planting tomato's?

Question

I planted tomatos the last 3 yrs and they will not grow, what is wrong with the poor little things, their about the size of golf balls.
I live in WV. "oh" they are Reg tomatos too, not cherry's.
I buy the plants at diffrent stores, but they still won't produce good tomatos.
jerry's brown thumb.

Answer 1

Tomatoes are heat loving plants and won't grow well unless they have enough heat. There are different varieties that do well under different conditions, check with your local garden centers for varieties that grow well in your area.
Tomatoes must have sun and adequate water, and ideally a loose loamy soil. You can ammend your soil just where you plant tomatoes by digging 24 inches deep and about 14 inches wide, toss a couple shovelfulls of composted manure or other organic matter into the bottom, then backfill with a mix of organic matter and the soil from the hole. Be sure your organic matter is well composted, if it's still hot, you can burn your baby plants. If you do this now, you can use a hotter mix and it will be ready to plant in spring.
I have a great old book called "Terrific Tomatoes" and here's something I've tried from it that grows amazing tomatoes: I dig my 24 deep by 14 inch wide hole, drop a half dozen corncobs in the bottom, lay a salmon head on top of that, add a couple shovelfulls of composted chicken manure and backfill with a light mix of composted manure and soil from the hole. I water well and let this settle for at least two days before I plant my tomatoes in it. The corncobs absorb moisture, which attracts the roots right down through all the great food! I'm lucky to have a cheap source for salmon heads, any fish scraps would probably work.
I always start with organic starts in 4" pots and bring them home two weeks early to get them acclimated to the garden before I transplant. When I plant them I carefully nip off all the lower leaves up to the top couple of sets, maybe three inches or so at the top of the plant and bury the rest of the stem in the soil. Tomatoe plants will generate roots from the buried stem which makes for a larger and healthier root system. (Note that this does not work on most other plants) It's hard to do this to the baby tomatoes, but I've tested this on half my plants for the last few years, within a few weeks all the plants are the same size and then later in the season the ones that have the extra "root power" always do better. When you buy your tomatoe starts look for ones without flowers - if you do have flowers carefully nip them off, you want the plant to concentrate on roots when you plant it, not flowers. Good luck next year!
"Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes, there's nothing quite like 'em, homegrown tomatoes. I forget all about the sweatin' and diggin' each time I go out and pick me a big 'un"!

Answer 2

hi! I plant my tomatos in plastic buckets.purely make sensible you've a drainage hollow at bottom of bucket,use 0.5 backyard soil and nil.5 potting mix for perfect outcome.Stand the buckets on some bricks or stones that you'll be able to empty actual.Plant ideally hostile to a wall or fence.both stake each and every bucket in my view,or as I do,placed up a plastic trellis or twine netting,in the back of buckets.they purely favor to be put in soil about 3inches. Water once properly, and do not overwater. then as soil dries,water again.i take advantage of Comfrey herb as a fertiliser and mulch.very reliable for tomatoes. If bush tomatoes,you gained't favor the stakes. reliable luck!

Answer 3

You need to fertilizer your planting area. Do this way before you are ready to plant.. there are 2 new things that works extremely well. First is to put used coffee grounds into the soil, you can actually use this while the plants are already in the ground, as it will not burn the plants. the other you need to do approx 2 weeks before you plant.. It is Epsom's salts. The directions are on the bag. It is a a strange but good fertilizer. Give it a try.. Good Luck and Happy Planting!!

Answer 4

I take it the plants are growing but the fruit is not... Tomato's need a high acid PH soil and Nitrogen once the fruit appear. If fruit doesn't not appear, They might not be pollinating. Here are other possibilities:
Change location of plants each year.
Wear gloves if you smoke
Tomato's love hot humuid weather full sun