While everything else in the home garden is playing out at this time of year, with the heat and all, now is the time to get your fall tomatoes in the ground! We have two gardening seasons here in Central Texas, the spring garden and the fall/winter garden. Most of the things that we plant in our fall gardens have to wait until the heat breaks in late September. Many of these things, such as greens and lettuces, that we plant in our fall gardens prefer cooler weather, with many of them growing all through the winter with a little protection at times. But tomatoes are a warm season vegetable and will freeze with the first hard northern. So you’ve got to get them in the ground early enough for them to mature and produce fruit.

Tomatoes take around 60 days to grow up, mature, and start producing fruit. That means if you get them in the ground by August 1st, then you’ll start producing tomatoes in early October, just as the heat begins to break. Central Texas first average frost date is the middle of November. That gives your tomato plant a full six weeks of production. Also, many times, that first freeze or two are actually light frosts. By protecting your tomato plants through that first frost or two, you could actually be harvesting tomatoes for the Christmas Dinner table!

The most important thing to remember is that you’ve got to protect those young tomato plants from the intense heat when first planted. The little root ball of the tomato plant will tend to dry out very quickly when first planted because it does not have the extended root mass to reach out and grab the water. So when you first plant them, be sure and provide them with a layer of mulch, and use some kind of protection to keep that hot afternoon sun from baking them. Most folks use tomato cages to help support the tomato plants and their bounty of fruit. You can use a product called Floating Row Cover, clothes-pinned to the western side of your tomato cages, to protect them from the hot afternoon sun. Or you can use something to provide the young tomato plants with a “tent” for the first 2-3 weeks after getting them in the ground to protect them until they grow their extended root system.

So you’ve prepared to protect them from the hot rays of the sun for the first couple of weeks, and now you’re ready to plant. Here’s the way I plant my tomatoes;

1. Clean up the garden space where you’re going to plant and rake back any undecomposed mulch or organic matter. You don’t want to work this woody material into the soil because as it decays it will use up your nitrogen in the soil.
2. Spread a 1/2” layer of compost across the planting area.
3. Also spread any other type of soil amendment or fertilizer that you’ll be using. For each gardening season, I like to spread a mineral blend, a light application of sulfur, and a calcium rich soil amendment like crab shell. You can also use gypsum, which contains both calcium and sulfur. There are several good organic NPK fertilizers on the market. Use the one you like best, at the recommended rate.
4. With a spade fork, work the compost, soil amendments, and fertilizers into the soil. You’re now ready to plant.
5. After you’ve dug the little planting hole, put a pinch of a phosphorus rich soil amendment like bone meal or Garden-Ville’s Rocket Fuel in the bottom of the hole and mix with the soil. Place the little root ball of the tomato plant directly onto this phosphorus rich soil. Developing roots really benefit from an increased phosphorus level. When backfilling the hole, I like to mix some worm castings with the soil. The worm castings will really help inoculate the roots with the beneficial microbes that will help the roots establish themselves.
6. Once you’ve planted the tomato plant, be sure and water it in with a dilute liquid seaweed. The seaweed is a natural source of Vitamin B1, a rooting stimulator. Seaweed is also a natural source of sixty trace minerals.
7. Mulch your little babies with 2-3 inches of either hardwood or cedar mulch and water in well.
8. Go ahead and place your tomato cage and pin the Floating Row Cover to the western side of the cage with clothes pins to protect the young tomato start from the burning rays of the sun.
9. You’ll need to check your young start for water twice a day for the first week. Remember it does not have any extended roots to reach out and get water. You’ve got to keep that little root ball moist until it begins to spread it’s root system out and can get water from the larger area.
10. As your tomato plants grow up, be sure to foliar feed them once every week or two for ongoing maintenance. The dilute liquid seaweed will also give them a few degrees or winter hardiness once those frosts start rolling into the area.

Your fall tomatoes will tend to taste better than those that you’ve harvested in the heat of the summer from your spring planting. And there is also less insect and disease pressure. But the key to having a good fall crop is to get them in the ground now, in the blazing heat of summer!

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