Speaker 1: Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated
to keeping the art of gardening simple, fun and always rewarding.
Now Here are your hosts, Jim and Mary Competti.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome everybody to Simple Garden Life Podcast. I'm
your host, Jim Competti, along with my wife Mary, Mary.
How you doing today, I'm doing great.
Speaker 3: How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good. Actually today I'm doing great because we're
talking about probably my most favorite subject that it's been
a while since. We have tomatoes and how to grow tomatoes,
but more importantly, how to super jarge your tomato planning hole.
And when we talk about that, we're talking about four
ingredients that you have to add to every planning hole.
We've done it for years and man doesn't ever make
big success for your plans.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it's hard to believe.
Speaker 4: We're only about four weeks away for us from planning
our tomatoes in our garden.
Speaker 2: I know we're in April right now. It's the twenty
first we've got We usually like to go about the
last week of May here, just to be safe. But
before we get into today's pododcast, let's remind everybody if
you have a question about the podcast. Do you want
to email us about a question about gardening, You can
always do so at the farm at Oldworldgarden dot com.
You can also follow us on Simple Garden Life, Facebook
or simple We're like the website which where we host
all the podcasts but also a lot of articles when
it comes to everything to do how.
Speaker 4: To garden, and a big shout out to all of
our participants. This past weekend at our Spring Garden Conference
at our farm we.
Speaker 2: Did we had our first one here at the farm.
What a fun time talking with all the gardeners, giving tours,
doing some live demonstrations. We'll do that every year, so
stay tuned for next year. We also have some great
things coming up to the farm that's done in our
Summer Dinner series which will be once a month where
we have our big outdoor dinners. So you can always
keep charge of that at ow garden dot com or
the farm at ol World Garden spacebook. So now let's
get into it. How to supercharge your tomato planning the
whole four mustad ingredients. You know, what you put in
your tomato planning hole when you plant, It really makes
a huge difference on how quickly you're prying how your
plant grows, excuse me, and how well produces. People forget
it's not just about those nutrients marry being long term.
It's when you put them in that planting hole right away.
It really helps the tomato plant avoid transplant shock and
get grown right now.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of people have a sense of
not denial, but a sense of security of when they
plant their tomato plants. They get it from a nursery,
they have already things nutrients and fertilizers in the soil,
but there's some things you can do to really get
your plants off to a great start.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the other part of that, and I think
this is what you're hitting at as well, is that
people put the plants in the ground, they cover it
up with their ordinary garden soil, and they think, well,
I'm going to fertilize this later, I'm going to do
these things that I need to do. But really, you know,
whether you grow your own transplants or pick them up
at your local nursery, the real key is to get
the ingredients that are going to power those plants. You know,
it's going to set the stage for that big root
growth early on and let's face it, roots of the
tomato plant are the most important thing of all to
its overall success. The bigger, the and more robust the
tomato plants root systems can grow, the more easily it's
going to absorb those nutrients and moisture that it needs
to grow and produce. Not to mention, a good root
system really helps with that stability. We all have seen
tomato plants topple in the middle of summer. But the
bigger your roots, the less you have to worry about it.
Speaker 4: Right, And people don't realize sometimes that tomatoes are Tomato
plants are heavy feeders.
Speaker 2: Massively heavy feeders. I mean they're gonna take as much
as corn. They take a lot of nitrogen early on,
but then they take a lot of potassium and calcium,
and they need a lot of trace nutrients. And the
best way to do that is to give them all
of what they need right from the start. And when
we talk about planting tomatoes, before we get into those
four important things, let's just cover a couple of things
that really make a lot of sense. We talked about
this this week in fact, at the Garden Conferences. First
of all, plants, your tomatoes deep you have to plant
them deep. You know, all of those little hairs along
the line of a tomato plant at the bottom, those
actually went under the soil and plant in the soil
grow more roots. And people sometimes think, oh, well, there's
five leaves up here. I don't want to bury those.
But tell them what you do.
Speaker 4: Right when I get a tomato plant or I'm ready
to put them in the ground, you know, dig a
hole deep enough that not only can you put these
four ingredients that we're telling you about, but also you
plant them down to the first set of leaves.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if you have an eight to ten
inch tomato transplant, it should really only stick out of
the soil three inches by the time you're planting. That
sounds crazy and it sounds terrifying, but it's the way
to do it. You prone off those lower leaves, you
put that in the soil, and it goes now merry
plants and does all this. As I said this weekend
at our conference, I do have a hard work because
I have to be in front of it a crystal digger.
But no, it's it's all joking. Aside. We use a
postal digger. We go down eight to ten inches in
the soil, and then we amend that soil and we
make sure we plant those tomatoes deep. That is a
huge part thing, a huge part of what can really
make a tomato get off to a good start as
that deep planting hole and then putting those great ingredients in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and in general, tomatoes grow in best and fertile,
well draining soil, not hard, thick clay soil. So if
you do have clay soil, you're gonna have to amendor
soil to make sure your tomato plants grow successfully this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that goes beyond even what we're putting in
that planting holewood. You know, if tomato plant can't find
the nutrients it needs right off the bat, you're gonna
see it. We've all been there. When the tomato plants
turn a little yellow, they're slow to grow, they go
through this long transplant shock. That's all because they can't
find the nutrients they need. Yes, it can have something
to do with the outside temperature. Your soil really needs
to be, you know, minimum of sixty degrees, but sixty
five degrees is best, So let that soil warm up
before your plant. That's key. Yes, you have to have
some good weather and have some good rain, or you're watering,
But at the end of the day, it's it's the
nutrients that that plant can get that are really going
to get it off to a great start.
Speaker 4: And it's natural for all tomato transplants to have what
we call transplant shock. It's really kind of like sending
your kindergartener to school for the first time.
Speaker 3: You've protected the child.
Speaker 4: All these years at home, and now you're setting them
on the bus to a whole new facility to a
teacher they've met one time.
Speaker 3: Same thing with your tomato plants.
Speaker 4: You're putting them out in the garden in a unprotected
area that they're not used to.
Speaker 2: I love that analogy, and I'm going to take it
one step further. So now you're not just sending your
kid on that bus with no lunch. You're giving him
a lunch. It's going to power them through the rest
of the day because he's going to have that fuel
that helps him or her understand what they're doing, get
to lunch, and keep on going. Because now your tomato
plants are going to do the same thing. So let's
get into it. Let's talk about what's really important for
those four ingredients. We'll cover the first one here because
it is by far the most important I think overall,
and that is we put composts in every single tomato
planting whole, actually put it in every single planting hole
of every vegetable we do. But why the compost Because
it's full of energy and nutrients, and even better, those
nutrients are in a form that are easy for the
roots of the tomato plantes to absorb, and that means
they can get the food they need right from the start.
Speaker 4: Right And no longer is it that you have to
be a farmer or big massive backyard gardener to get composts.
Speaker 3: Compost is available at most big box stores.
Speaker 4: Yes, you can grow your own or make your own,
and we do that as well, but you can find
it in stores.
Speaker 3: You know, and even if you plant one or.
Speaker 4: Two tomato plants, it's absolutely necessary to put compost with
your tomato.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, compost goes beyond having just those nutrients
we talked about. It also does a lot of other
great things for your plants and your soil. First of all,
it is wonderful and absorbing moisture and holding it nearly,
in fact, nearly ten times more than plain soil. So
that means when you water or when it rains, they
can have the moisture they need to grow, you know,
their foliage, their blooms, and their fruit all at the
same time and not be drying out so much in between.
Speaker 3: And that means also means less watering.
Speaker 2: That's right. And then compost also helps to loosen the soil.
You know, it's got a very light makeup, and loose
soil helps those roots expand quick And we talk about
transplant shock, that's one of the things roots need to do,
and that's why they go into that shock. They can't grow,
they can't get more nutrients. But by having composted in
that hole it really matters. So how much compost this
is a big question. How much compost should go into
each planting hole. With compost, I really don't think you
can go wrong. I think for us, what it's two
to three cups, sometimes four cups, just depending how bad that.
Speaker 4: Soil wasn't well, how bad the soil is, and how
bigger tomato transplants are. If you have a small tomato transplant,
you could get away with two cups of compost in
your planting hole.
Speaker 3: But if you have a.
Speaker 4: Tomato transplant that's already a good eighteen to twenty four inches,
obviously you're going to need to add a little bit more.
Speaker 2: That's right, So you know, three four cups for something
like that. And for an added benefit, you know, once
you plant that, remember to put a little bit more
compost around that planting hole on top, because every time
you water or it rains, that composts nutrients are going
to lead through the soil and really help your plant.
And one last thing before we take a quick break
here and cover the final three. You mentioned big transplants
versus small. If you're in the nursery, if you did
not grow your own transplants, don't think that the bigger
plants are the way to go. Actually, if you can
find a decent sized eight to ten inch transplant, that
is better than getting that foot long tomato in a
giant pot that already has tomatoes.
Speaker 4: On it, Right, And you really want to kind of
stay away from, like you said, the ones that actually
have tomatoes already growing as the fruit or even blooms,
you really want to stay away from that. Get one
that has nice green foliage, and then that's the perfect plant.
Speaker 3: To plant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And people ask, why why do you want to
do that, Well, it's because that tomato plant's going to
suffer the most from transplant shock a big tomato plant.
Just think when you transplant a big shrub or a
big plant, it takes longer for that to recover, and
that length of recovery during that time, that smaller transplant's
going to take off and surpass it, just like that.
So there we go. There's our first one that has
to go in the hole. Two to three cups, maybe
a little bit more if it's large, if it's large.
And that's compost. So we'll take a quick break here
and we'll be right back with those final three most
important things to put in your tomato planting hole. And
we are back talking what to plant, or I guess
should say how to plant your tomato, meaning what to
put in that planet tomatoing hole. Just don't cover that
soil back up over your transplant. You've got to give
it the power needs. So we talked about compost, how
important it is, and I said, it's quitely my most favorite.
I'm gonna probably say that with every one of these ingredients,
but the second ingredient definitely.
Speaker 3: Is it's my favorite.
Speaker 2: Yea, it is, and it's a must do. And that's
worm castings. And people say worm castings, you know, but
they are a must for tomato planting. They they are
perhaps nature's finest, slow and low release fertilizers. They're you know,
castings to the maneuver earthworms, that's what they are. Earthworms
work through the soil and you know, they digest it
and as they do, what comes out the other side
they leave a casting which are loaded with like the
perfect amount of energy and again, like compost, it's super
easy for plants to absorb. For the roots of tomatoes,
castings just give them instant energy. We put castings in
our potting soil or our seed starting soil when we
grow our in tomato plants, marry and the difference is amazing.
Speaker 4: It is, you know, just put a little bit of
castings into the sea starting store on our seeds that
have those, they grow tremendously better than was.
Speaker 3: I don't same thing with tomato plants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And what makes it so special is that energy
is delivered low and slow, but just is absorbed so
easily by the roots of a tomato plant. And that's
that's a key for tomato plants when they're young. You know,
they don't want a massive dose of nitrogen or phosphorus
or any of the elements that can go into it.
They want that low and slow but easy to absorb nutrients.
Speaker 4: One thing to look forward though, if you, I mean
most of us don't have our own worm castings.
Speaker 3: Many of us do, but a lot of us don't.
Speaker 4: When you go to buy your worm castings, make sure
that you're buying one hundred percent worm castings. Sometimes these
bags are mixed with other soil amendments or nutrients. What
you're looking for this time pure worm castings.
Speaker 2: As they become more popular, it's more popular for some
of these companies to start putting fillers in them, or
they'll see added fertilizer. That's not what you want. You want,
as Mary said, one hundred percent pure castings. So now
how much we've actually increased this over the last few years.
You know, we now use I would say definitely a
half a cup. I mean we used to say a
quarter cup to a half cup. But they're so they're
not going to burn your tomato plants, they're not going
to hurt them. So a half a cup goes a
long way. And again it's that ability for those roots
to absorb and worm castings do the same thing that
compost does. Loosens the soil. It allows for the water
to be absorbed quicker and better. And then also it
allows it to absorb them easily, so you can't go
wrong with them.
Speaker 4: And after planting your tomato hole, we actually along with
the compost, we spigger worm castings around the base of
the plant, now not to the base where it's touching
the stem, but in a like four and a half
you know, six inch circle around a little ring around it. Again,
so the next time you water, the next time it rains.
That is providing more nutrients through the soil.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, so compost again, we're gonna just recap compost two
to three, maybe even four cups if it's a massive plant.
And then too, you know, half a cup is really good,
a quarter cup of work, a half a cup worm castings.
And then number three and this is a huge one too.
But it's how you put it in is egg shells,
but not just eggshlls, not crushed in your hand. It's
got to be pulverized into a powder. Eggshell powder. Mary
I think this is where people make the mistakes. They
think about eggshells and they're loaded with calcium. They can
help blossom in rod, they can help prevent it, and
they can also Calcium is important for the health of
a plant and for its blooms. But when you crush
them up or put partial pieces of egg shells, that
doesn't help this year's crop.
Speaker 3: No, it takes a long time for those eggshells to
break down. Think about it.
Speaker 4: If you do have a compost pile, if you go
to throw an eggshell out, it takes a long time
for that to break down. So you need to give
it a boost by breaking it down before you put
it in your tomato planting hole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know calcium is so important, and that's
eggshells are made up of over ninety percent of calcium.
You know, it's just amazing what they do. It's the
health of the plant. They build strong stems and roots,
and of course it's critical when it comes to warming
that fruit. When you get that blossom in rot that
appears on a tomato plant, that is usually, but not
usually it is the result of the plant not getting enough.
Speaker 4: I think we should probably explain for those people that
don't know what blossom and rot is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know it's that little black area on
the end of the blossom with the tomato forms, and
all of a sudden you'll see your tomato have that
soft spot on the end, and it ends up ruining
that tomato.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Think about a tomato that's half grown, or it starts
to even starts to turn red. You go to pick
it and you turn it over in the bottom of
it is all black and mushy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I hate when I put my fingers, and I.
Speaker 2: Do want to explain to a lot of people that
grow tomatoes that is a very common occurrence for the
first four or five tomatoes that appear on your plant,
because they're immature. The plants still learning how to do things.
The tomatoes are trying to learn.
Speaker 3: How they're still the roots are still absorbing nutrients.
Speaker 2: And they don't understand that, and so they think, oh
my gosh, I've got blossom in what you do on
those initial ones. But we always tell people when we
do this, and we were telling that this weekend at
the conference, pull those first few tomatoes off, I mean
the first five or sixth at form. First of all,
it's gonna take them forever to mature. They're most likely
going to have blossom and rot. You don't need them
on there. And what that's going to do by taking
them off is allow the plant to continue to produce
more power and more power so that what it does
produce it's next set it to me is they're going
to be really good. However, if you don't have enough
calcium in the soil that blossom rock can continue on it.
If you have an extended period of bossom rock, you
have an issue. And that's where that egg shell powder
can really just knock it away when you plant it
right away.
Speaker 4: So it's not very common to go out to your
nursery to find a bag.
Speaker 3: Of eggs shell powder. So how do you get eggshell powder?
Speaker 2: Well, if you save your eggshells, you know, you crushing
down by hand to a certain point. We put ours
in a coffee grinder and we just you know, grind
them up and they into the finest powder we can
and then it's perfect and it's it's the reason it
works is you said it best. It takes so long
for them to break down, it doesn't really break down
until next year and help next year's crop. But when
you make it in a powder form, it's instant. The
water comes through, it absorbs into the roots, and it
can happen. So that's why you want to do that.
Speaker 4: And I just want to clarify that we don't use
the same coffee grinder for our coffee beans as we
do our eggshell powder. We bought inexpensive coffee grinder that
we use solely for things like that for the garden.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can get one now for fifteen
or sixteen dollars, and it's just we just use that
for grinding that up or grinding other things up. But
you know, there's eggs shells, Like I said, they have
over ninety percent calcium carbonate, and by putting them in
your hole, it's just unbelievable how much they can they
can do for plants. So again, magical question. We talked
about the amounts of what to use. You know, about
the equivalent of you know, three to six eggs shells
per hole, which when you grind them up, I think
what you and you say about two tablespoons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's pretty much what I use.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And actually I've seen some eggshell powder on sites
now that it's for sale. So if you don't have
a source, I think you can try to find it online.
That's a great way to do it. But I'm telling you,
save your eggshells, grind them up, use them in there.
It's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3: And if you don't have enough eggshells, Jim, we should
tell them what we used to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, go to your local breakfast place and
take a five gallon bucket in, maybe patronize the breakfast
place and have a breakfast there. Every weekend. We had
a little small hole in the wall that we would
go to. We would take them two five gallon buckets
and they would save their coffee grounds, their egg shells,
and all their potato peilings and everything else for us.
And we would go in, usually on Saturday morning, and
have breakfast and leave with two buckets full, and we
would give them two more. We did that for a
long time before we had our own chickens and our
own ability to have as much. But same thing with
coffee shops. You know they're going to save the grounds
for people, and they're more than.
Speaker 4: Happy to even Starbucks, I think save coffee grounds for people.
And they actually put the patron's names up on a chalkboard,
and I've heard in some occasions.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it. So okay, so we've
done three and four. We've got composts, we've got warm castings,
and we have eggshll powder. We'll come back with that
final tip and final tips on growing tomatoes after this
message we are back. We've covered the first three important
things to put in that tomato planting hole. First, we
talked about digging your tomato plant hole with a postal digger.
The nice thing about that is you're not taking a
big scoop of dirt out, just a nice area for
the whole. It's easy on your back. And then once
you lift that soil out, mixing in these ingredients, you know,
two to three cups of compost, the worm castings, you know,
half a cup or so, and then the eggshell powder
two to three tablespoons. Two is more than enough. And
then comes number four with your coffee grounds. Another free
resource for people. And we're not talking about fresh coffee grounds.
We're talking about used coffee grounds. Right, they have to
run through that coffee maker in order to get the
acidity out of them. But when they do, those coffee
grounds are just unbelievably healthy for your tomato plants and
for your soil.
Speaker 3: Right, both coffee grounds contain nitrogen and other trace elements
that helps your tomato plants grow big and strong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nitrogen is a key factor for tomato plants. I
mean you're talking about it is what helps plants grow.
You don't want to hit your tomato plants with too
much nitrogen. But coffee's perfect because it's a low dose,
just enough to keep it green and growing without overproducing
too much foliage.
Speaker 3: Just like you can't have too much coffee in the
morning too.
Speaker 2: Well, you've been telling that I can't, so that might
be a problem. Apparently I'm limited now to cups. Apparently
there is a point where it's not good, kind of
like a tomato.
Speaker 3: It's right, too much, just enough?
Speaker 2: Well, you know we talked about they contain the nitrogen
and other ingredients. But how much should you mix in?
You know, two to three tablespoons is really good for
the planting hole. You said this too. That's another thing.
We usually put a few more tablespoons up on top
of the soil when we're done in that in that
mix of compost, and what it does is it helps
to it helps to you know, really control the moisture
and also get things in and also just give that
little bit of nitrogen boost.
Speaker 3: That they Yeah, just don't do the fresh coffee grounds
because those fresh coffee grounds have just too much acid
in them. They have to be spent.
Speaker 2: You're right, you know that's the big thing. So once
your tomato plants gets boosted, or once once they get planted,
then you're going to fertilize them after a few weeks.
Just remember, once you start fertilizing your tomato plants, we
like to use liquid fertilizer and look for a fertilizer
that's higher in phosphorus than it is nitrogen. You want that,
you know, NPK numbers is going to tell you the
three numbers you need. In that first numbers, nitrogen, you
want it to be low, so maybe a five ten
ten or a five fifteen. You want that phosphorus and
calcium or potassium to be higher because that's what drives
blooms and plants and not just overall growth. I think
we've covered it.
Speaker 3: With I'm excited for planning season.
Speaker 2: I am too, So listen, thanks for joining us today.
We'll be back next week with another one. Here's some
knowing what to put in your tomato planting hole this
year and having your best harvest of tomatoes ever.
Speaker 3: I'm Jim Campetti, I'm Mary Capetti.
Speaker 2: All right, Happy gardening, everyone, Happy gardening.
Speaker 5: We hope you've enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple
Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of
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Speaker 3: And if you have any questions, any ideas for show topics,
or if you want to share your favorite garden tip,
email us at the farm at owgarden dot com.
Speaker 5: Until next time, Thanks everyone,