How Does Your Tomato Garden Grow?

Just about everyone has grown a backyard tomato at some point. If you haven't, you have probably lived with someone who has tended their own tomato garden.

These tips from Mary Beth Musgrove, Extension horticulture associate with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, will help you grow the best tomatoes yet.

• Set the plants in full sun. It's important to plant tomato plants where they will be in sunlight most of the day because plants will be more productive and chances for disease will be lower.
• Prepare and fertilize the soil to grow healthy tomatoes. For individual plants, dig a hole two feet wide and 12 inches deep. Save the topsoil dug out of the hole and mix it with the growing medium for refilling the hole. Mix two to three parts of the topsoil with one part of well-decomposed compost. Add 3/4 cup of a complete fertilizer and 2/3 cup of ground dolomitic limestone if the soil has not been limed in the past two or three years. Thoroughly mix these ingredients.
• Select hardy, disease-free plants. Be careful not to disturb the roots. Set the plants two feet apart and plant on their side, covering 2/3 of their stem if the plant has gotten tall and leggy. Firm the soil around each plant leaving a slight depression around each plant. Fill the depression with water.
• Mulch 2-3 inches deep around the base of the plants to help keep the soil moist. During long dry spells, tomato plants will probably need to be watered every day.
• Fruitworms and hornworms are common nuisances of tomatoes. A good defense against these insects is a weekly treatment of a pesticides such as Dipel or Thuricide.

More information about pest control is available from your county Extension agent.