Question
Peace b on u
i m living in New Bombay, India and i want to start plantation at my home
so how should i grow the tomato.
Is there any special seed for tomato or means what v should do... for growing it
plz help me


Answer
Aasim:

There are many, many, many varieties of tomatoes. You may want to plant a few different ones for different uses.

Tomatoes are either determinate or indeterminate. The former bear all of their fruits over a short period of time. The latter bear a few fruits at a time from maturity until frost. They also ripen at different times, so depending on how long your growing season is you may want to plant early mid and late varieties.

Whichever type you plant, they are heat-loving plants. I don't know what the weather is like in India - does it get cold there? Tomatoes should not be planted out without protection before the nighttime temperatures are consistently at 50 degrees or above. If your growing season is long enough, you can also plant them directly from seed.

Tomatoes need a good dose of phosphorus (bone meal) and calcium. They can benefit from a light addition of nitrogen at planting time, but do better without additional nitrogen feeding later.

Consistent watering is very important to fruit development. Tomatoes require about 1?of water a week. Many varieties are prone to blossom end rot, which occurs when plants are allowed to dry out in between watering. The problem is really caused by a deficiency of calcium, so the addition of lime (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup per plant) helps ward it off.

Tomatoes won抰 set fruit if the nights are below 50, or when daytime temperatures rise above 75-80. Once they do produce fruits, they won抰 ripen properly at temperatures above 85-86 or below 50. And if there are a too many tomatoes on one plant it may delay ripening.

Once the plants have reached about a foot, you may want to stake them. Staking tomatoes keeps the fruits cleaner and safe from insects and rotting. It is also easier to pick the tomatoes. There are many ways to stake them, I'm sure you can find plenty of how-to info on the web.

They are not difficult to grow, but as I said, they are rather picky about when they will set fruit and ripen, but there is little the gardener can do about that, except to choose an appropriate variety and protect the plants from excess heat (not easy to do) and cold.

Good luck!

Elyse