May is the graduation month for most tomato plants. If you grow in a temperate climate, this is probably when you transition your seedlings from their indoor lives to the harsh realities of the garden. It can be a little scary.
But don’t worry! As long as you follow a few simple rules, you can send your tomatoes out into the world with confidence. Here are six absolute must-dos tomato care in May, if you want a bumper harvest, come in August.
1. Harden off the seedlings
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That comes first, no matter what. Either you have started the seeds indoors yourself or have bought seedlings from a nursery, your little plants are likely to be used to pleasant indoor life. This means no wind, no bright sun and especially no cold. If you plant them straight into the ground, all that sudden change will give them a rude awakening.
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Will it kill them? Unless it freezes, probably not. But it will shock them and they will spend the next few weeks struggling to recover when they could put down roots and pull out leaves. It is best to avoid it.
See how to harden the seedlings:
- Place the seedlings outdoors in a shaded, protected area for 2 hours during the day.
- Bring them back inside.
- Repeat, increasing time outdoors by 1-2 hours each day, gradually exposing them to bright sunlight and then direct morning sun.
- Continue the process for 7-10 days.
- As long as temperatures are consistently above 50 F (10 C), you can move them outside permanently.
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2. Dig deep and transplant
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Once your tomato seedlings are hardened off, they are ready for transplanting…as long as the soil has warmed to at least 60 F (16 C). Don’t try to hide them early! As with hardening off, cool soil won’t kill them, but it will reverse them.
When you do transplanting tomato plantsdig deep! Tomatoes and more night flowers they have a unique ability that allows them to develop roots anywhere along their stems. This means that whatever part of the sapling you bury, it will grow roots.
If your seedlings are a little leggy, that’s okay. Simply clip the leaves to the bottom two-thirds of the plant and bury it so that the remaining leaves are a few inches above the soil line. If the stem is too long, you can try planting ditches. Dig a large corner trench, and place the sapling across it so that its leaves protrude above the soil line, then fill the trench. The plant will benefit from having more roots near the surface, where the soil is warmer and water is more readily available.
3. Add support
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It happens to the best of us. We plant our tomatoes and vow to add a cage once we get to it. Then life happens, and the weeks go by, and by the time we finally get to it, the plant is huge and it’s impossible to fit a tomato cage around him without breaking any branches and detaching any fruit. Or we stab part of the now extensive root system and destroy the plant. I know I have.
Learn from my mistake: add support to your tomato plants the day you put them in the ground!
4. Mulch Mulch Mulch!
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Tomatoes are notoriously vulnerable to soil-borne diseases such as early blight and Septoria leaf spot. These spores live in the soil and reach your tomato leaves in water droplets that splash onto them. If a seedling is surrounded by bare soil, every rain or watering will be an opportunity to shoot.
Keep spores from splashing by leaving 2-3 inches (5-7.5 cm) of mulch. I like to use mulch for all my vegetables.
5. Fertilize and keep it balanced
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Tomatoes benefit from an application of fertilizer when they are first planted, but it is important to keep it balanced. Too nitrogen now, and they will have a rapid growth very quickly. Too phosphorous and they will focus on producing flowers when they should be growing leaves. A balanced fertilizer like this one from Amazon it will give them a good start.
Although it’s tempting, don’t put fertilizer in the hole with the seedling – it will burn any roots it comes into direct contact with. Dress on the side or dilute it in water and pour over them liquid food.
6. Prune and be ruthless
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If you grow up unspecified tomatoesyou will probably notice clown – these are the small shoots that grow between the main stem and a branch. Pinch these mocks away to improve airflow.
If your plant is less than 30cm and starting to produce flowers, you will need to pinch them back as well. It feels like a crime, but it forces the plant to invest that energy into its root system, leading to a much higher yield later in the summer.
