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Gardening

Growing Vegetables! -TOMATO

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HOW TO GROW your own tomatoes in Wexford.

SITE AND SOIL

Tomatoes need sun and shelter from winds a bit problem in Rosslare and Kilrane. They like a fairly rich, pH-neutral soil with extra compost and/or manure to increase moisture retention. Keep tomatoes away from potatoes to help prevent infection by fungal blight as they are both related!

How to SOW SEEDS

Tomato seed are small but easily seen. There are many varieties but choose one suitable to how you want to grow them, If you have a green house or tunnel then look for indoor, if you dont look for out door. Some can even be grown in pots on the patio and brought in later in the year to ripen up indoors. Choose one that's right your local season and dont try to plant them out too ealry dosen't help as the plants get shock. Sow in 3in. (7cm) pots in a propagator or on a warm window sill in late March/early April. Prick out into individual 3in. (7cm) pots and grow on in the green house.

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HOW AND WHEN TO PLANT OUT

Harden off plants during May for planting in early June (after the frosts). Harden off by placing out aside during the day and taking in at night as the nights warm up leave them out later. When planting Space 18in. (45cm) apart in soil or grow two plants per grow bag (some grow bags are lager).- 10in. (25cm) pots are good too. Push a bamboo cane next to the roots when you plan to provide support as your plants grow if you do it later you rics disturbing the roots or damaging the plant.

GROW ON

Choose a good sopt that gets good light during the day and into the evening. Protect form wind if you can naturally but I find as simple frame of currogated plastics on some battens can be helpful to ripen fruit. Choose the best grow bag you can, cheap ones are not that good and it will affect yield significantly.

Mulch bed with straw or composted bark to reduce water loss and keep lower fruit trusses off soil. In cold or exposed gardens plant lay some black plastic to warm the soil and plant through by making a X cut inthe plastic about 2 times the width of the top of the plant. Water well when you plant them and give a good feed to get started. Then you can leave them to fend for themselves and more often than not they will perfom well. I always try to use a good tomato feed to encourage fruiting and flowering. In late summer pinch off the growing tips two leaves above the fruit (5th truss in the south and the 3rd truss in the north) this helps push energy to the fruit.

Ask about locally to see what your firends and neighbours are gowing and what works for them. I find that the classic continental beefsteak "Marmande" grew well for me and produced a decent crop certainly more then owrht the effort and continued fruiting up till early November. Stay away form the more unusual one if you really want to have stuff to eat. But they are fun to grow and you can have many colours and flavours.

Speed of growth to fruit is important because if the summer is generally cooler then out continental cousins and wet damp plants are prone to blight, Blight is a fungal disease that blackens and kills the stems the same as caused the Potato famines. As blight spores spread in wet damp weather some gardeners grow their crops beneath plastic tents to keep off the rain yet still allows the sun to ripen the fruits. You can get mini green houses cheap enough to pay ther own way after a year or so. But you can use big plastic bags like dry cleaner use and place a teepee of canes and slip the bag over and try off to the canes.

If you do suspect you have a disease like blight you can spray with a fungicide your local garden center can advise, but prevention is often better then cure and there are some food safe sprays out there to help with diseases and pests like green fly or black afid.

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