Join us as our own veggie expert Dan Alexander, shares tips and tricks for a successful tomato growing season and harvest. Dan will talk about soil amendments, tomato varieties, fertilizer, watering, and he’ll troubleshoot solutions for the most common tomato growing challenges. A perfect class for all levels of tomato gardeners.
- A little tomato botany and history
- Is it a fruit or a vegetable?
- Days to Ripen
- Determinate/Indeterminate
- Tomato leaf/Potato leaf
- Heirloom
- Open pollinated
- Hybrid
- Organic or conventional
- V, F, VF, etc.
- “Suckers” (branches)
- Bay Area climate and microclimates
- Varieties
- How to plant – in ground – in containers/raised beds; spacing, support
- Grafted tomatoes – how to plant – identifying the graft
- Fertilizer – types and frequency – calcium
- Disease and pest problems, prevention, solutions
Resources:
- Pam Peirce, Golden Gate Gardening
- Mel Bartholomew, All New Square Foot Gardening Marin Master Gardeners: www.marinmg.ucanr.edu.
- plant-world-seeds.com (descriptions of varieties)
- www.sloatgardens.com
- growbetterveggies.com
- worldtomatosociety.com
- tomatofest.com
- The public library has lots of resources and a seed exchange.
