7 Steps to Growing Bigger, Healthier Tomatoes | Reclaim, Grow, Sustain. A staple of summer harvests, every gardener wants bigger and healthier tomatoes. Here are 7 steps you can take to maximize your tomato plant's yields. Step 1 - Give the tomatoes a head start Start your tomatoes in pots at least 3-4 weeks before the last frost date. When the risk of frost has passed, they should be about 1 foot (12 inches) or a little more when it's time to transplant. If starting plants indoors, be sure to provide a strong light source with the full UV spectrum to prevent the tomatoes from becoming leggy. Use an appropriately sized pot so the plants don't become root bound. Step 2 - Incorporate fertilizer into the top soil When the chance of frost is gone, it's time to plant. Step 3 - Dig a hole Dig a hole about 2 feet deep. Space holes out so tomato plants will have 3 feet between each other. Step 4 - More fertilizer Fill the hole with a wide variety of organic material.
All this material will provide long lasting nutrition to the tomato plant as it slowly breaks down. How to Clone Tomato Plants. By now you certainly have heard about starting tomatoes from seed and how to save heirloom tomato seeds. But that’s just one way to propagate plants. Another faster way to propagate tomato plants is through vegetative cuttings. You can clone tomato plants right in your garden and you do not need a science lab to do it. Why would you want to clone tomato plants now? Your kids are home all day during summer and you want an easy project for them.You are getting a greenhouse and want to try to overwinter your favorite tomato varieties.Summer storms regularly decimate your garden and you need backup plants.You live in a climate where summer is too hot to grow tomatoes so you plant them in winter. How to clone tomato plants Before you begin, make sure you are using a clean knife or a pair of garden pruners before pruning any of your tomato plants.
Choose a good-sized branch, stem or tomato sucker you want to take a cutting from. Do you need rooting hormone? How to root a tomato cutting.
Growing Cucumbers | Garden Dad. Welcome to my guide on how to grow cucumbers! Learning how to raise cucumbers and how to ripen cucumbers can be lots of fun, is not terribly difficult, and can be very rewarding. You can even learn how to grow cucumbers indoors! There is nothing quite like biting into a fresh cucumber you have just picked off the vine, or opening a jar of pickles that are bursting with crunchiness and delicious dill flavor months after your garden has been put to bed for the winter. Cucumbers are one of the great hot season plants that offer a wide variety of choices in size, texture, color, and appearance. Like heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers offer a wide variety of possibilities to add to your garden.
There are varieties specifically bred to be small and knotted for pickling, and others that grow long and sweet for salads and cooking. Once you learn how to grow cucumbers vertically on a trellis, cucumbers can be a lovely bookend to a garden bed. 1. Cucumbers are organized into a few different groups. 2. 3. Growing Lettuce | Garden Dad. If you want to learn how to grow lettuce, you’re in the right place. A gardening guide just about how to grow lettuce? You bet! Learning how to grow lettuce is fun, not too difficult, and rewarding. Lettuce is one of the only vegetables to offer such a wide variety of choices in flavor, texture, and appearance. No other vegetable has as many growing possibilities as lettuce. There are varieties that don’t go to seed or turn bitter in hot weather, and others that are hardy enough to withstand frost. You might have a lot of specific questions such as: “how to grow romaine lettuce? Salad greens are lovely as borders or in garden beds.
This guide is everything you need to know about how to grow lettuce. 1. One of the things that can be most interesting when you are first learning how to grow lettuce is the number of varieties available to the gardener. 1a. There are two kinds of head lettuce: crisp head and butter head. Crisp head varietal Butter head varietal 1b. . ↑ Back to table of content 2. Growing Broccoli | Garden Dad. In this guide, we are going to learn how to grow broccoli plants. While figuring out the best dates for starting broccoli indoors – which you should almost always do – can be a bit complicated, other than that, learning how to grow broccoli is relatively easy. It is lots of fun to learn how to grow broccoli, because broccoli is a big, beautiful plant, and you can eat broccoli raw, fry it, bake it, steam it, or even make it into broccoli coleslaw! I will start my guide on how to grow broccoli with the section All About Broccoli, in which I will talk about a few interesting facts about the vegetable, and then explain the different categories of broccoli that are out there, and then recommend two of my own personal favorite kinds of broccoli that I grow in my vegetable garden.
Then, I will move on to the section Planting Broccoli. So there you have it. This is a very thorough and comprehensive guide that has all of the information you will need to learn how to grow broccoli in your backyard. Growing Cabbage | Garden Dad. In this guide, we are going to learn everything there is to know about how to grow cabbage. Learning how to grow cabbage will open up a big world of potential additions to your garden. Did you know that the cabbage family is not limited just to the head cabbage varieties you are used to, but also includes certain greens like kale and collards, as well as broccoli, cauliflower, and more? Cabbage is a wonderfully versatile plant, and has many uses in the kitchen as well; it can be pickled or made into coleslaw and kimchi for long term storage, or baked into cabbage rolls or soups. Learning how to grow cabbage will open up not only your garden but also your kitchen to many wonderful new things.
In the first section of my guide on how to grow cabbages, called All About Cabbage, I will talk about the history of the cabbage family. Then I will talk about certain physiological aspects that are important to understand if you want to know how to grow cabbage. Sounds like fun, right? 1. 1a. 1a1. 2. Growing Artichokes | Garden Dad. In this guide in my vegetable gardening series, I will teach you how to grow artichokes. These plants produce one of the most delicious culinary delights of the garden: artichoke hearts! Let’s jump right into it: Artichokes how to grow them? For a long time, gardeners in the United States did not have the luxury of growing artichokes in their backyards outside of Southern California, because the vegetables could not grow well in other climates.
In the past decade, however, breeders have developed a strain of artichoke that can be grown as an annual almost anywhere in the United States, so now the vegetable is available to most gardeners. In the first section of my guide on how to grow artichokes, I will discuss the rich history of the cultivation of artichokes, as well as the physiological aspects of the plant, and why these are important to understand when you are learning how to grow large artichokes and deciding what kind of artichoke you want to grow in your garden. 1. 1a. 1b. 2. 2a. Growing Onions | Garden Dad. I am very excited to share this guide about how to grow onions with you today.
Onions are one of the most versatile vegetables out there. It is unlikely that cuisine worldwide would be anything like what it is today if onions did not exist, and it is even more unlikely that food would be nearly as delicious as it is without them. Onions add their special flavor and pungency to everything from spaghetti sauces to salads to roast chicken and highbrow dishes like boeuf bourguignon. In addition to their wonderful flavor, there are so many health benefits to onions that even the international World Health Organization recognizes them as a medicinal treatment and preventative defense against many chronic diseases.
People probably first learned how to grow onions in Asia, and have been growing them since before recorded history. You can learn how to grow onion bulbs over a wide range of soil types and climate conditions, and onions can be grown in nearly all parts of the United States. 1. 2. 3. Growing Green Beans | Garden Dad. Learning how to grow green beans is a great experience for any gardener, whether you are an expert or just getting started on your first vegetable garden. There are an astonishingly wide variety of beans that you can grow, and so you will certainly be able to find the cultivar that is right for you. Because it is so easy to learn how to grow green beans, teaching kids how to grow green beans can be a great way to introduce them to the wonderful world of vegetable gardening.
In this guide on how to grow green beans, I will begin by teaching you a bit about the history and culture of green beans in the section “All about Green Beans.” This section will also include a list of some of my favorite varieties of pole beans and bush beans, with recommendations for which kinds are best to try if you are just learning how to grow green beans for the first time. Then, I will talk about the first step of how to grow green beans in the section “Planting Green Beans.” Okay! 1. 1a. 2. 2a. 2b. 2c. 2d. 3. Growing Asparagus | Garden Dad. This is my garden guide on how to grow asparagus. While learning how to grow asparagus is a big time commitment, because asparagus takes three years from when it is first planted to produce stalks you can eat, it can be a very rewarding and fun experience, and if you grow enough, it can be a money saving endeavor as well.
The asparagus in grocery stores is sold by the pound, and so sometimes it is on sale when the stalks are old and the stems have turned woody – which means it will weigh more and provide less edible greenery. In terms of usable portions, this is very expensive. Organic asparagus can go for as much as eight dollars a pound where I live. If there were ever a good argument for learning how to grow asparagus, the price and quality of what is available in supermarkets should be enough. Although it will take a few years to become established and begin producing, learning how to grow asparagus is fairly easy. All set? 1. Asparagus is a member of the lily family. 1a. 2. 2a. 2b. 3. Growing Potatoes | Garden Dad. People first learned how to grow potatoes in the Andes thousands of years ago. But the plant did not make its way out of South America until the sixteenth century, when European explorers brought it (along with so many other New World plants) back to the royal courts of Spain and Portugal, where Europeans learned how to grow potatoes.
However the plant’s stubborn adaptability, as well as its storage value and versatility in the kitchen soon helped it to spread around the world. Now potatoes are a staple of cuisines from South Asia, to Europe, North America and the Middle East. Potatoes can be baked, boiled, mashed, fried, or ground into flour. This guide will teach you exactly how to grow potatoes. In this guide on how to grow potatoes, I will begin by discussing the structure and function of the plant, which is important to understand when you are learning how to grow potatoes. 1.
After providing the energy the plant needs to emerge, the seed piece will typically disintegrate. 1a. 1b. 2. Growing Beets | Garden Dad. This is my guide on how to grow beets! Learning the best way to grow beets is a fun, easy, and rewarding experience. Beets are one of the few root vegetables that also have delicious leafy greens you can eat in salads or after sautéing them.
I recommend learning how to grow beets as a great project for any gardener, regardless of your level of expertise. Beets are a delicious treat in the kitchen, come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, and are extremely good for your health! For all these reasons, learning how to grow beets is a great idea. In this guide, I start off in the section “All about Beets” by briefly explaining where beets come from and why people first decided to learn how to grow beets. In that section I will give a bit more detail about the nutritional value of beets, and cover some of the more popular varieties of beets, along with describing their qualities and growing season length. I will explain why planting beets in a raised bed is a very good idea. 1. 1a. 2. 2a. 2c. Growing Tomatoes | Garden Dad. If you want to learn how to grow tomatoes, you’re in the right place. Since my friends kept asking me questions such as: “how to grow garden tomatoes? “, “how to grow tomato seedlings?
“, “what is the best time to plant tomatoes? “, “is fertilizing tomatoes a good practice? It is very likely that you ate something today with a tomato in it. The typical American consumes eighteen pounds of fresh tomatoes and seventy pounds of processed tomatoes every year. By the time Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1519, tomatoes were already an important part of their diet. In this guide about how to grow tomatoes, I will discuss the different kinds of tomatoes available to home gardeners who want to learn how to grow tomatoes, and talk about the drawbacks and advantages of growing heirloom or hybrid tomatoes. 1. The typical vegetable gardening catalog has dozens of different tomato varieties, and it complicates the life of gardeners who want to learn how to grow tomatoes. . ↑ Back to table of content. Growing Carrots | Garden Dad. Welcome to my guide on how to grow carrots. When I was growing up, my mom always told me that carrots were good for my eyes.
That is certainly true, because carrots contain healthy amount of beta carotene, which is a precursor for important biochemical compounds that assist with vision. Not only is that the case, carrots also contain large amounts of vitamin K, vitamin C, potassium, and manganese. Because of their high nutrient content as well as their delicious flavor, learning how to grow carrots can be a fun and rewarding experience. In this guide I will teach you everything you need to know to learn how to grow carrots. Learning how to grow carrots is a great experience for novice gardeners, because carrots are a relatively easy vegetable to grow. In addition, even gardeners who do not have a lot of space will find that they don’t need much room for how to grow carrots. In my guide about how to grow carrots, I will start with an overview of carrots. So, let’s get started. 1. 1a. 1b. 2. Growing Celery | Garden Dad.
People first learned how to grow celery in ancient Greece. Learning how to grow celery can be a wonderful challenge for gardeners at every skill level. Celery is a somewhat fussy plant, but if you follow all of the steps in my guide on how to grow celery, you will be successful even if you are a beginning gardener who is just starting out. There are certain aspects of how to grow celery that require a bit of trial and error, but if you stick with it and follow this guide, you will soon be harvesting delicious, juicy celery stalks to use in soups, salads, stuffing, and mixed vegetable dishes.
Celery is a wonderful plant to get to know in your vegetable garden. There are many varieties of celery, and once you master the art of how to grow celery, you will be able to explore a whole world of delicious, diverse kinds of celery. Stem celery can be eaten as soon as you harvest it. Then I will discuss the best conditions in your garden for how to grow celery. 1. . ↑ Back to table of content 2. 3.