Tomato Growing Tricks from Bill Mansour (OSU Vegetable Crops Specialist)
Growing tomatoes is always a challenge to many Oregon home gardeners. Cool summers often mean slow-ripening fruits, and when the first frosts of fall come, many home gardeners find themselves with an overabundance of green tomatoes.
To avoid this pitfall, make sure to get your tomato starts in the ground between May 1 and mid-June, recommended Bill Mansour, Oregon State University vegetable crops specialist.
Mansour offered some tips for growing tomatoes in Oregon home gardens:
The OSU Extension Service recommends early tomato varieties such as Early Girl, Kootenai, New Yorker, Oregon Spring, Santiam and Siletz.
OSU-recommended mid-season varieties include Celebrity, First Lady, Heinz 1350, Pik Red, Royal Flush, Spring Set, Spring Giant, Sunny and Willamette.
In areas with long frost-free seasons, gardeners might try OSU Extension-recommended late varieties including Ace, Better Boy, Big Beef, Big Boy, Fantastic and Floramerica. Cherry tomatoes that do well in Oregon include Small Fry, Sweet 100, Tiny Tim and the yellow Gold Nugget.
Recommended paste tomatoes include the classic Roma, Chico III, Royal Chico, Sprinter, and the OSU variety Oroma.
Cherry tomatoes that OSU recommends include: Small Fry, Tiny Tim, Patio, Presto, Oregon Cherry, Gold Nugget.
For more information about "Grow Your Own Tomatoes," publication EC 1333, visit our on-line catalog. Our publications and video catalog at: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ shows which publications are available on the Web and which can be ordered as printed publications.
To avoid this pitfall, make sure to get your tomato starts in the ground between May 1 and mid-June, recommended Bill Mansour, Oregon State University vegetable crops specialist.
Mansour offered some tips for growing tomatoes in Oregon home gardens:
- Plant only high quality, semi-hardened transplants without blossoms. Pinch blossoms off on transplants if they have them. Young transplants with flowers will delay vegetative growth and cause later flowering.
- Prevent transplant shock by setting plants out in a protected area for a week before transplanting to their final place in the garden. Heat, cold or bright sunlight can damage tender tomato transplants.
- Thoroughly water plants 12 to 14 hours before transplanting to the garden.
- Be careful about fertilizing young plants--too much nitrogen can cause excessive vegetative growth and delay fruit set.
- Irrigate tomatoes to maintain a steady moisture content in the soil to avoid blossom end rot, a disease where the blossom end of the fruit rots.
- Use plastic sheeting or other heat-transmitting ground mulches and-or row covers, cloches or tunnels if possible for tomatoes, especially in western Oregon, where the nights are cool. Plastic mulch conserves moisture, increases soil temperatures, protects the fruits from rot and enhances earliness and yields. Covers will improve early growth and protect plants from light frosts. Remove the covers after about four weeks, or when daytime temperatures get into the 80s.
- Lengthen the tomato harvest season by gathering mature (with gel in the seed cavity) green tomatoes before the first frost. Store them at 50 degrees and ripen at 70 degrees.
- Plant tomato transplants about one to two feet apart in rows three to five feet apart. Rows can be closer together if the tomato plants are supported with cages or other supports. Ten to 15 tomato plants will feed a family of four.
The OSU Extension Service recommends early tomato varieties such as Early Girl, Kootenai, New Yorker, Oregon Spring, Santiam and Siletz.
OSU-recommended mid-season varieties include Celebrity, First Lady, Heinz 1350, Pik Red, Royal Flush, Spring Set, Spring Giant, Sunny and Willamette.
In areas with long frost-free seasons, gardeners might try OSU Extension-recommended late varieties including Ace, Better Boy, Big Beef, Big Boy, Fantastic and Floramerica. Cherry tomatoes that do well in Oregon include Small Fry, Sweet 100, Tiny Tim and the yellow Gold Nugget.
Recommended paste tomatoes include the classic Roma, Chico III, Royal Chico, Sprinter, and the OSU variety Oroma.
Cherry tomatoes that OSU recommends include: Small Fry, Tiny Tim, Patio, Presto, Oregon Cherry, Gold Nugget.
For more information about "Grow Your Own Tomatoes," publication EC 1333, visit our on-line catalog. Our publications and video catalog at: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ shows which publications are available on the Web and which can be ordered as printed publications.
