Tips to boost your tomato harvest this fall

   

At this time of the season, there are several factors that can slow or stop tomatoes from ripening, causing the fruit to linger in the green stage. Persistent high temperatures are the most common cause, but plant care also plays an important role.  At this stage of tomato plant development, it’s important to direct the plant’s energy towards ripening existing fruit, as opposed to growing stems and leaves, flowering and producing new fruit. 

  

This can be accomplished by pruning strategically, adjusting the watering schedule, stopping fertilization, and by providing protection on cool nights. 

Stem and leaf pruning. Start by removing any dead, diseased or damaged stems and leaves.

Next, prune lower leaves, suckers and any non-bearing branches, and pinch off new flowers. This improves airflow and light exposure, which boosts ripening.  

 

It also helps to remove any small fruit and any tomatoes that are soft to the touch or showing signs of disease.    

Root pruning will also encourage ripening. To root prune, simply stick a shovel or trowel six to eight inches deep into the ground, all the way around the edge of your tomato plant. This will chop off the ends of the roots and force the plant to stop new growth and divert its energy into the fruit. It should be noted that root pruning will dramatically decrease the life of your plant.   

  

Cut back on the watering.  The plant’s normal response to September’s warm days and cooler nights, is to begin to slow down. Cutting back on water signals the plant that it’s time to focus on fruit production rather than new growth. Less water helps to concentrate the sugar in the fruit, hastening the ripening process and producing a more flavorful crop. Start by slowly reducing the amount as well as the frequency of watering. The goal is to slow the plant’s growth, without letting it dry out to the point of wilting.   

Stop fertilizing. With the bulk of the crop already on the vine, it’s time to stop fertilizing.   

Protect your plants at night by covering them with an insulating material. Tomatoes need more than 60° F to ripen properly. With nighttime temperatures dropping into the fifties, keeping your plants warm will keep fruit ripening.    

Boosting your tomato harvest at this time in the season is a matter of redirecting the plant’s energy away from growth and toward maturing fruit.  

 

Now’s the Time to Plant Cool Season Crops

Fall is ideal for planting greens and root crops. Warm fall days encourage good growth while the cooler fall nights bring out the flavor of your fall crops. Most cool weather crops don't need a full day of sunlight to grow. The spot in your garden that didn't have enough light to grow tomatoes, will do just fine for spinach, lettuce or arugula.   

Seeds or Starts: Seeds offer larger selection and lower cost per plant, cost-effective variety and control, while starts jumpstart harvest by 2 to 3 weeks.  It’s okay to do a combination of the two.  

If you choose to plant from seed, look at the days to maturity information or days to harvest on the package or label. This is roughly the amount of time from planting seeds to picking your crops. The shorter the days to maturity, the faster you’re harvesting. Radishes for example, mature in about 25 days (about 3 and a half weeks), so if you plant them now, you’ll be picking radishes in less than four weeks.    

Follow package directions for seed planting depth and make sure you take time to mark each row as you plant. For a longer fall harvest, start seeds every two weeks 

If you choose starts, we have cool season vegetable starts growing in our greenhouses, including broccoli, lettuce and kale. These are ready to take home and plant.  

For best success with your second season planting, begin by cleaning up any lingering weeds or vegetation at the planting site, then dig in two to three inches of compost into the site. Sheep, Peat and Compost is a good choice. It’s produced locally and it works to improve your soil.   

Don't have room in the garden? Cool weather crops are shallow rooted so it's easy to plant seeds or transplants in a container on the patio. Replenish the soil with Flower Bin Potting Soil, or Happy Frog Potting Soil. Happy Frog Potting Soil comes with a fertilizer to help get your plants started right.   

Summer vegetable crops will have depleted most of the nutrition in your soil, so adding a granular organic fertilizer at this time will keep your cool weather crops going strong, whether you choose to grow them in the ground, in pots or some combination of the two. Choose from True Organics or Happy Frog organic fertilizers.    

Make the most of your space by planting some Packman broccoli or Bloomsdale spinach along the edge of your perennial garden.   

Our average first fall frost occurs on October 8. Keep a frost cloth handy for those nights when cooler temperatures threaten your crop. This will help extend your "greens" garden well into late fall. Mulching your crop with fallen tree leaves will help by moderating the soil temperature.  

Planting a vegetable garden isn’t just a spring activity. Many of the vegetables we plant at the beginning of the garden season can be planted successfully now for harvest into late fall. This includes all the cool weather root and leaf crops such as lettuce, spinach, kale, beets and radishes.  

  

There's nothing like a dinner salad picked from your own garden in late summer and early fall.  It's fresh and you know exactly what's in it.