some varieties will grow binds 10 feet or longer throughout the growing season. Most heirloom varieties are indeterminate, making this a type of tomato a good option for those seeking to grow an airline carton. Indeterminate varieties are up and slower to mature than determinate varieties, with days to maturity ranging from about 80 days and longer. For northern gardeners, this may be a problem. Depending on the great length of your growing season and southern climates. Indeterminant tomatoes can get very large that they are pruned frequently. Well, it's not necessary to print tomatoes. Many people do. We'll discuss that in a later video. Whether or not you prune, you will need to provide sufficient supports for the many long, strong bites produced by indeterminate types. By far the sturdiest in most economical option is to build tomato cage out of concrete. Remesch detail instructions will be discussed in a later video. Providing a strong structure for your tomatoes is imperative. Otherwise, we'll deal with. Tangled Disease finds that breakers for all along the ground and determinate plants are placed much farther apart than the terminate varieties. But there are many highly productive options that provide buckets of tomatoes over the course of the growing season, making them well worth the space they take up in the garden. 4. Tomato Types: Another distinction between types of tomatoes is their size and shape. Each variety of tomato has a different benefit, and choosing between these options basically comes down to personal taste in usage. Cherry and grape tomatoes or small, making them perfect for quick snacks, dipping and Trish kebabs. There are also great to dehydrate for long term storage. They make a tasty addition to pastas and salads. Frankly, one of my favorite ways to enjoy cherry tomatoes is eating them straight from the vine standing in the garden while they're still warm from the site. The primary use for slicing tomatoes is fresh eating on sandwiches or salads. Included in this category are large beefsteaks types. Known for their meaty flesh. These varieties can be diced and canned, frozen pride stuffed, among other uses. This site is perhaps the most versatile type of tomato paste. Tomatoes have less juice and seeds in slicing types, making them ideal for sauce, making many paste tomatoes. Air also good for fresh eating and frying 5. Selecting the Right Tomatoes for Your Garden: everyone has their pet tomato. And with about 25,000 known varieties, it's nearly possible for every gardener to have his own. With so many from which to choose. It's important to know what to look for. Deciding between an heirloom or hybrid and determinate or indeterminate variety is the place to start. But there are a few other things to look for to determine if a poor in particular variety is suitable for your garden. What's your goal? Do you want fresh tomatoes every day? Are you wanting to preserve most of your harvest? If you're a canner, you'll want to look for pace tomatoes, which have fewer seats for general eating as well as some preserving. You can't beat a good slicing tomato. And what's your climate? For cooler climates, look for tomatoes that indicate a short growing season or that mentioned there, more tolerant of cooler climates in the Deep South, you can get too hot for tomatoes to produce blooms, so look for varieties that tolerate heat well for areas within consistent rainfall. Look for crack resistant varieties, which will be covered again in more detail. In later video, determine your priority. What's the most important aspect of a tomato to you. Are you all about good flavor? Do you want big production in a small space? Decide what's most important to you and narrow your list down to the tomatoes benefit. 6. Preparing to Plant: before you bring your tomato plants home, know where you're going to plant, whether in the ground or in a container. Prepare your planting location and consider how you're going to proceed with pruning before the growing season starts so that you're not overwhelmed when the garden gets busy. Tomatoes like a hot climate with plenty of sun. While they're somewhat forgiving in terms of having the ideal climate, they will produce fewer fruits and may have more pest issues in areas that are to tamp or too cool. This is one reason why selecting the right variety is so important. Tomato plants do not tell the rate frost and should only be planted outside after the last chance of frost has passed. It's ideal to plant after the last expected frost eight in your area when there is no chance of frost In the extended forecast, choose a location in New York that has full sun 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day. Tomatoes will not grow or thrive in partial son for end ground growing. Select a spot with well drained soil as so the holds. Too much water will cause fruit right. Remove all grass and weeds from the planting area. These plants will compete with the tomato plant for valuable nutrients in soil. Tomatoes are heavy feeders, which means they require a lot of nutrients and do not do well if there's competition. Smaller determinant types of tomatoes do well in containers. This is particularly good option if it is difficult to find space that has full sun, since containers can be moved throughout the day or throughout the season to maximize sun exposure. So like container that holds at least five gallons of soil to provide plenty of room for reads. A loose, fertile soil mix made of equal parts garden soil, compost and perlite, or vermiculite is a good option for most fruit and vegetable container plants. Nutrients will drain out of containers faster than in the ground, so fertilized tomatoes once per month with an organic tomato. Fertiliser containers require considerably more watering. Benin ground plans plan toe water at least once a day, possibly twice per day in hot climates in the heat of summer, 7. Starting Seeds: So now it's time to talk about the fun part. Growing starting with established plants, is ideal for novice gardeners, but those with a little bit of experience under their belts construct tomatoes from seed rather easily. The best thing about growing from seed is that tomato variety options air almost unlimited . Exotic types like striped black, white, giant and tiny are all available from seed companies. The problem with growing tomatoes from seed is that it's easy to buy too much or get discouraged by a variety that doesn't do well in your garden. Try to limit the number of tomato types. You try to just a few each year and always have a few tried and true varieties in your garden to guarantee a good harvest. Starting seeds indoors will require a basic seat starting set up, which is an investment. Purchasing the materials to start seeds in your home will save a lot of money over the years because seeds air considerably cheaper than plants, even if you buy a package of seeds from a premium company for about 2 75 for 20 seats, that breaks down to potentially 20 plants at 14 cents apiece. Compare that to $4 up for one plant, and it's easy to see the return on your investment. Add in the possibility that you could sell your extra plants to friends and neighbors, and you can actually make a profit to start seeds. Use the same mixture that I previously listed for growing in containers. Equal parts garden soiled, compose and vermiculite or perlite. Many gardeners use Pete pots, but their issues with netting around Pete disks. It will sometimes bind roots, causing the plant. Today, you can use Pete pots. They're just not ideal. I've tried many methods of seen starting, and my favorite by far is homemade newspaper pots. These pots could be used for anything. You start from seat, and they could be buried right in the garden without disturbing tender seedling roots. The paper breaks down very quickly, and it attracts earthworms. Make your newspaper pots and fill them with the seed starting medium. Place the pots in a watertight container casserole dishes, dish pans in baking pans. All work well for holding newspaper pots. Just make sure the sides or at least three inches tall, these two or three seeds in each pot and cover with about 1/4 inch of soil. There is a trick to watering seats without displacing them. This is why our container must be at least three inches deep and water sites more water into the bottom of the container. After planting seeds, the newspaper will wick the water up to the soil surface, watering the seeds but not moving them every time the soil is dry. Water this way continue the water from the bottom after ceilings. In church, tiny seedlings are very fragile and can be broken or damaged by the flow of water. 8. Seedling Requirements: Although it's convenient light from a window will not be sufficient enough to sprout seeds or make strong plants. You might be able to sprout seeds in a south facing window. But because tomatoes have such a heavy light requirement, they will not throw thrive in this environment. Expensive led seed starting lights are available and, well, price say they are worth the investment. For most people, though, the basic shelf with adjustable fluorescent lights is sufficient to start most seeds. Please your seat container on the shelf and hang with fluorescent light so that it is an inch above the container. As seedlings emerge and grow, adjust the light so that is always an inch or less about the top of the Sealy's hanging. The light too far above the ceilings will create leggy plants within weeks. Stems is the stretch to grow toward the light. Don't spend too much money on special special fluorescent car lights. You can purchase a fluorescent shop light at a hardware store around $10 apiece, less the cost of the bulb. Place your seed starting shelf in a warm area. The minimum soil temperature for tomatoes to germinate is about 50 degrees but the ideal temperature is 80. Keep your seeds in a place that does not get cooler than 50 degrees tomatoes. Germany quickly in about 5 to 10 days, so keep an eye on your newspaper pots. To wash the merge. Make sure the soil never dries out. During this time, the soil should always be Dan, but not stalking. Tomato plants emerge with two Katelyn leaves, which served to feed the tiny plant until it develops its first true please. The second set of leaves allow the plant to begin making its own food through photosynthesis. It will take a few weeks for seedlings to grow the first few sets of Leeds. Just make sure the soil stays. Boys. Does they grow. Once the plants are at least four inches tall, they can be transplanted outdoors, replaced in larger pots so that you have bigger, stronger plants when planting in the garden. If you can grow tomato, plant indoors for up to three months. You'll have a plan that is 8 to 12 inches tall. When it's time to transplant outdoors, 9. Potting Up Plants: tomato plants grow quickly and will require larger containers as they grow in order to develop a healthy root system. Depending with how long you keep your tomato plants indoors, you may need to move them to a larger container several times before they move to their permanent place in the garden. When ceilings air over four inches tall and have several sets of leads, they could be planted into larger pots. In these larger pots, plans will have room to grow more birds. Tomato plants will grow roots anywhere. The stone is buried, so burying the entire plant up to the top two leaves of the plants allows it to grow a considerably more extensive root system. Each time you transplant, bury the plant up to the top. Toomey's the better developed the root system, the more drought tolerant tomato plant will be. You can remove the leaves that are going to be buried, but it's not necessary. In fact, removing those leaps will leave the wound on the stem, offering an opportunity for disease for best results. Just leave the leaves in place and bury them with the rest of the stem. They will decompose in their own time at the stage, you won't have to. Water tomatoes nearly is often because they have developed three systems. What are the surface of the soil? Immediately after transplanting, at any time the soil services dry, you can continue watering from the bottom that desired, but at this stage the plan is strong enough for surface watering. 10. Transplanting: transplanting is the act of moving seeds outside to the permanent home. Moving plants, from the comfortable, climate controlled environment indoors to the more challenging environment outside creates stress for the players. The taking proper precautions will cause less stress, giving you a better chance of successful transplanting before plants moved to their permanent home outside, they must be hardened off this process. Slowly, AC limits the seedlings to the environment without creating major stress. Select a sunny location to place your seat things. Move them outside the first day for one hour. The next date. Set them out for two hours and add one hour each day until they're outside. Overnight was they have spent a few full days outside. They're ready to transplant. Be aware of the weather and keep your seedlings indoors anytime. Severe weather, like strong wind or hail, is expected. Soil temperature is something not often discussed in gardening. How twos. But it is important to the overall health of seedling. Tomatoes are warm weather plants. As such, they like warm soil and warm roots. The minimum soil temperature for transplanting tomatoes is 50 degrees, with the ideal soil temperature somewhere around eight tomatoes, too well if they're transplanted into soil that is between 60 and 70 degrees, which means nighttime temperatures do need to be consistently around 50 with warm days before transplanting. You can plant tomatoes any time temperatures above freezing. But they will not grow and thrive until the temperatures are warm, putting them at risk for damage, pests and disease. Because they are stressed, tomatoes are fairly unique and that they sprout roots anywhere. They're in contact with the soil. If you look closely at this 10 of the mature tomato plants, you'll see small bumps. These notes are ready and able to sprout roots when they get the opportunity. This enamels gardeners to grow tomato plants with extensive root systems by simply bearing the stem when transplanted, as mentioned earlier, you should bury the entire plant all the way up to the top leaves when plotting a plans. And this is true for transplanting outdoors. If you bury this 10 every time the tomato was moved, you will end up with tomatoes with large, healthy root systems. This creates a stronger plant that is more trout tolerance. If you don't want to dig an extremely deep hole, dig a trench and lay the plant sideways and cover the entire stone with soil, leaving only the top leaves above the grounds. 11. Tomato Cocktail: This is an unconventional piece of advice, but one that has served me well over the years. Instead of fertilizing the area when you grow tomatoes, make a tomato cocktail to put in the hole with your tomato plants. The ingredients for my tomato cocktail include composed, which provides general nutrients in trace minerals, Kobe grounds or other nitrogen only fertilizer like feather meal. Epsom cells, which provide magnesium. My museum allows the plant to absorb better calcium provided by her last ingredient, ground pick shells. To use the tomato cocktail, dig a hole at least four inches deeper than you need for your tomato plants to the bottom of the hole at one handful each. Compass and coffee grounds at one tablespoon of Epsom salts and about 1/4 cup of grounds. Eggshells. Cover the cocktail with one inch player of soil. Place your tomato plants on top of the soil in the hole and cover water well. Over the growing season. These items will slowly decompose, beating your tomato plants continuously, if desired, at one tablespoon of Epsom salts to each plant per month. I usually run out and toss my Epsom salts around each plant before it rains. That's the only fertilization I do after planting, and I often forget to do that 12. Maintenance: now that the tomato plants have made it to their final home minimum. But continual maintenance is required to keep plants healthy through the remainder of the growing season. If you plant with the tomato cocktail mentioned earlier, fertilization throughout the season is not necessary. Otherwise, a fertilizer especially formulated for tomatoes is fine. Just follow the instructions on the package. If you want to give your garden organic look, for the words 100% organic USDA certified organic or the O. M R I listed logo, which ensures the product meets the Organic Material Review Institute standards. If you use the tomato cocktail, simply add a tablespoon of Epsom salts around the soil of the base of the plant before watering or before a good soaking rain. Adding sufficient magnesium to the soil ensures that the plant can absorb enough calcium, which is provided by the eggshells in the tomato cocktail, preventing blossom end rot. Drip irrigation is the preferred method of watering because it's efficient and it reduces the spread of light, which will be discussed later. This method, particularly combined with mulching, reduces evaporation considerably and uses a lot less water than overhead watering with a sprinkler drip irrigation materials are also more expensive than a sprinkler. Your watering method really depends on your resource is your climate and the size of your garden. If you just have a few tomato plants and containers, you can easily get by with the hose and sprayer. If drip irrigation is out of your price range, consider using a buried container with whose toe water plants it's economical and offers the same benefit of drip irrigation. There may have been be more benefit to the bucket method over drip irrigation because it waters the routes where they are, rather than waiting for the water to eventually seeped down, making it more cost efficient, particularly for those using the municipal water. To use this method, get a container with holes, either a bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and old inverted milk drug with the bottom cut off or even old planter containers and bury it near your tomato plants, leaving the top open. When it's time to water, simply Philip the container and let the water slowly seep into the soil 13. Pruning Tomato Plants: Every expert has a different opinion on pruning. Ultimately, it comes down to the individual. But there are a few things to consider. Indeterminant tomatoes produce suckers, which are esten that grows from the crotch. Yes, that is when it's called between the existing Stan and Ollie. When removed, the plant will put its energy toward producing fruit on its existing stones were left to grow. This Houston will produce fruit on extra vigorous varieties. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with removing all of the suckers, especially if you have several plants as mentioned in the growth habits video of this class . A good starting tomato cage. It's necessary, particularly if you plan to let suckers grow because there are more stems that produce fruit. Fruit will get a little smaller over the course of the growing season, which happens anyway, is the plant uses. Its resource is allowing suckers to grow, offers the gardener a low maintenance, less time consuming plant. But for growers with limited space, pruning may be the best option again. It's really up to your particular set of circumstances. Remove any damn damaged or diseased Stens and leaves as needed. You can also print off stems that are growing too long or too wild. Regardless of the type of tomato you're growing, always removed the lowest two or three branches to improve airflow. No part of the tomato plant. Besides, the base, of course, should touch the soil. Any branches or leaves laying on the soil can create, brought and spread light. A rather outdated set of advice says to pinch the early blooms up young tomato plans. The thought behind best is to remove the blooms so that the plan will put more energy toward belt, developing healthy roots and leaves rather than putting that early energy toward making fruit. However, if the soil contains everything a plant needs to grow healthy roots and stones, then it's not necessary to prevent early fruits and that who will significantly reduce your harvest, especially if you're growing determinant types of tomatoes. It doesn't really hurt pinch off bloods from your indeterminate varieties, but it doesn't really help either. You will still get fewer fruits as well as later harvest, and I've seen no evidence. But this practice provides more vigorous growth. As long as the soil is fertile, tomatoes will grow roots and blooms instance all the same time. But once again, this is up to the individual 14. Tomato Supports: most types of tomatoes require supports with indeterminate varieties, requiring something extra sturdy. We're determinant varieties. Generic three ring tomato cages should be sufficient, although remesch cages will work for them as well. Well, remesch is expensive to purchase. Initially, it is a heavy duty material that will last a lifetime. The material for these cages is a worthy investment. Concrete remesch is available at most large home improvement stores like Home Depot or lose in the construction area, where you would find rebar in bags of concrete. It comes in individual sheets for around $7 piece or large rolls of 150 feet for around $100 depending on how large you make your cages. You can generally get around 20 cages from one role. If you're doing the math, that's $5 per cage. About the same price is one of those little three ring tomato cages, but they last much longer. There are other fencing options, but the benefit of concrete remesch, aside from its long lasting strength, is that the holes are large enough to prune through and will allow you to harvest even the largest tomatoes. The spacing for most fizzing is too small toe work for tomato cages. Remesch cages also work well for trellis ing peas, cucumbers and winter squash. To make concrete remesch cages, roll out the remesch to your desired link. My cages are 2.5 feet in diameter. You could make them up to three beats, but of course, you would get fewer out of the role way the loose end with a large rock or have an assistant hold it flat on the ground. Measure the cut 7.5 feet for 2.5, but diameter cages or nine feet were three foot diameter cages. And use bolt cutters when cutting, cut right behind the squares so that there's a long piece of metal to hook around and latch . This way, you won't have to purchase additional fasteners once the pieces cut. Make it to by securing the wire end around the other end. There are a couple of options to secure cages to the ground. You can use steaks or re bark to secure them. Were simply cut off the bottom bar and you'll have six inch prongs to push into the grounds 15. Common Pests: For every plant, there's a pest, and for every past there's a plans. This is where the difference between conventional gardening and organic gardening really comes into focus. While it's easy to go to the garden centre and by a spray or powder for your tomato plants , particular affliction it also damaging to the environment as a whole, as well as the micro environment in your garden. Pestis Isar Indiscriminate. They kill all insects, good or bad, so you might get rid of the horn worms. But you'll also get rid of monarchs or whatever other friendly caterpillar comes your way. Is the convenience really worth it as you become a more experienced corner? Q. Two things in mind pests will happen. Just take a deep breath and accept that some things will be lost. It's OK. Nature has a way of correcting imbalances. For every eighth ID infestation, there's a group of ladybugs police wings looking for a feast. Be patient, Mel. Find you. In general, the best form of organic pest control is attracting the pair, the prey of your best ladybugs. Inlay swings and their larva eat the eggs larva and adults of many of the biggest pests in the garden. Attracting and keeping these guys in your garden is a priority. The praying Mantis is also a predator in the garden, and like most predators, he eats good and bad insects. If you don't have the time or patients to allow them to come in on their own, you can purchase beneficial insects to release into your garden as well as praying. Mantis tests online to attract these predators, along with beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies. Plants. Plenty of flowers with easily accessible nectar. Dill, Yaro, borage and is it, among many other native plants? Provide an excellent source of food to attract men. Officials plants a variety of these blooms around your garden to attract predators to the areas you need them most. After attracting Ben, officials, keep them around by providing a place for them to overwinter safely at the end of the growing season at a thick layer of leaf mulch or straw for simply allow cover crops to die back to give beneficial insects shelter from the harsh winter. The Cleans Daryl garden is just that sterile. The tomato horn worm is a huge pest, literally at maturity. They can grow up to four inches in length and can ravage a tomato plant over eyes. One benefit to their enormous size is that they're pretty easy to hand pick off plants when you see them. They also happen to be a fantastic piece for chickens. If you have some, don't worry about that red horn at the end of the tomato horn worms body. It doesn't stay. Ladybugs only swings. Eat the eggs of the horn worm, but the natural predator of the adult tomato horn warm is the Barack mid Waas. This wasp doesn't see humans, so there's no harm in having them around. But it does Peress to size tomato hormone by laying eggs in its flesh. As the young wasps emerge from their cocoons, they kill the horn worm. It is both amazing in prism. If you see white protrusions on the skin of a tomato horn worm, these air bracket waas cook ins leave the horn worm alone and let nature run its force. This is the next generation of pest control for your garden Adult bracket. Wasps are attracted to the nectar of the plants listed previously. A vids also tend to be frustrating to gardeners but the organic solution to 1/3 is quite simple. Water. Use a strong setting like jet on the end of the hose in sprayer to send a glass of water up and down your tomato plants. This will knock off the Aidid's drowning him. You may have to do this once a week, but typically it's necessary for far less. Of course, as you attract more ladybugs, inlay swings, this will become less necessary. Only blast plans better. Sturdy enough not to be damaged by the force of water. Blister beetles often come in this form. Overnight. Products containing orange oil are an effective solution to repel blister beetles after they arrive. Squirrels, steel, tomatoes and they are difficult to manage. Feeding squirrels somewhere away from the garden to lure them away from your tomato plants may help. Hot pepper spray on fruits may repel beating squirrels. There are also fake else available to add to the garden, some of which and move occasionally to give the impact of a real help. Sometimes something as simple as hanging old CDs for plastic bags that move in the wind is enough to encourage squirrels to go to someone else's yard. 16. Other Common Problems: cracking of fruits either horizontally or vertically indicates inconsistent watering. This frequently happens after a dry spell, followed by significant amount of rain. Ensuring your tomatoes stay consistently watered is the ideal solution, and we'll work in areas but do not experience extreme heat in areas with the hot, dry summers. It could be difficult to prevent cracking if you are in an area that suffers a lot of cracking, look for crack resistant varieties. Life is a fungus that lives in the soil and is spread by water or rain falling on the soil , causing the fungus contained there in to splash upon the leads. Once there, it spreads and kills leaves. Left unresolved, it can kill an entire plans light over winters in the soil, and the spores can spread by air. Tomato plants can become affected by blight early or late in the season. There are several. Best practice is to help prevent flights. Practice crop rotation. If you've had lights lit next year's crop far away from the original location as possible, Plant tomatoes far enough apart that they're not crowded. Crowded plants encouraged humble growth. Use drip irrigation to avoid the splashing that comes with overhead watering. Obviously, this isn't a guarantee method, since rain will always come from above, but it does help reduce the spread of play. Mulch well around the plants to prevent soil containing blight for splashing onto the leads . Remove affected leads as soon as you noticed symptoms of flight. When you're shopping, look for blight resistant varieties. Well, no tomato is like proof. There are some that are resistant to the fungus. Organic antifungal products containing fixed copper are available for the prevention of blight. If you've experienced light in the past, this is something to consider. As a last resort. Don't ever compose anything infected with lights. Burn it. There are plenty of different types of bacterial issues and bills too many to cover in this video. But preventing stress, mulching well, attracting beneficial insects and practicing proper tae shins are all good practices to grow and keep healthy plants 17. Harvesting: So now we finally get to talk about the payoff for all of that hard work. Harvesting tomatoes This pretty straightforward when tomatoes reached their full color. Depending on variety, they're ready to harvest. Look for tomatoes that are firm but not rock hard. If they're squishy, it is too late. Harvest green tomatoes for kicking any time they reached your desired size. All of the fruits determine of determinate varieties will ripen almost of the same time, usually within a week or two. Indeterminate varieties will need to be harvested regularly throughout the growing season. You can usually check your plants every couple of days, but do not go any longer than that. Or you might miss the ideal harvest window of some fruits. If squirrels or other pests are a big problem, you can harvest fruits early and let the mature indoors in the sunny window with great results. If you're going to be gone on vacation or for up to a week, you can also harvest your fruits early and let them Reitman indoors. If you have plants loaded with fruit when a frost threatens, go ahead and pull off everything that is near maturity. Never store tomatoes in the refrigerator. They lose their flavour, which is the whole benefit of growing your own. Leave tomatoes sitting out on the counter or windows cell until they're ready to use. If you have too many tomatoes right at once, and you probably will just toss them in the freezer in the bag until you're ready to process them. 18. Conclusion with Updated websites: hi students. I just wanted to let you know that my brand has changed. So instead of fighting me at the Restoration Garden, you can find all new content on my website at simple gardening got us. You can also find me on instagram at instagram dot com slash simple gardening and W a and facebook dot com slash simple gardening in wh.