Tips and Techniques for Growing Tasty

Vine-Ripe Tomatoes

Most people struggle to grow tomatoes successfully. They’re considered a difficult plant to grow. But here you’ll find the information for growing all the tasty and healthy tomatoes you want.

Let’s Grow Tomatoes, or any one of several other great gardening books by world-renowned Garden Doctor Jacob R. Mittleider, will have you growing tomatoes like an expert in no time. See the gardening books here.

Want or need to grow in containers? Is your garden area limited, do you only have a deck or patio, or do you just not want to dig in the dirty old soil?  Gardening by the Foot will teach and show you quickly.

The information in this book will have you growing even more tomatoes than the native soil can produce, and every bit as tasty! Check out Gardening by the Foot.

Is shade your problem? Short of cutting down trees, do you have even just a sunny balcony or flat rooftop?  Container gardening again may be the best answer.  Look at The MIttleider Gardening Course.

Or if you have native soil in which to grow we promise you a great garden in any soil – with no soil amendments needed!

We’ll consider different sizes of garden and give you tips on how to get the most from your efforts no matter how small or large your garden is. For example:

· Most people believe they don’t have enough space to grow very many tomatoes. By growing vertically, the way the commercial growers do, you can increase your yields by 5 times! The books have it in detail, with pictures & illustrations.  You can read about it in Grow-Bed Gardening here.

· With just 10 plants you can grow 160# or more of great-tasting tomatoes. Imagine what you could do if you grew tomatoes on 1 acre!

· In between those extremes, most of us will be growing between 25 and 50 – or maybe 100 tomato plants, along with several other vegetables.

By simply following the “recipe for success” here on this website and in the Mittleider gardening books & CD’s, and doing it accurately and consistently, you will have the best garden in your community while increasing your yield 5 to 10 times over traditional methods.

Get started now! Successful gardening to you,

Jim Kennard, President

Food For Everyone Foundation – Teaching the world to grow food one family at a time. www.foodforeveryone.org

Spacing, Pruning and the Building of T-Frames

to Grow Tomatoes Vertically.

Growing Tomatoes Vertically Using T-Frames

Plant Selection

Here’s how to grow tomatoes the way “the big boys” do it!  Do it right and your yield will amaze you as well as your neighbors.  Use one T-Frame every 10 feet maximum.

Between the T-Frames use heavy-gauge wire, galvanized steel pipe (1/2″ is adequate) or even 2 X 4’s on edge.

If your growing season is short and you want to build a frame strong enough to support a plastic covering in early spring and late fall, use 2 x 4’s.

Install 7′-long pieces of arched PVC every 2-3′ along the top using 45 degree slip fittings nailed to the 2 X 4’s, and cover the entire structure with 6 mil clear greenhouse plastic for the world’s least expensive greenhouse. This works best tying two adjacent beds together into one greenhouse.  More details follow below.

Graphically illustrated instructions for building and installing T-Frames are also contained in the Mittleider Gardening Course - advanced section, Chapter 15. This chapter is available free on the Food For Everyone Foundation’s website at www.foodforeveryone.org.

For a 30′ Soil-Bed or Grow-Box, buy 6 - 8′-long treated 4 X 4’s.  Cut two of them into 6 equal-sized pieces 32″ long. Four 32″ lengths become the top of the Ts.

The other two 32″ 4 X 4 lengths then are cut into 4 equal-sized braces using 45 degree-angle cuts as follows: Measure and mark 10 5/8″ along the bottom edge, then 3 5/8″, then 10 5/8″, then 3 5/8″.   On the top edge, measure and mark 3 1/2″, then 3 5/8″, then 10 5/8″,then 3 5/8″.

Draw lines between these marks, then using a table saw cut on the lines.  Pre-drill through the top center of the 32″ tops, then use a 6″ spike to nail into the 8′ post.  Screw or nail the braces to both the top and the post.

Bury the T-Frame 15″ in the ground at 10′ (or shorter) intervals just inside the ridge on one side of your Grow-Bed, or inside the side frame of your Grow-Box.

Use #8 gage wire and eye-bolts between the T-Frames, 1/2″galvanized pipe, held in place by two nails placed 1″ and 1 ½” in from the outside edges, or 2 X 4s on edge.

To extend your growing season several weeks in both spring and fall, use 2 X 4’s on edge to tie the T-Frames in two adjacent beds together, and make an arched canopy with 7’-long 3/4″ PVC and 45 degree Slip fittings every 2′, then cover in early Spring and late Fall with 6 mil clear greenhouse plastic.  Some added heat may be necessary to protect from hard frosts, so consider an electric heater or other heat source.

Growing Tomatoes Vertically - How Close to Plant

How close together you should grow your tomato plants depends on several factors, and ultimately it is all up to you. If you are growing vertically and using T-Frames, with tomatoes growing up baling twine string, you can plant them as close as 8″ apart.

The key to success is in how diligent, accurate, and consistent you are in pruning the sucker stems!  Gently guide your plants around the string at least once every week in the spring, and every 4-6 days in the summer, and take off all sucker stems at least that often.  This will give you a single-stalk plant with large hands of tomatoes every 5-7″ all the way up the stem, and your fruit production will amaze you, with 15# to 20# of fruit per plant.

On the other hand, if you neglect to take off all the suckers, your plants will become big, bushy masses of leaves and branches.  The plants will compete with adjacent plants - and even with their own sucker branches - for light, and you will have a big mess on your hands, with much less fruit for your efforts.

So, if you are not diligent in pruning, even 14″ apart is too close together.  I recommend planting your tomatoes every 9″, with ONE ROW ONLY in your beds, and then guiding every other plant up baling twine strings to opposite sides of T-Frames.

Growing Tomatoes Vertically - How to Prune

In order to harvest a large amount of healthy home-grown tomatoes in a small space indeterminate plants should be used and grown vertically using stakes, or more preferably, T-Frames and baling twine strings. This requires that you allow the plant to have only one or two stems, and eliminate all others by pruning.

Let’s first discuss how to remove all the sucker stems. This is the major function of pruning tomatoes.

Where the leaf branch grows out from the main stem (in the crotch) pinch off the new growth that comes out of that area.  But make sure you don’t pinch out the top growth.  When in doubt, stay away from the top of the plant.

Also, stay away from the blossoms that grow about an inch above the leaf node or crotch.  Those become your fruit.

To maximize your tomato yield, you must manage the plant’s growth.  This could be compared to the biblical pruning of the vineyard.

A single plant, taking up less than one lineal foot of space, can produce 15 to 20# of fruit - but only if you keep it to one or two main stems. Remember, we’re doing “modified ” here, and the hydroponic and greenhouse growers know what they are doing when they prune to one main stem per plant.

Prune the sucker stems from indeterminate varieties only!  Right at the point where each leaf grows out from the stem, a new (sucker) stem will appear and begin to grow.  Remove it, and the sooner the better.  Don’t let the plant waste energy growing the sucker stem.  But DO NOT remove the leaf - only the sucker stem growing between the leaf and the stem!!

Once your plant has several sets of leaves, it will begin producing blossoms. THESE BECOME YOUR TOMATOES.  They appear about one inch ABOVE the leaf joint, or node as it’s called.  NEVER take off the blossoms. Remember, that’s your fruit!

Both pruning and guiding your tomatoes up the baling-twine string should be done religiously, at least once each week for every plant.

You should prune all leaves that touch the ground, and you may also need to prune some leaves, or parts of leaves, to prevent them from overlapping with the leaves of adjacent plants and competing for essential sunlight.  Minimize your problems from over-crowding of your plants by allowing adequate space for each plant to grow to maturity in full sunlight.

Grow 100 Tons of Tomatoes On Just 1 Acre

Have you ever thought about growing commercially – of becoming self-sufficient and out from under the hassles of commuting and the problems of working for someone else? It is not a cake-walk, but it is possible to produce $100,000 per year from just one acre of ground.

It’s true that the Mittleider Method can produce 100 tons of tomatoes on one acre.  How is this possible, since field-grown tomato growers do wel

l to produce 30 to 35 tons per acre?!

I’ll describe “The poor man’s hydroponic method” of growing in a 1-acre garden, using raised beds, or Grow-Boxes, as Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider calls them.  And remember that just one acre of tomatoes grown successfully using this method - and selling them for just $.50 per pound, would yield $100,000 gross income per year!

One acre, which is 43,560 square feet, will accommodate 312 - 30′ rows of tomatoes, grown in 4′ X 30′ Grow-Boxes, with 3 1/2′ side aisles, 5′ end aisles, and 5′ aisles around the perimeter (almost the same thing can be done in the dirt also).

Planted 9″ apart would amount to 12,792 tomato plants (41 per bed).  By growing a large tomato that averages 8 ounces (some varieties actually average 10-12 ounces), feeding and watering properly, and growing vertically, each plant should produce 16# of fruit from July through October in the temperate growing conditions of the central and northern United States.

A good variety will produce a “hand” of 3 to 7 tomatoes every 5-7″ up a stem that grows to 7’ (and is then cut off) in 4 months’ production.  Using 4 per hand X 12 hands X 1/2# per tomato = 24# per plant.  Reducing that by 33%, in order to be very conservative, amounts to 204,672 pounds of tomatoes - or $102,336 at $.50 per pound.  Who said you couldn’t live off the land!

There certainly are costs - as there are to any business.  Following are the major costs, but these are one-time capital expenditures, and will be more than recovered in the first year

1) Creating and filling the boxes,

2) making T-Frames,

3) wires or pipes - and baling twine strings, and

4) automating the watering.

Now, suppose you’d like to increase your yield even further (hydroponic growers can grow 330 tons or 660,000# per year on one acre.  Of course, they have huge investments in year-round greenhouses, etc., etc.).

By simply putting an arched PVC roof over each pair of your Grow-Boxes, and covering them with 6 mil greenhouse plastic, you can lengthen your growing season by another 1 ½ or 2 months, or 30 to 50%!

Now you’re looking at 300,000# of tomatoes per acre, and about half the yield of the expensive hydroponic growers - but you’re growing inexpensively and “in the dirt”, because your boxes are open at the bottom, so your plants get all the natural nutrients available to them from the soil.

You don’t need the greenhouse covering all the time, so your plants can benefit from direct sunlight as well. Imagine That!  And your garden can qualify as an organic garden, if you do everything properly, and don’t use any pesticides or herbicides.

Do you think these numbers are hard to believe?  Just visit a greenhouse tomato operation and see tomato plants that are 20′ long and still producing after almost a year!

Several of Dr. Mittleider’s books teach this method of tomato production, including Let’s Grow Tomatoes, Gardening by the Foot, and The Mittleider Gardening Course.

Get an electronic copy instantly and be on your way! Go to www.howtoorganicgarden.com

Here’s a picture of some of the 320 plants I’m growing on 1200 square feet adjacent to Utah’s Hogle Zoo.