| This week - Tomatoes |
Shane's Tomato Tips
• Add a bucket of gravel or sand to your soil at planting time and it will warm up quicker and retain heat longer
• Place Hangi rocks and rail way iron at the base of each plant. The sun will heat these up and then provide warmth in to the evening
• Plant tomatoes “up to their neck” . Plant each seedling very deep, right passed the first set of leaves .Most plants cant, but Toms can form roots on the stem ,the more stem under the ground the more roots will form and more nutrients absorbed.
• The barren stem area of of mature plants can be laid down on the surface and covered with soil about January. This will rejuvenate the plant by forming roots on the stem (which is now underground) ie the stem that had leaf and fruit back in Nov/Dec will now be underground growing roots thru March and April. The remaining tip of the plant is now back about knee high and will produce lots of fruit when prices are high
• Use high potassium fertilizer when you see flowers start
• Citrus and rose fertilizer work well on tomatoes
• Banana skins contain potassium that will help with flowering
• Insect like white fly and aphids are already on your plants NOW.
• Make up a brew of Neem Oil, Pyrethrum and Copper as per the instructions on each packet. all three can go in the ONE spray tank together and be applied all together in a single application. Repeat fortnightly
• Try growing some bush tomatoes like “Roma” or “San Mazarno”
• Tomato SEEDS should be planted directly in the ground now. Dont use containers. Put a few seeds where you want each plant. When you current toms begin to fail in March these seedling started ones will take over and fruit right thru until June
• A dutch grower taught me and Industry secret. Sow seeds of tomato on Christmas day,when everyone is lying around after lunch .Grow them outside in buckets until March and then move them into the glasshouse for tomatoes all winter.
• Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad!
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