Chances are, most of us have planted tomato plants in our lives – either in neat rows in a beautifully tilled garden or in a container placed in the sunniest part of the yard.

There’s the “if you plant it, it will live” philosophy and then there are those more serious gardeners who time their plantings, amend the soil and pay attention to what the folks at the extension office have to say about growing the juicy, summertime produce that actually is a fruit, not a vegetable.

Vance County Cooperative Extension’s Resource Technician Wayne Rowland suggests trying several different varieties of tomatoes to find one that suits your needs – and your growing conditions.

Better Boy, Whopper and Celebrity, for example, are good performers and also are resistant to certain diseases that often plague tomato plants.

It’s also important to amend soil that is either heavy with clay or too sandy to provide proper nutrients. Mixing in a few inches of organic material like compost or leaf mold will help, and if you haven’t done a soil test, you may want to consider sending off a sample to the folks in Raleigh to learn the pH of the soil in the garden.

The soil sample results helps gardeners know what type of fertilizer to use, but if you don’t have a soil sample, no need to fret: you can make your own at home.

A simple fertilizer recipe is ¾ c. of lime (the mineral, not the fruit) and ½ c. of 8-8-8 fertilizer makes a good multi-purpose fertilizer, Rowland said.

As for how to plant those tomato plants to get the best yield and to make harvesting easier, Rowland recommends spacing the plants 1-2 feet apart along the row, and having 3-4 feet of space between rows.

If your transplants have gotten tall and leggy (maybe because you just couldn’t wait and bought them weeks ago in anticipation of planting time), Rowland shared a gardener’s trick that could help: Instead of digging a hole, dig a trench and plant the tomato, roots and bare stem sideways!

If using this trench method, remove all the leave along the stem except for the top leaf cluster. Lay the plant on its side and cover the roots and the stem with a few inches of soil, taking care not to tamp down the soil too hard that you break the stem.

No matter which method you use, the tomato plants will benefit from applying a starter solution, something that’s available at local garden centers or you can make your own.

If you need a lot, mix 1 pound of 8-8-8 fertilizer in 10 gallons of water.

If you don’t need that much, add 3 tablespoons of 8-8-8 to 1 gallon of water.

Whether you want cherry tomatoes to put in a fresh salad, Romas for spaghetti sauce or if you have your mouth set for a juicy slice of tomato slathered with Duke’s mayo between two slices of white bread, now’s the time to get those plants in the ground. With these helpful tips from  N.C. Cooperative Extension, your work surely will pay dividends later in the summer.

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