Hot growing tips for your nightshade!

A forward: much of my information has come from Laurel, the SoCal queen of Heirloom tomatoes. Check out her site, and you should make the trip down to Lomita to buy your tomatoes from her. 

I’ve had alot of failed attempts at growing tomatoes in the past, most of which have been due to cutting corners, not doing enough research and being lazy. Here are some key tips I’ve learned… Also, let’s be honest. Do I really know what I’m doing? Probably not..

Sunlight: Tomatoes need at least 6 hours of sunlight, the more the better.

tldr: Spend a day waking up early taking notes on when a particular area you want to plant in is in the sunlight and for how long. Check the area every so often throughout the day and see how much sun it gets. If you want to go deep here you can download an app like SunSurveyor Lite which maps the sun patterns throughout the day with your phones compass- you can see how the sun rise and set trajectory changes

throughout the year too. A little overkill, but I think it’s fun.

Where I have my pots, we get sun from about 9A – 5:30P.  They like both morning and afternoon sun.

As another example, my herbs are planted on a covered patio but still get sun from 7:30A – 1P, which is enough for them. (most herbs prefer morning sun)

Growing in containers: You need big 25-30 gallon pots and you can only plant one tomato per pot. I use these 30 gallon cloth pots from Smart Pot. You can find them for under $10 a piece.

tldr: I use 30 gallon smart pots- You can get away with around 25 gallons but don’t get smaller pots and don’t put more than one plant in them!

I prefer the cloth pots to plastic pots as they allow air circulation for the roots which help prevent disease and promote growth. 

I like having my plants in pots because I don’t have a ton of yard space for a big garden, and I like being able to move the pots around to optimize sunlight.

If you plant in the ground or in a raised bed do some research on spacing and soil depth- they need alot of room and have expansive root systems. I got my plants as 6” starters and they’ve reached 24” tall in just 3 weeks. Don’t let the small starters fool you!

Soil: Yes you should buy proper potting soil, and yes it’s expensive. Don’t skimp here. Get this soil for your tomatoes.

tldr: For years I would buy the wrong soil, cheap garden soil, mixing in plain dirt form the backyard trying to “boost it” with fertilizer, refusing the same bad soil year after year thinking I could cut a corner here. The results were horrible; Sad plants that never amounted to anything that their parents would be proud of.

It was news to me at one point that there is a difference between Garden Soil and Potting Mix / Potting Soil.. Then there are Soil Amendments and other products that seemed attractive because of their cheap price.. Here’s the short of it:

Garden Soil: cheaper, heavy and dense. It contains soil (technically compost), but without added nutrients or mulch. This is used for in ground planting, NOT pots or raised beds. Often times it can include chicken manure or other composts. Sometimes they’re stinky…

Soil Amendments: this is material added to improve soil and helps with water retention, permeability, drainage, aeration and structure. You add this to soil (or dirt) in the ground (not for containers) and it improves the existing soil.

Potting Soil: If you’re planting in pots or a raised bed, this is the only soil to get. It’s POTTING soil after all! Now technically there isn’t any actual “soil” in potting soil, so the name is misleading. It’s made up of peat moss, bark and perlite, sometimes with other added nutrients. They typically sterilize potting soil with steam to kill any potential disease-causing microorganisms.  Potting soil is light, fluffy and smells good. It doesn’t compact when you squeeze it. All of this allows for the best environment for your plants.

Dirt: this is what you get on your clothes when you go for a hike in the woods, not what you plant your tomatoes in.

For Tomatoes you need to replace your soil every year. Yes. New soil. Every year. (Yes I know it’s expensive). You can however use this old soil for other plants. Tomatoes are just particular & special.

Why: nutrients and possible disease. Tomatoes eat alot of nutrients that you can’t replenish simply with some fertilizer. Also, you don’t want to risk any potential diseases in the soil from last year in this years pots.

New soil every year for tomatoes! Use the old stuff for your flower beds.

I use Fox Farm Happy Frog Potting Soil for tomatoes. It’s the best. Find it at a hydroponics store or higher end garden center here in LA.

I use Fox Farm Ocean Forest Potting Soil for my herbs and other vegetables. (Different nutrients blend)

Cleaning out old soil: this is pretty deep stuff here but I use a diluted bleach mixture and scrub old pots before planting new in them. Some people even sterilize their shovel and tools when moving from plant to plant. I don’t do that, but if I have 300 plants I probably would.

Watering: *tldr only

There’s so much information out there on watering, and it’s confusing- most people say 1-2 inches of water per week per plant. What the heck is 1-2 inches, how do you measure that?! It’s not very simple and I didn’t do well in math class, so I take a different approach based on what the plants are telling me.

Moisture Meters !

Measure deep, 10-12” in the soil. When your moisture meter starts to fall below ‘4’ at that depth, it’s time to water. Water evenly and water deep.

The roots want to pull up water from the lower range of the pot so don’t worry if some of the soil near the top is dryer.

I use two moisture meters-

–Luster Leaf 1820 Rapidtest Soil Moisture Meter – I like that this one has a big meter and a separate probe. Good all around moisture meter, though it’s a bit short..

–Reotemp Garden and Compost Moisture Meter (15 Inch Stem) – this one is much more robust, and more than twice as long. I use this to measure deeply in the pots 10-15”. This one also has an adjustable calibration, so if you have an ‘ideal’ soil moisture that you know you want to achieve, you can adjust the meter accordingly. I calibrate mine to match the Luster Leaf Rapidtest.

It’s easier to OVER water your plants than it is to under water your plants. So don’t water too frequently or too much. For younger plants I use about 1/2 gallon of water, closer to 1 gallon when they’re larger per plant.

It’s okay if the leaves wilt a bit in the afternoon, so long as they spring back to life in the evening, they’re okay- check your moisture meter!

Irrigation systems are tricky, as they will water a preset amount at a preset time. Your plants however will have different watering requirements throughout the year and it might be easier to forget to check your moisture meters when you have an automatic irrigation system. It’s very easy to over water. SO, watering by hand is the best way to water only when needed and ensure you’re watering evenly throughout the entire pot.

Where to shop?

Don’t shop at hardware stores like Lowes or Home Depot. You’re going to spend alot more and not get the right products you need here. 

Thank heavens for weed! The hydroponic stores in Los Angeles are amazing. They have HUGE warehouses filled to the brim with the very best soils, fertilizers, pots, you name it, and it’s all significantly cheaper than traditional nurseries. By comparison 2 cu ft of Fox Farms potting soil is typically sold around $25-$30… By calling around to various hydroponic stores you can find it for $14.