Hey y'all. First time gardener here.
I picked up a couple of San Marzano tomatoes and was looking for any advice on how to help my plants along.
2 of these (the black pots) I picked up at a farmers market and the other 2 were gifted to me (the white pots).
I trimmed them as best I could and planted them in a soil mix of coconut coir, Kelloggs potting soil and some vermiculite.
I also added a touch of earthworm castings and topped with Kelloggs plant food and wood mulch.
I try and water when the soil gets a little dry.
I also tried transplanting some basil into most of the plants and also planted 3 marigold sprouts per pot as I read that's the upper limit. The basil seems to be adjusting.
The ones that were gifted started to wilt a bit when I transferred them but they also seem to be adjusting.
All in all they LOOK good to me but I don't know what the hell I'm doing, honestly.
Any wisdom is appreciated!!!
by Atreides007
7 Comments
Tips? TIPS???
There is a whole LINK full of tips on this website:
http://Www.heirloomtomatoplants.com
(See: Growing Tips).
Yay!!
A
They look fine to me so far.
How big are those pots? Tomato plants get BIG so if you have bigger pots, you’ll end up with healthier plants in the long term and need to water less often.
I’d also get some cages for better support as the plants get bigger.
Lift the pots often to assess water levels. I don’t really buy in to the “water when the top inch is dry” method because I don’t want to poke my finger into every pot twice a day and I don’t know about you but my fingers aren’t moisture meters. It’s faster, easier, and cleaner to lift them.
Looks good.
Sunlight, water, fertilizer
Look up what gardening zone you are in. It will help
Don’t fall into the social media fad of pruning.
suckers at 2-4 inches is where I always wait before pinching, going earlier stressed mine out bad last season
Tomatoes come in 2 primary subtypes: determinate and indeterminate. Determinates stay compact-about 4′-and produce a single yield of tomatoes over a roughly 2 week period. These are suitable for containers. The other type, which san marzanos are, is indeterminate. Indeterminate tomatoes grow and grow until the plant dies off, growing 6′ or more tall and producing throughout the growing season. You don’t usually see these types of tomatoes in containers due to their size and vigorous growth. They require trellising.
In the future, if you want to stick to container gardening you should really buy determinate tomatoes. If you’re committed to keeping these alive though you’re going to need a much larger container and a way to trellis them (and no, you can’t use trellises labeled as tomato cages here-they’re too small for indeterminates). By larger, I mean 20 gallon minimum and some type of trellising that will support a plant that will eventually be 6’+ tall.
You’re also going to want to get some granular all-purpose fertilizer and some bone meal. Mix 2 parts fertilizer to 1 part bone meal and apply this at the base of the plant every two weeks and water it in. Tomatoes are heavy feeders, and ones grown in containers particularly so. Good luck!