Tomato Farming
Tomato is a fruit which is used when preparing home food dishes. Botanically it is defined as fruit because it is formed from a flower and contain seeds.
Tomato farming does well in high temperature regions and has an optimal temperature range of 17 to 20 °C. This article will give in detail on how you can grow your tomato.
How to Grow Tomato
To grow tomato, make sure you follow the following steps.
1. Site selection
The first step to grow your tomato is to choose best site, where you will grow your tomato, whether in small scale or large scale.
The site needs to be closer to the water source if your tomato will be grown under irrigation.
Make sure the selected site has good fertile soil suitable for tomato growing, it has to be well-drained, fertile, sandy loam soil, which has a soil pH of 5.8 to 7.0.
The selected site needs to have a temperature range of 10 to 32 °C through out the growing season, with an optimal yield obtained at 17-22 °C.
2. Site preparation
Having selected the best site, the next step is to make the site ready to grow your tomato.
If the tomato will be grown in your home garden, you need to set seed beds where your tomato will be grown.
If you will be grow your tomato on your farm, you need to clear, plough the site and make ridges ready for cultivation.
During this site preparation, you can also add animal manure into the soil to improve the soil nutrient content and this will increase your tomato yields.
If your selected site has a high soil pH make sure you add lime to it so that a soil pH of 6.5 to 6.8 is maintained. A high pH will usually ensure a high calcium level, which is necessary for this crop.
3. Crop establishment
A hectare of land requires approximately 75 to 150 grams of tomato seeds. A temperature of 27 °C for 1 to 2 weeks is required for good seed germination.
The recommended plant population per hectare is set at 11,000 to 18,000 plants, depending on the type of tomato and its field spacing.
Tomato plants need to be spaced at 45 to 60 cm apart, rows 1 to 1.5 m apart, but this depends on choice of tomato cultivars.
If you do not want to sow your seed directly in your actual field, you can establish a tomato nursery bed where you will sow your seeds and later transplant to the actual field.
During transplanting, make sure you follow the recommended spacing, and that you mulch each transplant and water.
The purpose of mulching is to reduce direct sunlight and rate of evaporation during the early days of your transplant. In case of direct seedlings, no need to mulch.
4. Irrigation
Tomato plant needs a lot of water and it needs to be watered everyday to a depth of 0.3 inches of water per day (0.7 cm). This can be achieved with around 9 watering cans per day if watered manually. Make sure your site has a good soil moisture in the morning and evening.
5. Fertilisation
For optimal results, make sure you apply NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer, which has 15% nitrogen, 15% phosphorus and 15% potassium.
You should also improve soil fertility through manure application, especially during site preparation.
For optimal results, you will need to apply fertilizer twice in your tomato field, with the first application soon after planting, and with last application be just before fruiting.
6. Weeding
Make sure you control perennial weeds in your tomato field prior to planting. Many tomato growers use black plastic mulch for weed control, especially when the tomato crop is grown under plastic row tunnels.
You could weed your tomato field manually with a hoe. Similarly, if the tomato field is large you can hire labour to work on it, as weeds suppress tomato growth and encourage the multiplication of pests and diseases, which will reduce tomato yields.
7. Pest and disease control
You can control your pest and diseases by any of these methods, cultural, natural, biological and chemical. Similarly, you can also control your pest and diseases by using a combination of these.
8. Harvesting
Tomato plant takes a range of 60 to 112 days to mature and this depends on type of variety, as some variety can mature as early as 40 days and these are classified as early maturing tomato varieties, while those which take more than 120 are classified as rate maturing.
To harvest tomato, you hand pick the ripe tomato fruit from your tomato plant.
In conclusion, this article has taken a look at 8 steps required to grow your tomato. Among others, the article has uncovered that, site selection, crop establishment and weeding, are some of the steps you will go through when cultivating your tomato plant.