Simple tips that make caring for tomato plants easy

Tomatoes are one of summer's prolific veggie garden treats and an essential, fresh taste in any summertime spread. Here are a few tips for caring for tomato plants that will help ensure a decent yield.

• Immediately after planting, do the following:

1. Give the seedlings a boost with one cupful of compost tea.
2. Protect each plant with a cutworm collar, which you can make by removing the bottom from a paper cup, and set the collar into the soil about three centimetres deep
3. Listen for cold-weather warnings, and if a late frost seems imminent, cover the plants at night.

• If you do not enrich the soil before planting, feed tomatoes weekly by spraying foliage with a seaweed solution.
• Cover the ground with a thick mulch of grass clippings mixed with straw or chopped leaves to help keep the soil moist and prevent weed growth.
• To keep indeterminate plants from making too much leafy growth, prune them to a single main stem by breaking off side shoots when they appear. You will notice these side "suckers" growing between the main stem and the leaf stem. And if you see additional suckers growing from the base of the stem, remove them too.
• Tomato plants need at least three centimetres (1 1/4 inches) of water per week; so water them well, especially during dry spells. Continue looking for and eliminating sucker growth and tying staked tomatoes as they grow taller.

• If you plan to use a trellis or stakes, set them into the ground before planting. The most popular form of support is a tall stake driven into the ground next to each plant. As the plant grows, the stem is tied loosely to the stake with soft twine or cloth strips. Tall-growing tomato plants will have to be tied several times.
• There are other methods of supporting tomatoes: try a two-metre-high (6.5-foot-high) trellis made of chicken wire, running the length of the row; or set posts at the ends of the row, run a wire between them, or use tomato cages available at garden centres. All these techniques serve the same aims: to support the plants as they grow and to keep the tomatoes off the ground and exposed to the sun so that they ripen faster.
• Smaller, determinate varieties need not be staked, but it is advisable to keep them off the ground. One way to do this is to place a one-metre-high (three-foot-high), 50-centimetre-diameter (20-inch-diameter) wire-mesh cage around each plant after setting it into the ground. Make sure the mesh cage has at least 15 centimetre (six inch) openings so that the branches can grow through them. Secure the enclosure with a stout stake driven about 15 centimetres (six inches) into the ground.
• Another way to keep low-growing tomatoes off the ground is to spread mulch around each plant (black plastic sheeting serves well, too) while it is still small, to protect the fruits from soil pests.