subject: Growing Organic Container Tomatoes: A How-To Guide [print this page] Growing Organic Container Tomatoes: A How-To Guide
Tomatoes have always been grown in an outdoor garden. Nonetheless, a recent craze has emerged where budding gardeners short on space have resorted to growing their tomatoes in containers placed on patios, decks and even yards.
Cultivating tomatoes is very beneficial to a person, it provides a sense of responsibility for a person when managing the whole gardening process, hence a successful end result is always a moment of pride for a budding gardener.
Where lack of space hinders an aspiring gardener from achieving his agrarian dream, pots and other containers come in handy in rescuing that dream.
When you are bereft of space, you can cultivate your tomatoes in containers such as pots, which can be set up any where within the house, patio or even windowsill, provided they get enough sunlight that is necessary for growth.
For better growth, the potted plant should be rotated so that there is even distribution of sunlight. When there is unequal distribution of light, the plants start bending towards the light and end up weaker and deformed.
Another advantage of this type of gardening is that it totally negates the need for weeding since the soil is always neat and well maintained.
This type of gardening suits most varieties of the tomato, though some are obviously more suited to this than others. Emphasis should be laid on smaller species of tomatoes for container gardening. Some tomato trees grow large and wide hence would be cumbersome in a pot.
Smaller size tomato plants are more easily maneuvered than larger sizes. Furthermore, tomatoes cultivated in containers usually ripen at the same time, thus having the smaller size variety will lessen the potential wastage.
A budding container gardener should also settle for a tomato type that has very low demands when it comes to water. A tomato plants needs about two centimeters of water in a week to keep the soil damp enough to sustain it.
Thus retaining moisture becomes a challenge when dealing with a pot hence the trick is to pick the ideal pot for the plant and also a tomato variety that doesn't need too much moisture. A pot made of terra cotta, with ample space for accommodating growing roots would be ideal for the tomato plant.
The pot has to have excellent drainage so that excessive water may be allowed to drain off. The drainage is made up of holes at the bottom of the pot. You can also place a rock inside the pot as this helps protect the roots against root rot.
For a healthy plant, it is important for a gardener to understand the need for organic fertilizer mixed with perlite and sphagnum peat. This mixture greatly boosts the plant both health wise and also in productivity.
Taking into consideration everything I have plainly laid out, tomato gardening is a worthwhile experience. I now give you the power to venture out and achieve success as a container tomato farmer and if it doesn't work out the first, time never give up.
