The tomatoes have been in the ground for a while or are now doing well in pots. They are growing well and starting to show their first fruits. To make sure they keep feeling their best in the coming time, we share our tips for keeping them happy. After all, a healthy plant will soon be a tasty tomato.
About thieving and trembling in tomatoes
Also during the summer months, continue to remove thorns from your tomatoes: axillary shoots that emerge between a leaf and the stem of the plant are removed. Do that weekly, then you avoid a tangle of leaves and thus more chances of fungi. A plant through which air circulation can easily pass, especially in the greenhouse, is less sensitive to it. Vibrating' is also important. Vibrating, what? That's tapping or shaking the stick or rope your plants are growing on. Do that every day for 2 to 3 counts. This way you make sure that the flowers are pollinated and will soon become tomatoes, even if few or no bumblebees or bees come into the greenhouse.
Leaf picking in tomatoes: do it in August
August is the ideal time to apply leaf picking to tomatoes. Leaves that hang too low, or hang in front of a cluster, remove them with sharp and clean pruning shears. Sometimes you can also easily break them off by pushing them upward. By doing so, you create more air circulation and ensure that bunches are better exposed to sunlight. Sunlight means ripe tomatoes, so only benefits. BUT: you don't want the whole plant to be bare. Leave leaves, they also often protect the fruit from extreme sunburn and are necessary to keep the plant alive. In fact, without leaves, the plant cannot photosynthesize and does not grow.
Learn more thanks to our videos
Did you know that we also have a well-stocked YouTube channel? With over 450 videos, we have a large database of information. Be sure to take a look at YouTube and subscribe, and you'll stay up to date with the latest videos.
In this video, Angelo tells you all about taking care of your tomatoes during the summer months.
Giving fertilizer to potted tomatoes
If you enrich your soil well beforehand with compost, then additional fertilizers are not really necessary in the open ground. But if you grow tomatoes in pots, then it is advisable to give organic liquid fertilizer weekly, for example. Liquid, because that is very fine and easy to use. The available nutrition in the soil of your potting soil will be exhausted sooner or later, and then it is important to provide your plants with extras. Because again, the better the plant feels, the less diseases and fungi will rear their heads and the more tomatoes you can harvest.
WATERING TOMATOES IN THE SUMMER
In addition to thinning, vibrating flowers and applying leaf pick, it is of course important to keep your plants adequately watered. But don't overdo it. Tomatoes have already rooted quite a bit into the soil at this point and often start looking for water on their own. In addition, too much water causes the fruits may burst . Logical, because the plant does not know what to do with the excess water and pushes it towards the fruit. Cracked fruits, by the way, are often species-dependent. One variety suffers from it, the other does not.
