How to Plant Tomatoes For the Best Results | Step-by-Step Guide with Demos

[@joannerap]

3:00 Oh my, that Pink Pig Watering Can's so cute! Great to know that your toddler's interested in gardening too. Start them young! 😀🌿

[@NextdoorHomestead]

I love using that thing! ;) And darn straight! I need help out here =)

[@WhiteWolfeHU]

The problem with 8a in Texas is that we have great temps early in the spring but also get cold fronts late and cooler nights, but then we get a heat wave. There would be no way to plant tomatoes late as it would be soo hot that production won’t happen. It’s tricky I mean crops like to be pretty steady in their environment and Texas has some crazy ass weather.

[@WhiteWolfeHU]

For example it’s the end of April and I have flowering tomato plants and it just hailed.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

It sounds like you've got more variance than me, but same basic problem here! Cool nights persist basically until daytime temps are out of control hot. The pros use shade cloth to keep production going through summer but I find it a bit pricey so we're always experimenting with different varieties to make it work. I'm hoping some parthenocarpic lines of eggplant and zucchini plus our grafted tomatoes help this year. Anyhow, thanks for sharing! Always super interesting to hear what other gardeners deal with.

[@michaelasheets]

I absolutely love your videos! They're so helpful and you're so energetic, making it feel fun! Thank you for showing the step by step and always showing everything needed to know.

[@RonSRY]

He would make a great teacher. He has that energy, endearment and enthusiasm. Coming from a 20 year teacher myself. :)

[@RonSRY]

11:00 Your soil is looking so great compared to where you started. So happy to see that. :)

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Thank you! I'm always surprised at how much work it is to start a new garden but how quickly that work pays off.

[@veleriasingletary3556]

Great site.Excellent information.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Thanks for watching and for the nice comments! Appreciate that =)

[@RonSRY]

3:45 I've some people plant their tomatoes sideways slightly. Instead of deep. My soil underneath the compost (I also mix the first 5 inches with a lot of compost and composted cow manure) is basically sand and beach sand and drains very fast and becomes hydrophobic quickly. I think I will try this with half of them this year with half of my tomatoes and see if it helps. I might try to plant a few very deeply to see if it makes a good difference.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Oh that's fascinating - sounds like the area of Florida we were in for a bit once upon a time. Let me know if it works for you! I've always wondered at the efficacy of the sideways planting TBH.

[@catherinecarey6507]

Brilliant clip,has thought me so much ,thank you ❤

[@NextdoorHomestead]

I'm so glad to hear it! Thanks for watching^^

[@gryphonrampant24]

Wonderful video, and I so appreciate you bring us some evidence-based gardening. This is my first year doing eggplants so the advice is super helpful. I think I spied that your tomatillos are also buried at least up to the first true leaf. How deep do you typically go for them? I'd love a follow-up video on the less well known fruiting nightshade crops like the tomatillo, ground cherry, and garden huckleberries.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Thank you Sarah! I so appreciate your kind words =) I am legitimately jealous you get to grow eggplants for the first time! I think it's insane they aren't a top 5 garden plant. Love 'em. I treat tomatillos pretty much like eggplants in terms of planting. I mound them up a bit if they're a bit floppy on transplant day. That's about it! We're growing tomatillos and ground cherries so I can definitely speak to those but not so much garden huckleberries. I made a video on some tomatillo mistakes last year in case it's helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYG6mYuXe7Kans0

[@RonSRY]

Ground cherries look very interesting. I've been gardening for years and I've never heard of them. Edible raw or cooked. Nice.

[@freeto9139]

Great site! Glad I found it ... 🌱

[@RonSRY]

Heya. Nice to see a new video. Vimon Direksri here. :) Won't get my old account back but good news is I get to watch you videos again and add a like. I'll definitely ask new questions in the comments I think of on the second viewing. :) Super hot here in Thailand. Just a few more weeks of "summer." How all is going and growing well.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

We're having a weird cold front that screwed everything up! I hope your weather chills out soon 😁 Good to see you back!!! Always appreciate your good questions.

[@RonSRY]

@@NextdoorHomestead sorry to hear that. It was floods for us last year. My garden was looking great! I must admit I took a few months off after the big flood that covered our garden for 3 weeks. Once the pity party was over, haha, I re-doubled my efforts. Now I have a few raised spots. I am hoping to build some hugelkultur hills this year or next. It will be a lot of manual labor but I've got the materials. I should of had kids I guess. :P

[@RonSRY]

16:20 I'm kind of brainstorming an off-grid drip irrigation system. No electricity but we have access to a well. Maybe a decent solar panel connected to some kind of pump could work. I was also thinking about possibly connecting the pump to a "large" homemade raised "water tower" to gravity feed it. Not sure yet, still brainstorming more ideas. We're not looking to spend a ton for two reasons. It's not our land. Kind of like an allotment that they have in the U.K. only this one could be ours for 1 year, 5 year or...? We (usually I) spend far too much time watering (dragging our hose 40 meters) when I could be spending that extra hour everyday increasing the size and output of our garden. Thinking out loud here. lol. Nice video as always.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Thanks Ron, glad you liked it. This one was one of my favorites to make recently. That's quite a dilemma. I spoke with a friend in a similar situation (temporary, rented land) and I know they felt conflicted about putting so much time and money into space they didn't get to keep. I've said it before and I'll say it again: irrigation is the worst part of gardening and the absolute best way to free up time. I simply couldn't plant as intensively as we do without it. And I've tried!

[@canthinkofausername6969]

Hey bro Thanks for your enthusiasm and sharing your experiences I don’t know If you already mentioned it in a video but what should I just direct seed my eggplants in a 4 inch diameter 6 inch deep pots with no amendment I have chicken pellets but those are hard to mix in trying to get the past that seedling stage before going in the garden boxes how long till I fertilize them is it ok to start with mabye grinding up my chicken pellets in the seed starting mix or something else? Oh also should I put like 3 seeds in each container or not?

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Heya! If you are having a hard time germinating, I'd definitely recommend a smaller seedling tray and a heat mat (if possible - I know they can be pricey!). In terms of fertilizer, I like to add a small amount of granular organic fertilizer directly into the potting mix I use to start the seeds rather than wait. Then I fertilize the soil when I plant as well. If you're using a seedling tray with a heat mat, I think 2 seeds per small little cell is plenty =) Good luck!!!

[@RonSRY]

6:50 I am terrible about staking up my plants. I have promised myself that next "planting time" I will stake everything first. I always promise I will get to it tomorrow or next week. And I am sure you can imagine what happens next. lol. 8:00 My pepper plants get massive. About a meter tall. Not sure if I should top them or not. I could be adding too much nitrogen but they do produce well. Need to stake them up good after trimming them down once they stop producing. (overwinter but in the tropics) Here in the tropics they don't seem to do great after one year or 1.5 years. I've heard the extreme heat can be to blame. I've seen some people overwinter them for 3 years. Please like, subscribe and comment even just to thanks. It helps the algorithm to make Nextdoor Homestead more visible on KZbin.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

If it helps, I think I gave my pepper seedlings too much nitrogen this year too. Of the dozens of seedling type we prepped to plant in April/May, they were the only ones that came out kind of weak. I do think they'll recover in the ground though. The long season can cure a lot of early issues =)

[@Ray-tq9hb]

Hi i dont know if you have made content on your favorite varieties or what you're growing now. Could you make a video or list somewhere of what kind of tomatos, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant etc you're growing this year? Or something like the varieties that produce well in smaller gardens and are decent tasting etc.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

I haven't yet but I think I'll do that at the end of this growing season. I've got a lot of favorites and we're trying lots of new varieties this year too =)

[@marcuspowell2510]

👍🏾

[@NextdoorHomestead]

=)

[@PlantObsessed]

I put an oyo water pots ( spelling?) In some of my big fabric pots to help with water. Thoughts?

[@NextdoorHomestead]

I'm a fan! I don't use them much as we just find it easier to irrigate our bags at this point but I think they've been in use for thousands of years for a reason =)

[@RonSRY]

1630 Great video BTW. Learned a lot and just as important it gave me some ideas to add to mine. Just an outro idea to encourage commenting and discussions in your videos. You said a phrase that kind of peeked my interest as a gardener. "If you're anything like me you're already thinking about the next task that needs doing." You could also mention. "If you're anything like me you're already thinking about the next task that needs doing. So what are you working on this week. Let us know in the comments below." Just a thought to encourage community members to help each other, comment and also give the algorithm a jumpstart. :)

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Such a good idea! I really, really love that. I sometimes feel a little self conscious about asking viewers to engage and it's my goal to get over that a bit. My favorite part of the channel is engaging with regulars in the comments =)

[@veraw2121]

My tomatoes are yearning for being planted but the night temps, which are always promising on the week after current but then are adjusted down 😢, keep being between 5 and 8°C. Is it the roots that don't want less then 5? Because then I would lay cardboard around after the sun has gone...

[@NextdoorHomestead]

It's frustrating, huh? I planted ours out and we're getting a late season cool front too. Anyhow, yes, it's really all about the soil temperature. We just use overnight lows as a more convenient barometer. So if you have methods to keep the soil warmer (we like a thick layer of dark compost), that's helpful!

[@veraw2121]

Ok, so temperature is finally ok for the tomatoes going in their definitive spots ❤ You mentioned you treat tomatillo the same as eggplant, does this mean nighttemperature needs to be above 13°C? 🙏🧡 How did your tomatoes handle the cold front?

[@NextdoorHomestead]

All the nightshades are grumpy about the cold unfortunately. I'm very frustrated for them! Anyhow, i think tomatillos can go out with the tomatoes. Maybe even a bit earlier 😁. There's not a lot of tomatillo growing info out there (at least in English) so that's based on my experience. Cheers!!

[@veraw2121]

@@NextdoorHomestead thanks I hope they recover 💪🤞

[@iKeyAlexander]

Hi with the pepper plants in the containers, you mentioned burying them deep could cause the stems to rot. How would you fix the soil compressing over time reducing the water retention/root growing area? Can you top fill soil to make up for the extra empty space or do you need to re-pot the whole mature plant and fill in extra soil under the root ball?

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Sorry for the slow response! Not sure how i mised this one. If I lose height during the season, I will replace with a small amount of compost mid season and then re-cover with wood chip mulch. But the most important thing is watering in such a way that the soil doesn't compress *too* much during that season (mulch really helps on that front). Cheers!

[@iKeyAlexander]

@@NextdoorHomestead Luckily it hasnt affected most of my plants. Just a couple of older ones (plus a 4 year tree sapling) that have been in the same pot for almost 2 years and seeing some compression from mostly the organic material i added in during potting breaking down. Been adding compost slowly over time but that was mainly for fertilizer and not to top up

[@RonSRY]

2:00 Do you know why "forest materials" don't work? I make my own compost from just about anything my neighbors drop off. Tree branches, palm leaves, leaves, grass, etc. Just want to make sure I am not adding something that could be stunting the growth in any way. Cheers.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Yeah, basically they're just uncomposted bits and bobs to be honest. Works great for some things or as part of a diy mix, but terrible on their own for nightshades in my experience. Totally different than your efforts so no worries there!

[@RonSRY]

@@NextdoorHomestead Aha. That makes sense. I've used quite not ready compost in my garden before. Not such great results when used immediately. Pumpkins and squash seem to be the exception. They seem to thrive on my mini compost piles. :)

[@NextdoorHomestead]

@@RonSRY Squash are fascinating. They can be so fickle or so hardy. Our first year gardening in this clay soil they were the only true success stories but the next year (after amending the soil), everything else overtook them. We're setting up a new, dedicated winter squash row garden (a small one) this year as my wife loves them.

[@RonSRY]

@@NextdoorHomestead I'll be honest I go a bit crazy with the over sowing. I plant 4 more than I need of everything. Survival of the fittest :P

[@RonSRY]

@@NextdoorHomestead My squash are struggling through the summer as well but it's no surprise. 37 degrees in the afternoon the past 15 days. The fact that they are still alive is a miracle.

[@dfreak01]

So I can't put mine out till the end of July or August 🥺. I think I'll keep my eggplants and peppers(?) In my coldframe at night all summer.

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Ouch! That's brutally late. Do most folks in your area grow nightshades under protection?

[@dfreak01]

@@NextdoorHomestead no idea. It's currently 40° out. I've trained a batch of tomatoes and peppers to withstand it. I have my coldframe full of tomatoes and I have a totes over more peppers. I'm trying different methods. Ah, Oregon. My neighbor suggested painting milk jugs (filled with water) black to soak up heat then release the heat to the cold frame at night since it only keeps it 5° warmer normally.

[@RonSRY]

3:30 Do you know what the "base materials" are of organic granular fertilizers are? I make all my own liquid fertilizers, JLM, Bacillus Bacteria fertilizers, etc. I would love to start making my own if possible. :)

[@RonSRY]

For context my experiment goal with my garden is to produce my veggies for "FREE." I only spend money on seeds, tools, zip-ties, and some organic pest control products that I haven't been able to make myself (stinging fruit fly pheromone for example) etc. I don't spend money on fertilizers. It's not for everyone but my garden experiment is to make it almost 100% self-sufficient. :)

[@NextdoorHomestead]

I love it and totally understand. This year is about productive gains for us and next year I want to focus on making our own inputs. Anyhow, I would look to Connor crickmore's blend for inspiration personally! www.7springsfarm.com/products/neversink-fertilizer-blend-50-lb-bag

[@RonSRY]

@@NextdoorHomestead My calorie dense permaculture food forest is mostly established. Just need to build a small pond in the middle. I did about a meter by one meter each time when I am feeling energetic or need some extra soil. It was hard work but worth it in the end. That sums up my goals this year. Growing the most in a smaller space. My grocery row garden is my main focus. Maximum productive gains. Less experiments but doing what has worked in my context. Next year maybe begin a market garden. Maybe. :)

[@NextdoorHomestead]

@@RonSRY Ahhh, I'm jealous! It may not be for a couple years but I am *determined* to add a small water feature! Perhaps a homemade Japanese style pond with a drip element. Sounds like we're working on similar stuff ;)

[@RonSRY]

@@NextdoorHomestead

[@kaceysebert1853]

You think 10g is still enough for big ol' bullnose peppers to be planted in doubles?

[@NextdoorHomestead]

Hmmm, I think you'll likely have decreased yields per plant but that it will wash out. If you have a particularly long season, you can plant just the one pepper and companion plant it with a shallower rooted plant (lettuce or the such) instead.