Ever wonder why your tomatoes just don’t get as big as they once did?  You’re doing everything the same way as you always have.  What could possibly be wrong? Planting the same thing in the same spot year after year is the problem.  To plant a tomato plant in the same place in your garden year after year will deplete the soil of the minerals and nutrients your tomato and other vegetables need to be healthy.

 In order to keep your garden soil productive you will benefit from ‘crop rotation’.  So, you ask “what exactly is crop rotation?  And why is it necessary?”  

There are several benefits to using crop rotation:

Nutrient Balance:  Different families of plant require different nutrients from the soil. Each plant requires specific nutrients which are depleted through repeated planting.   By moving the plant your soil can be rebalanced.

Insect Control:  Crop rotation also reduces the possibility of insect colonies.

Disease Prevention:  Disease organisms build up in your soil if they are reinforced by repetitively planting in the same spot.  The disease organism build-up can cause crop failure.  You have a better chance of keeping these organisms under control by moving last year’s plant to a new location.

The easiest way to employ crop rotation is to first understand that there are six major plant groups: alliums, cruciferous, legume, solanaceous  and umbelliferae. I have combined alliums (onion family) with umbelliferae (roots).  And I have combined solaneaceous (tomato) with Cucurbit (melons). You do not need to follow this set of combinations, but you will need to keep track of each of your group’s movements.  These groups just make it easier for me to remember.  Or you can keep a small notebook of where you have planted things from year to year. An important thing to understand with this process is that legumes work to fix nitrogen into the soil where the other groups use the nitrogen.

Group One (leafy family): cabbage, broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, cauliflower, and leafy greens

Group Two (root family): carrots, onions, garlic, turnips, radishes, beets. Leek, shallot

Group Three (fruit family): tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, corn & eggplant

Group Four (bean family): peanuts, beans, peas and cover crops

Divide your garden into four different areas.  Moving your plant to a successively from area to area each year so by the fifth year you are back where you started.  The order of your groups does not really matter.  But I have found it beneficial to put my tomatoes behind beans in the rotation, because legume actually fixes nitrogen back into the soil.

First, we need to understand the difference between compost and fertilizer.  There are two approaches here.  Fertilizing your plants is often understood as giving your plants “vitamins. Adding composted material to your garden bed effectively means feeding the soil.  A third thought might be to do both.

Lots of questions come to mind.  Is one approach better than the other?  What are the benefits of one verses the other.  Is one more expensive?  Is one healthier?  Is one more widely used and if so, by whom?

Before we can decide on which method we might want to use we should know what each approach does.

Fertilizing balances the elements N,P & K (nitrogen, phosphorous and potash). Certain types of plants use one of these elements more heavily than the other.   Plants need nitrogen to produce their own food.  Nitrogen develops a darker green color in plants.  For a plant to produce healthy flowers they need an optimum amount of phosphorus. And, potash promotes a healthy root system.

Grass aka turf does not need to bloom, so the appropriate fertilizer is more heavily balanced toward nitrogen. Flowers which are not intended to produced fruit or vegetables usually contain more phosphorous. Vegetable and fruit plants require a more typically balanced mixture of the three elements.

Adding compost to your garden soil works to enhance it in several ways. The decaying biological material in compost works to add beneficial bacteria. It also acts to loosen up denser clay soils and helps sandy soil retain moisture longer. Compost can also help to create air pockets which become water storage spaces. Composted material slowly adds recycled plant nutrients back into the soil. And lastly compost can work to bring the pH level in the soil back from too acid or not acidic enough. In the range of 6.5 would be perfect for most vegetable gardeners. But if you wanted to grow blueberries, for instance, you would get a greater yield if the soil was more acidic.

So the question becomes:  Is one approach better than the other?  And the answer would depend on your specific perspective. The truth is, your garden become healthier with each succeeding year if you add compost and rotate the growing location of your vegetables.  If you are patience, composting will work and cost less in the long run. If you have very little interest in studying what plants need, fertilizers may work to grow more and bigger vegetables.  If you will be gardening for a long time I would suggest you add compost to your garden on a regular basis even if you do use chemical fertilizers.

I have chosen to cultivate my garden without synthetic fertilizers.  I am convinced that the consumption of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides are connected to the cancer rate in this country.  And, because my mother and one of my sisters have had instances of breast cancer, I choose to avoid synthetic agents when I can.   When I need to amend the soil in my vegetable garden I use things like compost, dolomite lime, gypsum and blood meal to name a few. 

My favorite comment with regards to the compost verses fertilizer disagreement is: One gardener’s big healthy plant might be another gardener’s overgrown monster. That gardener reminded me that younger vegetables are usually more flavorful than older larger vegetables.

So, as you can see, this is a question of perspective and priorities.

Why are my tomato plants beautiful and healthy and bear no fruit?

This can happen in two ways. The plants can be healthy and never blossom, or they can blossom and bear no fruit. Both things are probably due to the same problem. This is a technical problem, but it is solvable. You may even try this at home.

There are three elements associated with fertilizer. You will often see their relationship expressed with three numbers separated with dashes.  These are represented by N-P-K. N is nitrogen, P is phosphorous, and K is potash.  Typical flower garden fertilizer is formulated with something close to 24-8-16, and a tomato fertilizer is typically closer to 18-18-21.

If you are getting very lush plants and the flowers are not setting you have likely added too much nitrogen to the garden soil. Using a flower bed fertilizer on tomatoes could cause this problem.

The real problem here is that the excess nitrogen in the soil prevents the plant from absorbing calcium.  Calcium is essential for setting the fruit. “Setting” is the term used to describe the transformation of the blossom into a tomato fruit.

My preference is to use compost in place of chemical fertilizers. Compost does at least three things that improve your garden soil. Compost adds organic material to your soil which allows it to hold moisture for a longer period of time. It adds beneficial bacteria to the soil and it helps to maintain a proper pH level. For tomatoes 6.5pH would be appropriate. If you have a seemingly unsolvable problem take a soil sample to the Baltimore County Extension Center and have them test your pH level. They can suggest ways to amend your soil. But my first suggestion would be to learn about composting.

Over the years I have tried several different ways to prop up my tomatoes. I have used one stake, flimsy tomato cages, heavy duty tomato cages and wire fencing.

 If you have plenty of space you may just let the plants “sprawl” across the ground. I have limited space and I want to get the most efficient use of my garden.

One stake is what my mother used to use when I began my gardening obsession in the late 1960’s. This is most likely where most of us start.  This method does work to keep the fruit up off the ground, but the plants can and do frequently topple in summer storms. The vines must be attached in some way using string, twist ties or torn strips of fabric (my mother’s method) that sometime cause damage to the vine. I have moved away from this method.

Inexpensive tomato cages found in most places that sell tomato plants are a considerably better way to support your plants. Cages, however, can also fall over in summer storms causing plant damage. If the plant is big enough the weight of the plant can up root it as it falls over; pushing the cage into the soil all the way to the first circular ring from the bottom does help to some degree.

Recently I have found tomato cages made of a heavier gage wire which are painted and have long legs. I am using these this year for the first time as an experiment, and I hoping they last longer than the lighter gage smaller models. I will let you know how this works out.

I have also seen hinged or v-shaped props. I will not call these cages because they only have two sides, but they are taller. These could possibly work for cucumbers or string beans that grow on a vine.

The most substantial means of supporting tomatoes are with wire fencing. This type of support is generally used around the perimeter of a garden to keep critters from getting to your precious fruits and vegetables. You can get this type of fencing at a hardware store, a home improvement center, or a larger garden center. The fencing comes in a roll, four feet tall by sixty feet long. The wire spaces are 6”x6”.  This type of fencing attaches to metal “posts” with upwardly pointing slots that can be closed with a hammer after the fencing is in place.

What I have one in gardens larger than the one I use now, is run the fencing down the center of the rows leaving room for the plants to grow and for room to walk.  The plants along the rows can be as close as one foot apart (according to the “Square Foot Gardener”), but I like to space them more like 18” apart. This spacing is definitely less efficient, but I feel like the plants are healthier because air moves moisture away from the leaves more quickly. Carolyn J. Male, in her book, 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden, suggests that the spacing should be more like 2 to 3 feet apart. I suggest the spacing decision is up to you.

Please share with us how you will prop up your tomatoes and why you do it that way.

Some time ago I found this delightfully sweet tiny little tomato at a nearby farmers' market. The tomato was about the size of a blue berry. I must admit I wanted it because it was "cute". So, I bought some to share  with a few friends.

Their flavor was incredible. I enjoyed these tomatoes so much they almost didn't make it to my friends. I knew I just needed to grow some for myself. Without knowing their name or where they originally came from (and neither did the farmer I bought them from) I decided to save some seeds and try my hand at growing the plants myself.

To remember what I had saved I drew a quick sketch of the fruit stem and gave them a temporary name. The farmer I bought the seeds from was Paul. And after finding an image of the tomatoes online I learned they are "currant" tomatoes. Hence, my tomatoes will be called "Paul's Organic Currant Tomatoes".

At the outset,  when I decided to do this, I saved my seeds on a napkin thinking the napkin would absorb the tomato see gel and they would dry. The result was that they stuck to the napkin. I had no real clue about how to save the seeds. Since then the process of "fermenting seeds" had come to my attention.  Even though my family were farmers for many generations I guess I am truly just a "suburban gardener".

This fermenting process is simple and results in a clean seed. The goo is washed from the seed while the "good" seeds sink to the bottom of the washing solution and the "bad" seeds float to the top and can be discarded along with the rest of the "scum." The scum is what forms on top of the water after the seeds have been soaking for a few days.

To make a long story shorter, I use the fermenting process now.

I drew a quick sketch of what the fruit stem looked like, and gave them a temporary name. The organic farmer I bought the tomatoes from was Paul. And after finding an image of the tomatoes online I learned they are "currant" tomatoes. Hence, my tomatoes will be called "Paul's Organic Currant Tomatoes".

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