5 tips for planting your own tomatoes

Advice from garden expert and WSB host Walter Reeves
5959

Everyone knows grocery store tomatoes are lame. Fortunately, according to garden expert and WSB host Walter Reeves, tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow yourself. Here is his advice for planting them in containers:

1. The bigger the container, the better the tomato’s success. Half a whiskey barrel is about the smallest you should use for one tomato plant.

2. Use any good-quality potting soil, and put three one-inch holes, evenly spaced, in the bottom of the container for drainage. Feed one time with Osmocote, or every couple of weeks if using something else.

3. Determinate (“bush”) or patio-style tomatoes are better for small-space gardeners. They tend to be more compact.

4. Plant when the temperature is above 50 degrees every night. In Atlanta, that’s typically mid-April.

5. Use a digital water meter. Or water whenever your finger stuffed in the soil comes up dry—probably every couple of days.

Back to Your Best Year Ever

This article originally appeared in our 2015 Health issue.

Advertisement