Tomato plants in the open air, when properly grown and carefully fed, may bear heavier crops for the time they occupy the ground than they do in the greenhouse. There is seldom any difficulty with fertilisation. Every flower seems to set and produces a fruit. Very often the individual fruits are more solid and of a better flavour, though with some varieties it is true to say that the skin may be a little tougher. Get them cropping early and they will continue to produce fruits in profusion until autumn frosts cut them.
The tomato prefers a dryish atmosphere and a moderately high temperature coupled with plenty of sunlight and air. The climate of this country gives no guarantee that these ideal conditions will occur month by month or week by week. It has been said that there are only four good tomato months, June, July, August, and September and when, in the north, frosts occur about the third week in September—even this period is reduced by a week or ten days. Much can be done, however, to help matters, if the plants are sturdy, and well forward before they are put out into the open. However, They should never be planted into cold soil where the roots cannot work until the temperature rises by several degrees.
They should not be put out so early that there is a chance that the frost will cut them in their prime. They usually love to be in the wannest and most sheltered part of the garden. You can successfully train them up a sunny fence or a south wall. In the north, amateurs often use a little spot sheltered on three sides. This is a regular suntrap and can be used with good results.
Better results are always achieved when plants are given plenty of room for development. Overcrowding invariably spells disappointment. You always get better results from fewer plants treated properly; plants put out when the ground is warm; plants that have had no check; and from plants that begin at once to grow away and to form fruit.
Preparation of the Soil
Taking it by and large, the tomato is not at all particular as to soil. It hates badly-drained land, of course, but, even when well-drained a heavy clay soil is slower to “warm up” than lighter land. On the other hand, the heavier soils generally contain more potash than the sandy types and potash is a plant food much beloved by the tomato. The great thing is to dig the ground thoroughly, and what is known as bastard trenching is advised, that is to say, digging the land over trench by trench 2 feet wide in the autumn and burying properly composted vegetable refuse or really well-rotted farmyard manure, at the rate of one barrowload to 12 square yards, 8 or 9 inches deep.
Gardeners who have to deal with very heavy soils, have obtained excellent results by leaving the ground in long ridges 2 feet 6 inches apart during the winter, and then in May or early April the old dung or compost is placed along the bottoms of the furrows and the ridges are split over this, so as to form further ridges. The frost and cold winds, by this time, will have acted on the ridged-up soil, pulverised it, and made it easier to work. As a result, all that need be done a week or so before planting time, is to round the ridges off a little with the rake and then to set the plants out at 18 inches apart on the tops of these narrow raised beds. This method ensures that the soil round the roots is warmer and drier in wet weather and because of the organic matter below, ample moisture should be available when the season is dry and the roots have got down to it.
Whether the tomatoes are to be planted on the flat or on this ridge system, it is always advisable to rake into the soil when preparing the surface tilth, a good organic fertiliser, such as meat and bone meal, hoof and horn meal, or a properly compounded fish manure with a 10 per cent potash content, at 3 to 4 ounces to the square yard. In the case of the first two fertilisers mentioned, a potassic fertiliser must be used. Wood ashes are best used at 6 to 8 ounces to the square yard. You may use one of the proprietary flue dusts on the market, at about 5 to 6 ounces to the square yard. Ample potash in the ground will help to prevent such troubles as green-back fruits and blotchy ripening.
Raising the Plants
Most people who grow tomatoes out of doors, buy their plants from a good nurseryman, for they haven’t the necessary conveniences for raising them. When they do this, they must insist, of course, on having a suitable outdoor variety. Each plant should be showing a flower truss. Always insist on short, sturdy, properly hardened dark-green specimens, which should be planted out some time after the middle of May. Experts have written and said that even in the south it isn’t possible to plant out tomatoes until the first week in June, but as we seldom get any frost after about the 16th May, in the south, it is always worth the gamble because the earlier you get the plants in, the better the crop. In the north of course, it is different, and I often found it necessary there, to delay planting until June.
As the actual raising of the plants under glass is the same for outdoor as indoor planting, I must refer you to Chapter XVI for the full details. Those who have Ganwicks, and wish to use them for raising plants, should turn to Chapter III, but there is a very satisfactory way of raising plants for growing out of doors on what is known as a mild hotbed.
A Mild Hotbed
Make this up in a frame about the end of February by putting a 2-foot layer of fresh stable manure in the bottom. This should have been well “sweetened” beforehand, by turning it four times, at intervals of two or three days. Tread the manure down firmly and put 4 to 6 inches of good soil over the top. See that this is levelled and finned. The seed may then be sown direct into the soil io to 14 days later, or if preferred, into shallow boxes filled with Eclipse “No-Soil” Compost.
This can be bought ready to use, direct from the Eclipse Peat Co., Ashcott, in Somerset.
The soil used for covering up the horse manure may be the John Innes Seed Compost and then, of course, there is no need to use boxes for raising the plants!
Sowing the Seed
The seed should then be sown in drills drawn out e inch deep and r inch apart. A little more soil should then be sifted over the top, or a light raking given to cover the seeds. The general aim is to have the surface of the soil parallel to the glass of the light, covering the frame and to see that this is about 6 inches away. It is convenient to sow the seed during the first week in March, and after giving the soil a watering, through the fine rose of a can, the lights should be put in position and covered with sacks or sacking, with the object of keeping the frame warm, and preventing frost from doing any harm. The sacking should be removed as soon as the seeds begin to germinate, but should be replaced each night afterwards in case “Jack Frost” should appear.
Pricking Out
Directly the seedlings can be handled, they should be looked over to ensure they stand exactly 1 inch apart. The drills, as I said earlier, must be 1 inch apart, and the plants the same distance apart in the drills. If the soil gets dry, a little water may be given through a fine rose, but care should be taken to see that the soil never gets in an over-wet condition. The frames can always be ventilated on mild days, but you should guard against cold draughts by raising the sides of the frame on which is, at the time, the windless side, and if the wind should change, that end of the frame should be lowered and the other side raised. It is convenient to use blocks of wood, 2 or 3 inches square for this purpose.
When the plants have made two good leaves, which should be about the beginning of April, you will be wise to thin them out to 2 inches apart either way, and if you like, transplant the thinnings into another frame, or into 3 inch deep boxes of any convenient size filled with John Innes potting compost, or with the Eclipse “No-Soil” Compost. These boxes, of course, will have to be kept in a frame or under some glass covering. By the end of April the plants should be growing strongly and sturdily and will again need a further thinning out, this time, to 4 inches apart each way, and again, if necessary, it will be advisable to find further accommodation in boxes or pots for the thinnings. Some amateurs do not bother about the thinnings at all. They purposely sow more seeds than they need, and when they thin out, they use some of the thinnings to fill in any gaps that appear, and then they have just the number of plants they require.
By this time the plants will need a little more head-room. It is therefore advisable to raise the frame light in some way, say, by means of wooden boxes or bricks to hang the sacking over the sides to keep out the draughts. Old sacks are grand for this purpose.
Of course, those who have got a number of frames, can transplant the tomatoes from one to the other and arrange to have more head-room in each case. Incidentally, today it is possible to provide a “hotbed” by means of electricity.
Some people use temporary timber frames. They make these with boards 6 inches wide and 1 inch thick, cut into the right lengths. They use three of these for the back of the frame and two for the front and they keep them in position by means of laths or cross-pieces nailed on. Then when they want extra height as the plants grow taller, they put another 6-inch wide board at the back and yet another at the front, and they arrange that the end boards are cut in such a manner that they can be fitted into position also.
Planting Out
It should be possible in most districts, to set the plants out in the open during the last week of May. In the south, we often used to have a gamble and get the plants out about 15th May, as I have already said, and some have even put them out earlier than this, and got away with it. In the north, it is. advisable to wait till the first week of June. At this time, the plants should be sturdy, thick-set and hardy, and about 7 inches high. It is better to wait until the ground is right and the weather clement, than to put the plants out a fortnight earlier in cold, wet, land and when there is a harsh biting wind about.
If the plants are still in boxes, or growing in the soil, in frames, it is necessary to cut the earth into square blocks by passing a sharp knife both ways between the plants and then watering thoroughly. It should be possible then to lift each plant out with its root almost intact and carrying a mass of soil, two days later. Such plants when put out have hardly any check at all. If, of course, by that time the plants have been potted up into 3-inch pots, there is no difficulty in knocking them out, removing the crock and planting the ball of roots when the. base of the root system has been purposely disturbed a little. Many prefer to use soil blocks rather than pots and these can be made at home with the correct tool.
Take care to see that the soil round the roots is moist throughout, before putting the plants out into the open. If dry, then they remain so for a long time afterwards and growth will be slow and uncertain. Always water immediately after planting so as to keep the ball of soil moist. This is known as ball watering, but it is advisable to take the precaution of watering the plant when still in the pot, beforehand. Don’t plant too deeply, make a hole just deep enough to allow the soil roots to be -covered with inch -of new soil and see that each plant is trodden in firmly. Plants raised and planted in the way suggested, should begin to grow and bloom right away.
If the growth is confined to a single stem, the plants may be 27 inches apart between the rows and 18 inches apart in the rows. See that the rows run north and south. Where it is desired to do some mechanical cultivation, it may be convenient to have the rows 3 feet apart, to have two rows 27 inches apart, a 3 feet space, another two rows 27 inches apart, and so on.
Supporting the Tomatoes
It is necessary to support the plants in some way. Some people find it possible to attach a bamboo or stake to each plant and tie the stem to this as it grows. This is an expensive method, not only in material but also in labor.
Another method is to have posts at the ends of the rows driven at least 2 feet into the ground and with a length of about 5 feet above ground. Straining wires should be arranged at the back of the posts to keep them upright, or another post should be driven in at an angle of 45 degrees on the “plant” side of the post, and this may then be nailed on to it to give the extra support. A wire should then run from the top of the post, to the post-top at the other end of the row, and it is convenient if a second wire can be run along at ground level. Strings can then be tied between the two wires at each plant, and as the tomato grows, the plants are twisted around the string or, what actually happens in practice, the string is twisted around the plants, and so good support is provided. (For the purpose of estimation, may I say that 1 cwt. of 15 gauge, galvanised wire contains about 1,9oo yards.)
Another method which is adopted on the score of economy, is to have the top wire and then to tie the base of the string to the bottom of the plant, and the other end of the string to the wire, then as the plant grows, it is twisted around the string as before. All kinds of modifications and so-called improvements of this kind have been devised. For instance, I have seen gardeners put up the posts and wires first and then plant two rows of tomatoes, 1 foot away on either side of the wire, “staggered”. Strings are then taken from the top wire down to the plants, and as the plants grow they are trained by the twisting method up the strings. It will be seen that in this method the plants bend slightly inward from the left or right, depending on which side of the wire they have been set. You are, however, able to use one wire support for two rows.
Some people prefer to have two stems per plant, and say that this gives them a heavier crop. When this is done, the plants should be set 2 feet, or even 2 feet 6 inches away from one another in the rows and one of the basal shoots should not be rubbed off. The side growth is generally trained perpendicularly and the main growth at an angle of 45 degrees, either up a string or along a bamboo pushed into the ground at this angle.
Cultivation and Training
Regular hoeings should be carried out among the plants to keep down the weeds. Directly any fruit is seen, top dressings of organic matter, such as sedge peat may be given along the rows and around the plants to provide what gardeners call a mulch. All kinds of substances have been used with success, e.g. properly composted vegetable refuse, lawn mowings, spent mushroom beds, old hop manure, finely divided wool shoddy or malt culms.
The side shoots should be pinched off regularly, care being taken not to damage the flower trusses when these shoots are being removed. It is convenient to do this with a sharp thumbnail and forefinger. Never allow side shoots to grow more than 1 inch or so long, except, of course, the bottom one, when you are growing on two stems.
Don’t remove any leaves until they are starting to turn yellow. Remember that the foliage manufactures the elaborated sap that sweetens the fruits and causes them to swell. If the leaves seem to be very thick, and it is thought imperative to let in sunlight and air, it is better to cut one or two back to the main stem than to slaughter the foliage by half indiscriminately.
Tie regularly where bamboos or stakes are used. You want a new raffia or “twist” tie every 6 or 7 inches. Always leave a space for the stem to swell, but do not make the tie so slack that the plant can swing about in every wind. When the plants are growing up strings, it is only necessary to give a little twist around the stem once a week or so, as the plant grows.
Feeding tomato plants
In addition to the dung and fish manure given to the ground before the plants are set out, it is advisable to feed during the summer with a liquid manure like Bio-Humus, this being a liquid with an “organic base”. Plants can be given a feed once a fortnight from the time the first trusses are set, until, say, the middle of September.
Tomatoes do not like a very acid soil when growing in the open, so hydrated lime may be given at 3 to 4 ounces to the square yard as a top dressing after the land has been dug and prepared in the winter.
Stopping or Timing
When plants are to be grown entirely in the open, it is necessary to “time” or stop the plants during the first week of August. The way to do this is to cut off with a sharp knife the main stem at one leaf above the last truss of flowers, and after this to see that no further side shoots develop. It is inevitable that this stopping should encourage excessive side shoots, and a sharp eye has therefore to be kept on the plants, once they are “timed”.
Picking
Gather the fruits directly they are ripe, and in districts where the birds are a nuisance, it may be necessary to pick when the fruit is half ripe and to continue the ripening under cover. It is heat that helps to ripen tomatoes more than actual sunshine. If, at the end of September, there are still fruits on the “vines” the trusses should be cut off whole and hung up on wires of the greenhouse or on strings near the window of some room in the house.
It is possible to pick the fruits and wrap them in paper and store them in a box in the spare-room and then use the fruit as it is required. I have had good ripe tomatoes kept in this way until nearly the end of January.
Varieties
It is very difficult for readers to make decisions about varieties, for the old adage “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” is almost as true of tomato varieties for growing in the open as of any other garden subject, which is affected by soil, climate, aspect, treatment by the gardener, and so on.