“If I grew tomatoes in a container last year, what CANNOT be grown in that container this year? I’ve read about crop rotation but can’t find this answer anywhere. Hope you can help me.” Question from Debbie of Hoquiam, Washington
Answer: You cannot plant a tomato in that pot unless you refresh its potting soil. Tomatoes are rife with soil-borne diseases that can carry over from year to year, so it is better to be safe than sorry. (Click here to learn more about tomato diseases and disease-resistant tomato varieties.) If you opt for rotation, tomatoes should be rotated on a three-year cycle–tomato one year and other vegetables the next two years. (Either way, the potting soil should be refreshed every one to two years.) Good vegetables to rotate in after tomatoes include beans and peas because they naturally fortify soils with nitrogen, and greens, because they are not too demanding.
I encourage you to read my article about vegetable rotation titled Spring to Fall Vegetable Rotation: Planting for Non-stop Garden Produce. It will provide all of the information you will need to effectively rotate your crops, whether container- or garden-grown. You might also like to watch the video below about successfully growing tomatoes in containers.
Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.
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Legumes and then the cruciferous crops, including brassicas, are what to plant after tomatoes. Legumes are known to trap nitrogen in nodules that form on their roots, adding nitrogen to the soil.
Crop rotation has different benefits for your soil and plants. It is usually healthier and has a better harvest than if you continue to plant tomatoes on the same raised garden bed.
Even if your soil is ideal for tomato planting, remember that they are heat-loving plants. Planting at deeper depths where the soil is cooler slows their growth, making sideways planting a more optimal choice.
Should you water tomatoes in containers every single day? Tomatoes should stay in consistently moist soil, but the soil should not get soggy. You will likely need to water every day, but if it has rained heavily in the past 24 hours, it may not be necessary.
If you opt for rotation, tomatoes should be rotated on a three-year cycle–tomato one year and other vegetables the next two years. (Either way, the potting soil should be refreshed every one to two years.)
First, never plant tomatoes (or potatoes) in the same soil two years in a row. Their presence attracts root knot nematodes, which are not a problem the first year, but as their population builds in the second year, the plants suffer and often die.
As a general rule, I will trim at least several branches off both determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, so that the lowest several inches of the stems are bare. Trimming around the base of the plants limits the spread of disease and maximises air flow through the foliage, both of which are important for plant health.
Be careful not to plant tomatoes in the ground too soon. Your soil temperature must be consistently over 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 18°C). Warm the soil with black plastic a couple of weeks prior and protect seedlings from the cold with sheets or row covers. Tomatoes LOVE sunshine!
Until the plants begin flowering, you can use a balanced fertilizer with a 1-1-1 ratio such as 20-20-20. Once flowering, change over to a high potassium fertilizer. Most fertilizers blended for tomatoes fit this description. In our program, we've been using a fertilizer with a 9-15-30 plus micro-nutrients analysis.
Tomatoes need plenty of sunlight to produce fruit, typically around six to eight hours a day. Too much sun and heat can cause tomatoes to get sunscald. “Sunscald happens when the tomatoes are hit with the direct waves of the sun without any protection, similar to sunburn on us humans,” says Key.
In general, determinate tomatoes tend to do better in pots, so look for those. It's also possible to grow indeterminate tomatoes in containers, of course, as long as you provide enough support and soil volume.
One of my favorite winter cover crops is hairy vetch (Vicia villosa). When grown before tomatoes, hairy vetch can enhance their productivity and boost tomatoes' ability to resist common diseases. Hairy vetch is also a choice cover crop to grow in areas to be planted with sweet corn, peppers or other summer crops.
Introduction: My name is Patricia Veum II, I am a vast, combative, smiling, famous, inexpensive, zealous, sparkling person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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