Be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian, a majority of the foods need Tomatoes to cook.
They are major ingredients to make pasta, ketchup and soups and its used in majority of our food items like Biriyani, Fried Rice, Curry etc.
If you are an urban dweller, you may not have much experience of growing food but wanted to do. If you are the one, then definitely you can start with tomatoes.
It is not 100 percent mandatory to own farmland or open yard to grow tomatoes. You can grow tomatoes in pots and even in buckets or any containers with a decent width and depth.
Grow tomatoes at home
Select good quality seeds or saplings and potting material. The seeds can either be hybrid or country. Note that suitable potting material is very important to grow tomatoes at their best. A good mix of manured potting soil with the regular soil will offer you a good result.
The small tomatoes such as vine and cherry are best suited for growing at home garden in pots.
For good and quality yield, it is advisable to begin with seeds from a good nursery.
You can also germinate the seeds in a tray or the microgreens growing pots. Then you shift the saplings to pot.
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Container
Since tomato roots go deep in the soil, select a reasonably deep container to plant seeds or saplings. Also, grow only one plant per container as not to divide nutrients between one or more plants.
Pruning
As tomato plant grows up, you have to prune the leaves at the bottom since they are closer to the soil. This is to avoid tomato plant catching soil borne infections.
Overcrowded leaves grown on the plant will suck up nutrients. So, cut down the old leaves as to bring in better yield of the tomatoes.
But do not go overboard in removing the leaves. Because leaves carry out the process of photosynthesis. So, leaves are very important to get flavorful tomatoes but you can remove the dried ones.
Household Compost
To the soil, you can add eggshells as it will add calcium to the tomatoes. It is an easy way to fortify your tomato harvest with easily available compost item at home. Also, the shells can be recycled without ending up in the dustbins.
Wood Ash Pesticide
You can reduce the chance of infection by coating tomato leaves with wood ash, which is a non-toxic pesticide. It works well to maintain tomato plants healthy.
Light and water
Tomatoes need sufficient heat and water to flourish. So, ensure to place the pots in the area that gets Sunlight for a minimum of 4-6 hours a day. Also ensure a consistent schedule to water them at regular intervals.
Within a few weeks, you will get the tomatoes from your own plant.
(With inputs from The OnLook News Research Bureau)
Also read: 5 easy and healthy vegetables you can grow in your home garden
