Easy Homemade Tomato Chutney: Tomato chutney is a great way to store that glut of tomatoes that happens every time this year. And best of all it's delicious! I picked up this recipe for free at my local supermarket. It's fast, simple, cheap and tasty, perfect for eating with ch. One large study shows that eating tomato or tomato-based products does not seem to prevent pancreatic cancer. But other studies suggest that raw tomato intake, and high tomato intake in general. The best tomato fertilizer is the one which provides what your plants need at that particular moment. For me personally, I opt for something like an 10-5-5 or a 10-5-8 when I’m first planting. This gives my new starts a great kickstart, and the latter one encourages great root development.
When I answer my office phone as an extension vegetable specialist, from time to time it’s someone asking how they can get recognition for growing a huge tomato, possibly the biggest one ever. When I ask how big a tomato we’re talking about, and the caller says 2 or 2.5 pounds, I have to hold back my laughter and gently explain that that is nowhere even close to a record.
So just how big is big? Growers in various states have set various records – New Jersey was home to a 6-pound, 2.5-ounce tomato, Oklahoma has boasted a 7-pound, 12-ounce one and Minnesota weighed in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Dan Sutherland of Walla Walla, Washington is the current tomato king, having produced a tomato tipping the scale at 8 pounds, 9 ounces in 2016.
If you take that as a challenge to your own tomato-growing prowess, read on for tips on how to nurture a massive tomato. The secrets are really nothing too obscure. What’s important is checking off as many boxes as possible to optimize the fruit size. Each step is attainable for the home gardener, but missing out on certain ones will limit your results.
Pick a proven pedigree
Are some varieties better for fruit size? Absolutely. The best way to determine which ones to use is to look at previous winners. Genes are important.
A cherry, grape or plum tomato plant isn’t going to yield a winner. Some varieties have a genetic potential to produce larger fruit than others, including Beefsteak, Delicious, Big Beef, Big Rainbow, Dinner Plate, Giant Belgium, Big Pink, German Johnson, T & T Monster, Braggar and Brandywine, among others. All of these big boys are in the category of beefsteak tomato – they have smaller seed cavities than other varieties, and so proportionally more flesh than juice and seeds.
Since it would be hard to find plants of most of these at your local garden center, you will likely have to order seeds from seed catalogs and start your own plants.
There’s no guarantee that a plant of one of these varieties will be a winner. Although the potential for large size is in the genes, it will not be achieved unless the environmental conditions are optimized. And by that, I mean perfect.
Super soil
One of the most important tips is to start with great soil. All plants, not just tomatoes, will do much better if planted in properly prepared soil. The soil should be well drained, high in organic matter and fertile.
Tomatoes thrive on animal manures. So if you have access to some composted (not fresh) manure, you might place some in the bottom of the hole and then cover it up before transplanting your seedling. This is a tried and true method for lots of old-time tomato growers.
A place in the sun
Like most vegetables, tomatoes need full sun. Anything less will decrease maximum photosynthesis, thereby limiting growth of foliage and fruit. A tomato plant needs lots of leaves to catch as much sun as possible, manufacture sugars and send those sugars to the developing fruit. They also don’t mind the heat (up to a point), so long as there is plenty of water in the root zone to keep them from drying out.
When the temperature gets into the mid 90s or above, that’s when trouble can occur. Tomato pollen is sterilized at 94 degrees Fahrenheit, so even if pollination occurs and pollen makes it from the male to the female parts of the flower, there won’t be much fertilization since pollen has been killed. So higher temperatures limit fruit set: the transformation of flower into fruit. Fruit quality and size will also suffer at very high temperature.
Space to spread out
Tomatoes need plenty of room to grow. Commercially, most growers use a two-foot spacing within rows. If you want really large fruit, give them even more room. One of the most common errors by novice gardeners is planting tomato plants too close together. If you are just going for size, you need only a few good, healthy plants, with plenty of space around them.
Training plants to grow off the ground is a good idea to protect the quality of the fruit. Caging and staking are both fine. Just be sure to tie them frequently enough to support the plants. If you choose cages, you will need a mesh that is big enough to get your hand in, and to get that enormous tomato back out.
Hydrated and well-fed
Tomato plants need plenty of water, especially in hot weather, but will suffer if the ground stays saturated. As a rule of thumb, an inch and a half of water per week, from hose or from rain, is about right. The soil must be able to drain this water within a reasonably short time.
Be sure to water the plants thoroughly right after transplanting. After plants are established, always water deeply, once or twice per week, rather than giving them a light sprinkle every day; shallow watering leads to shallow roots. A good, thick mulch will help hold moisture in the soil around plants and also keeps the weeds down.
As for fertilizer, tomatoes need regular doses. Small, weekly amounts are better than large pre-plant amounts and one or two side-dressings. Liquid fertilizer is more quickly available to plants than granular forms. Some people like to use fish emulsion or “manure tea,” but any complete garden fertilizer will work.
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Focus on one flower
One other tip, and this is important. Remove the first flower cluster or two so that the plant will produce more leaves before you allow it to set tomatoes.
Then, when the plant is big enough to set fruit, don’t let all of the fruit mature. Remove all but one fruit per cluster. Usually the first fruit to set on a cluster will be the largest, so snip off all of the other flowers or small fruit on that cluster. And don’t let too many clusters stay on the plant either.
Prepare for prize-winning
Once you’ve got your jumbo beauty, what about that big money? Start by looking for local, county or state contests. Ask your State Department of Agriculture or County Extension Agent.
Good luck and remember to think big. The record continues to be broken every so often, which tells you that the upper limit has still not been found.
And if you just don’t have much luck growing gargantuan tomatoes, console yourself with the knowledge that while these techniques maximize for size, they do not maximize flavor. When plants get too much water, for example, the fruit can be bland. Your more average-sized tomatoes may be more delicious at the table.
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If your spinach is spindly and your tomatoes are troubled, changing soil pH may help. “pH” refers to potential hydrogen, or the hydrogen ion concentration of soil. pH is a measure of soil acidity.
The pH scale ranges from 1 to 14. It’s a logarithmic scale, like the Richter scale to measure earthquakes. A soil with a pH of 6 is ten times more acidic than a soil with a pH of 7.
Neutral pH is 7.0. A soil with a pH lower than 7 is an acidic soil. A soil with pH higher than 7 is an alkaline soil.
Soil acidity determines the availability of mineral nutrients for your vegetables. In alkaline soils, phosphorous, iron, and zinc are limited. In acidic soil, calcium and magnesium are less available to plants.
Soil pH varies by up to half a point over the year. Soil pH tends to be higher (more alkaline) when the soil is cool, and lower (more acidic) in summer, when increased bacterial activity in warmer weather has an acidifying effect on soil. Factor this in when changing soil pH.
Garden soil pH is usually neutral to slightly acidic, pH 6.5-7.0. This also happens to be the ideal soil pH for vegetables. However, if you want to really tweak performance:
Green, leafy vegetables (like spinach and lettuce), cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale), and other Fall Vegetables prefer a more alkaline soil, pH 7.0-7.2.
Fruiting plants, like nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) and cucurbits (cucumbers, melons, squash) prefer a more acidic soil, pH 6.0-6.8. See Summer Vegetables for more information on the preferences of these summer favorites.
Adding Organic Matter Buffers
Soil Against pH Swings
Adding organic matter is an indirect method of soil pH adjustment. Organic matter “buffers” soil, especially sandy soil.
More About Soil |
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The higher the organic matter content of a soil, the more lime it takes to raise the soil pH 1 point, and the more sulfur it takes to lower the soil pH 1 point.
Plants grown in soil with a lot of organic matter have healthier roots. They’re able to extract enough nutrients from the soil even when the pH isn’t optimal.
In a healthy soil with adequate organic matter, changing soil pH may not be necessary, because plants continue to grow at pH levels that would stunt growth in leaner soils.
When you increase soil organic matter, you’re not really changing soil pH, you’re increasing your plants’ tolerance for acidic or alkaline conditions. For information on increasing soil organic matter, see Improving Garden Soil.
Lowering Soil pH
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Why would you want to lower soil pH?
If soil pH testing indicates your soil is greater than 7.0, you have an alkaline soil, and changing soil pH may be called for, depending on what you’re growing.
As soil acidity increases, minerals like phosphorous, iron, and zinc become more available.
In alkaline soils, these minerals—especially iron and zinc—are bound up and less available. Fruiting plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and melons need these minerals to flower and set fruit.
Instastack 1 7. Soil acidification also makes life more difficult for many weeds. Weeds are early successional plants that evolved in thin, alkaline soils. In acidic soils, many weeds are weaker competitors.
Ways to Lower Soil pH (Make Soil Acidic)
Soil pH can be lowered by half a point—from 7.0 to 6.5, for example—by increasing soil nitrogen. Adding compost, manure, or organic soil amendments like alfalfa meal to the soil can help drop pH over time by increasing bacterial populations. Click Here for a list of concentrated organic nitrogen fertilizers that can be used to lower soil pH by small amounts.
There's a myth that coffee grounds (2-0-0) are a quick fix for lowering soil pH. Most of the organic acids in coffee are water-soluble, and flush out into the brew. Coffee grounds have a pH around 6.8, close to neutral, so they won't do much to lower pH. They do add a little nitrogen, so they can help reduce pH over time, just like manure or compost.
If you need to drop soil pH more quickly, try watering your plants with leftover (cold) coffee, diluted 50-50 with water. This works especially well for houseplants and container vegetables.
To lower soil pH by larger amounts (more than half a point), use Elemental Sulfur, sometimes called “Flowers of Sulfur”. Order Elemental Sulfur
When using sulfur for changing soil pH, be aware that the acidifying effect depends on soil bacteria (thiobacillius), which oxidize the sulfur and release dilute sulfuric acid into the soil over a period of weeks to months.
Because the acidifying effect of sulfur depends on soil bacteria:
The sulfur must be dispersed through the soil to be in contact with these bacteria. Make sure you mix the sulfur thoroughly into the soil. Otherwise, there will be strongly acidic areas around blobs of sulfur, and no effect elsewhere in the soil.
Sulfur only works during the summer, when the soil is warm and bacterial activity is at its highest.
Sulfur is not a quick-fix for changing soil pH. After application there is a delay of several weeks to several months before soil bacteria break down the sulfur to acidify the soil.
Elemental sulfur is acceptable as an organic soil amendment for changing soil pH under National Organic Program (NOP) guidelines.
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When using elemental sulphur for changing soil pH, it's best to divide the amount to be applied to achieve the desired drop into 2 or 3 applications over the entire season, instead of a single application. Applications should be 6-8 weeks apart.
NOTE: Application amounts in the table below apply to loam soil. 2.4 lbs of elemental sulphur (per 100 square feet) will drop loam soil pH by 1 point.
- For Clay Soil, INCREASE amounts by half (50%).
- For Sandy Soil DECREASE amounts by one-third (33%).
Present Soil pH | To pH 6.5 | To pH 6.0 | To pH 5.5 | To pH 5.0 | To pH 4.5 |
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8.0 | 3.6 lbs | 4.8 lbs | 6.0 lbs | 7.2 lbs | 8.4 lbs |
7.5 | 2.4 lbs | 3.6 lbs | 4.8 lbs | 6.0 lbs | 7.2 lbs |
7.0 | 1.2 lbs | 2.4 lbs | 3.6 lbs | 4.8 lbs | 6.0 lbs |
6.5 | --- | 1.2 lbs | 2.4 lbs | 3.6 lbs | 4.8 lbs |
6.0 | --- | --- | 1.2 lbs | 2.4 lbs | 3.6 lbs |
Raising Soil pH
Why would you want to raise soil pH?
If you’re growing fall or cool-season vegetables, these green, leafy vegetables perform better in soils with a slightly higher pH, between 6.8 and 7.5.
If you have lead or other heavy metals in your soil, they're more mobile in an acidic soil. Raising soil pH can make them less mobile, and less likely to be taken up by plants.
Ways to Make Soil More Alkaline (Reduce Acidity)
Dolomite Lime, (calcium magnesium carbonate), is the most common soil amendment for raising soil pH (reducing acidity). It’s used by both organic and conventional farmers, but should Not be used in soils with adequate or excess magnesium.
Plants need magnesium in small amounts, and excess magnesium stunts and kills vegetables. Where a soil test indicates adequate or high magnesium levels, use an alternate calcium source for changing soil pH.
The following table provides application rates according to soil textural type:
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Soil Texture Type | Raise pH 1 pt (4.5 to 5.5) | Raise pH 2 pts (5.5 to 6.5) |
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Sandy & Loamy Sand | 2.3 lbs | 2.75 lbs |
Sandy Loam | 3.6 lbs | 5.9 lbs Jixipix premium pack 1 6 1. |
Loam | 5.5 lbs | 7.8 lbs |
Silt Loam | 6.9 lbs | 9.1 lbs |
Clay Loam | 8.7 lbs | 10.5 lbs |
Muck | 17.4 lbs | 19.7 lbs |
You can see the buffering effect of soil organic matter in the table above. As organic matter increases with each soil textural class, the amount of lime needed for changing soil pH increases significantly.
The same thing happens when you’re lowering soil pH with sulfur. The heavier your soil, the more sulfur it takes to drop the pH 1 point.
Clay and loam soils give you more wiggle room when changing soil pH. Sandy soils, not so much. For more information on soil structure, see Facts about Soil.
Where dolomite lime may create magnesium toxicity, use any of the following alternative calcium sources instead:
Ground Oyster Shell (1-2 lbs/ 100 sq ft)
Dried, Crushed Eggshells (1-0.4-0), a kitchen byproduct, are a great source of calcium and a good method of changing soil pH to reduce acidity. (1-2 lbs/ 100 sq ft)
Hardwood Ashes Short-term soil pH adjustment. (Use up to 1.5 lbs/ 100 sq ft.)
Calcite (high-calcium lime). Use up to 1.5 lbs/ 100 sq ft.
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