Here are some quick and easy garden planting tips for planting tomatoes and potatoes in your garden and for salvaging them when disaster strikes!
Garden Planting Tips
From Janet
In the early part of the spring and summer, if a branch on my tomatoes plant breaks off, I plant it in the ground. I take off any lower leaves and bury the stem sideways in the soil. The top will straighten itself up and grow up.
Last year, at the beginning of June, we had a bad windstorm that blew my greenhouse down and parts away. I salvaged my tomatoes and planted the broken pieces and they grew well. Also, when I plant my tomatoes I add a small amount of Epsom salts around the plant. The old timers told me to add Epsom salts to the row before I put in my carrot seeds to help get fewer wormy carrots.
Other gardeners showed me to plant my potatoes in trenches. They said to put down some straw, then the potato and then more straw. You have to keep up with the straw during the growing season so you don’t get green potato skins and flesh. It makes more uniform potatoes, and they are clean and easy to pick. Instead of hilling with dirt, they used straw.
My tomato plants got a blight early on and were pretty much done by the middle of June. Apparently, that was a problem for a lot of home gardners here in VA last year. At the farmers’ market last week, I spoke to a seller who had disease resistant plants so will try a couple again this year. Didn’t know about replanting a broken stem, either. Looking forward to some good tomatoes this year. I used to have enough to freeze several gallon bags of them and had wonderful spaghetti sauce and soup all winter. Even using just one or two tomatoes to add to soup or spaghetti sauce really improves the flavor. Thanks for the tips. Very timely.
Before planting tomato plants,carefully break off the lower stems (called suckers) I just poke a hole with my finger in the prepared soil, place a “sucker” stem in the hole and you will have a whole new plant. It has worked for me all these years. Good Luck
Maggie
. Be sure to plant your tomatoes in another part of your garden–this will help you avoid disease or fungus. it’s a good diea to move the tomatos every year. I have good luck with oregano and marigolds as companopn plant for tomatos.
Teresa, My husband has decided not to plant any veggies this year. He is rebuilding a wall in brick that he built 25 years ago with treated railroad ties that have now rotted out. The job is pretty extensive so he does not want to do anything else but work on this wall. I’ll just get my tomatoes at the Farmers’ Market this year (there is one shop that has wonderful pesticide free tomatoes and that is where I get them for him). Perhaps next year, we can plant again.
The epsom salts provide magnesium. Tomatoes suffering from a lack of magnesium will have poor fruit production and stunted growth.
If you’ve planted your tomato plants already, without adding epsom salts to the soil, you can improve the magnesium through twice monthly waterings (with added epsom salts) throughout the growing season. Once, every other week, add about a tablespoon of epsom salts to your watering can and water around the base of the tomato plants.
One way to tell if your soil is magnesium deficient is if the leaves are showing yellowing along the veins. Early deficiency would be just the veins yellowing, but the rest of the leaf is green still. As the deficiency worsens, the entire leaves will yellow.
Can tomato plants ever have too much magnesium? I don’t want to over “salt” them. Thank you.
Yeah they can. Just follow the directions and you will be fine.
Hello, I’m a first time gardener. Thank you for that tip on tomatoes.I have a tomato plant and my plant has some tomatoes, but my plant is truning brown. But the tomatoes is red,[some is still green].What is going on. Please help.
Hum, without looking at the plant it’s hard to tell. It might have a fungus or something like that.
I did not know about the epsom salt tip for tomatoes. Right now the plants look healthy, but I will keep an eye out on their health.
If you also add crushed (I put mine through a blender) egg shells when planting this provides the extra calcium that tomatoes and capsicums like, also carnations like it.