1.       Good production starts outside the field.

Laying good foundation is crucial to seeing great results with tomato production.

This entails procuring the right seeds and ensuring appropriate field conditions that promote proper growth, development, thriving, and productivity of seeds.

Quite a number of productions are impacted and even from the start by pests, diseases, environmental factors, and genetic potential.

Procuring prolific, pests and diseases, water and climate stress resistant tomato varieties would get you through a lot of these issues.

Different tomato varieties have been bred for these common problems and I advise to take the time to get the best variety. There are issues I faced growing tomatoes which I knew would have been worse if I never grew improved varieties.

Hence, other than just using any seeds with unverified history and potential and which can even be (infested and) a source of pests and diseases introduction on the farm, it is better to procure from accredited vendors, seeds that have been vetted for quality and performance.

However, using quality seeds by itself is not enough without enabling field conditions –as with how the environment influences genetic potential.

For this and tomato, starting from the nursery is non-negotiable. This way you get to start tomatoes in the best of conditions which gives edge and benefits that transfer into the field and through lifecycle.

In this way also, using the right grow medium [and I advise coco peat], one could not only germinate seeds faster but also uniformly and thus have rapid, uniform harvest.

But good soil conditions also have to be ensured else positives of the nursery are eroded on transplant. Tomato does well in PH-balanced, fertile, organic rich, well-drained soil.

Providing tomatoes with required nutrients ensure they are not stressed at anytime and reach their full potential.

PH influences nutrient availability, take up, and utilisation. Organic matter aids soil reactions, balances soil moisture, pH, and promote activities of beneficial microbes.

A well-drained soil enables nutrient mobilisation allowing nutrient access. It also prevents over-fertilisation and waterlogged conditions fostering thrive of pests and diseases.

Hence it is crucial to ensure all these, assessing soil fertility and composition and remedying accordingly.

It is also vital to rid soil of pests and diseases by sanitation, tillage, solarisation or heat application, pesticide and fungicide, etc. Many cases of pests and diseases attack are of untreated infested soil.

2.       How you transplant matters.

You don’t just transplant tomatoes, there’s a way to go about it. Even, there are measures to adhere before transplanting.

First is that the tomato seedlings must have emerged their roots and true leaves properly (and in adequate numbers for the latter).

The true leaves perform photosynthesis and replace false leaves (cotyledons). Presence of extensive root network and true leaves signals the readiness of the seedlings to be transplanted.

The seedlings must have also been exposed to the sun frequently and more and even field conditions leaving them out overnight a day to transplant.

Sun and field exposure help seedlings to grow rapidly, be firm and adapt to field conditions.

In my own case I didn’t expose seedlings to the sun frequently which made them experience a condition called etiolation, where seedlings become thin, elongate and bend searching for light. This left the seedlings in bad shape, stressed and with impact which continued to the field.

When transplanting you want to do so on a clear and warm day; no rain, scorching sun, strong wind. Tomato seedlings are fragile and can get broken to torrential rain, heavy wind, or wilt to intense insolation.

I experienced this with my tomato transplant. Although I transplanted on a clear evening, a heavy rainfall overnight damaged most of the seedlings I moved to the field.

It then necessitates checking weather prediction for day of transplant and few days after so seedlings transplanted can establish themselves and weather environmental forces.

Transplanting on a warm day ensures a warm soil temperature necessary for rapid root development and seedling growth.

In addition to ensuring quick settling in of seedlings, when placing seedlings in the soil it is helpful to plant neck deep -molding the soil around the roots and upward the stem till the nearest leafstalk is reached.

Stem of tomato seedlings has hair-like structures called trichomes that develop into roots when in contact with soil. In this way the trichomes, with soil molded around them, can grow into the soil, giving the seedlings more stability, rapidly.

3.       More fruits is good but how many develop well is better, prune!

There’s the tendency to want every growing tip to yield fruit and for every fruit to develop fully.

This is non-beneficial and only serves to drain and weigh down plant.

Having good fruit number is important but one must sever some growing tips to discourage unending growth consuming nutrients that should rather go to proper fruit development.

When this is done, fruits grow bigger and even reach appropriate size quickly.

It’s crucial to harvest the fruits at this point when they are just showing visible sign of ripeness as it enables a longer shelf life and to give room for growing fruits to develop fully as well.

Pruning does not limit to growing tip and fruit but can be done to leaves especially during vegetative stage.

Lower leaves can be pruned too to allow plant stand grow taller and promote more nodes of flowers that become fruits.

However, care must be taken with pruning to make it less injurious so as to prevent physiological stress on the crops and the introduction of opportunistic diseases.

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4.       Tomato is self-pollinating but you shouldn’t leave it at that.

I never knew tomato was self-pollinating (although I knew it as theory back then in school but forgot). The crop has both male and female reproductive organs on the same flower.

Although I did not have problem with pollination when I grew the crop since fruits emerged frequently especially after breezy rain, however, there were flowers that never were fertilised.

If I knew, a little shaking of the unfertilised flowers would have been helpful as it would cause the pollens to fall on the ovary; an artificial replication of what the wind and rain do which I did not know until reading on it.

Too bad, I didn’t realise this until after the whole production. And that was reduced productivity with impact on overall yield.

Thankfully it was a small scale production. Imagine the impact on large scale production?

Good you know this. Don’t make the same mistake.

Embarking on a production you must get to know enough about the crop to be grown.

5.       Staking matters but how you do does more.

Based on growth pattern tomato doesn’t require growth support as would a crop like cucumber but it does rather for reinforcement of the stem to not tip over and for support of growing fruits, even enable their proper development.

However, this seldom poses problem with it being a common knowledge and rather how the staking is done does.

What I’ve observed –and an error I also made when I switched to curling method –is staking without appropriate provision for growing stem.

Stems of plants keep growing until a certain stage and when twines are tied tight with little consideration for stem width expansion, this could induce improper growth and even gradual necrosis of plant part to suffocation where one may not understand why a plant is losing vigour when all conditions are favourable.

This condition can also create injuries on stems and enable attack of opportunistic pathogens with the outer layer of the stem damaged to confine staking as the stem forces to grow beyond.

It was when I adjusted the staking I began seeing positive changes.

6.       Don’t assume about nutrients, know them.

Know the nutritional requirement of the crop –what nutrients are needed, in what concentration and amount, and when required. The reality of one crop is not always the same for another.

Tomato being a fruit crop it’s evident it would require the basic essential elements of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for vegetation, flower and fruit development.

However, while you’d think (during tomato active growth) nitrogen and phosphorus uptake would be highest at rigorous vegetation and flowering respectively and then decline as both promote such, field evidence portrays something else (see graph below).

Nitrogen uptake increases linearly and its consumption is highest into harvest, this is the same situation for potassium.

It is understandable nitrogen performs other functions aside enabling tissue growth and photosynthesis while potassium regulates osmotic processes and enzymatic reactions, the four processes continuously occurring throughout lifecycle of plants. Phosphorus rather is required in very low uniform amount all through.

It’s important to note this and do away with assumptions about nutrients requirement as inadequate nutrients can cause malnutrition deficiencies and predispose plant to diseases, while overnutrition on the other hand yields toxicity and can, with overly lush vegetation, invite pests and attending diseases.

Both can bring about irreversible damages significantly impacting yield.

7.       Calcium is important and its deficiency is misunderstood.

As a rule of thumb, the element compositions of a fruit give a glimpse to the nutrients most important to a crop.

From the above image aside nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (primary macronutrients), you would notice the presence of calcium and magnesium.

Calcium is the secondary essential element with the most physical significance to tomato.

For any fruit calcium helps to maintain the structural stability and integrity of the cell wall and in that way keeps at bay disease-causing microbes. Inadequate calcium supply can compromise cell wall.

Calcium deficiency is often a problem for tomato with delicate cell-wall of the fruit of the crop. The condition is usually followed by blossom-end rot (BER) and opportunistic diseases as late blight attack.

Tomato is priced for its fruit quality and both blossom end-rot and late blight greatly impact fruit quality with irreversible lesions.

But calcium deficiency is misunderstood. While calcium inadequacy causes BER, the physiological condition can also occur with calcium presence.

Calcium is transported by water and water unavailability and/or inadequacy can make calcium immobile from source to sink precipitating BER.

Another issue is that sodium and potassium being more reactive can displace calcium in the soil.

A soil too rich in these elements depletes calcium. It’s one of the reasons salt-based fertiliser is discouraged and sodium is supplied in small quantity.

In my own experience I have confused late blight for blossom end-rot with both presenting skin lesions on fruits and which worsened when I couldn’t delineate both.

It’s important to be able to identify/differentiate both (and for other tomato diseases and physical conditions), to be able to take proactive potent action when the situation surfaces.

BER forms skin lesion at the base of the tomato fruit while late blight forms lesion all over the fruit.

As a guide for calcium issues: incorporating good quantity of calcium before and/or at planting would help with calcium supply and when calcium deficiency arises during crop growth other than solid form of calcium which degrades slowly, absorbable form of calcium (through foliar spray) should be administered for quick remedy.

It’s also beneficial to understand how elements important to crops displace one another and how in conjunction with pH elements are displaced to unavailable form. More reactive element will displace a lesser reactive element.

8.       Trace elements are non-essential but are essential.

Magnesium and calcium are considered secondary macronutrients not essential as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but are important.

While magnesium can displace calcium (less reactive elements can displace more reactive elements in some cases) and excess calcium can cause leaf edges to burn, they must nonetheless be supplied although in trace amounts as they have their functions where their absence comes with physiological symptoms.

I’ve come to realise that non-essential elements are often overlooked in crop production. This is for one reason that most soils often have these elements and hence their deficiency is rarely apparent.

The non-essential elements important to plants also known as trace or microelements are iron, manganese, zinc, copper, boron, molybdenum, and chlorine.

These elements help with enzyme and tissue formation, cell reactions, division and growth, complement functions of essential elements, help prevent diseases and relieve plants of stress and ensure their vigour.

When I encountered late blight it was, aside fungicides enlisted, organic fertiliser fortified with trace elements that helped me have something of my decimated tomatoes.

It is therefore beneficial to consider adopting fertiliser (artificial or organic) with these secondary macronutrients and trace elements blended in right proportion.

9.       Know the pests and diseases, shout for help when it demands.

You have to be familiar with the pests and diseases of tomato so there wouldn’t be delay or second guessing with preventing and controlling them when the need arises.

In my second tomato production I began noticing rot of the apex point of some of the tomato plants and which spread downward irreversibly affecting leaves and flowers.

I couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was since I never took the time to familiarise myself with pests and diseases of the crop.

I initially thought it was calcium deficiency thinking the cell walls of the plants have been compromised.

I supplied calcium and in fact pruned affected parts but the condition only got worse and even spread to other plants.

I became alarmed and ran to twitter for help. I got to know it was late blight, and then began the race against time as the tomatoes were already in fruiting stage and with many of the fruits showing lesions from late blight.

If I knew about the disease status and its virulence capability, I would have established preventive measures and it would have been also easier to control it.

The key point here is to get a handbook for pests and diseases of tomato and even for deficiencies. Getting into network of tomato farmers crucial too so you can call for help.

10.   Late blight is your enemy and will take you by surprise if you let it.

Late blight is one of the most destructive disease you’ll face growing tomato.

Plant productivity is seriously regressed and with irreversible damage to fruits making them of less quality and value.

It is called late blight for a reason; it destroys last and essential part of tomato production.

You want to do as much as possible to prevent the blight from being introduced to the farm.

Use of vetted seeds, soil treatment, sanitising environment and planting materials, clean water for irrigation are a must and the first line of defense.

You should ascertain disease history of where you’ll be growing tomato if there hasn’t been any issue of late blight and also if secondary host as potato has been grown there before.

When I grew tomato I observed the part I delineated for organic production using cow manure was where the late blight issue started from and from there spread to the section of fertliser-produced tomatoes. I suspected the manure as source of infection.

To not take any chances fungicides can also be applied intermittently on the farm. This has to be both systemic and contact fungicides.

Late blight is caused by microbes related to fungi, oomycete. They not only attack outer layer of tomato plant but also penetrate inner tissues rotting tomato plant parts inside out.

Systemic fungicide infiltrates tomato cell pores and destroys blight cells inside while contact fungicide destroys those on the outside.

Hence it is necessary to structure the farm for proper draining and reduced water splash. Irrigation can be delivered at the base of crop and mulching to prevent this.

The spores of the pathogen are transported via wind, water and reason why a localised case can become viral with windy rain.

It is thus important to be proactive scouting plants for any sign of blight and uprooting affected plants carefully with gloves on and incinerating them far away from the farm.

Bonus point:

Prepare for Citron bug the Vampire

I never encountered the citron bug growing tomato but did with cucumber.

The bug does irreparable damage to plant tissues. It feeds on different parts (stem, leaf, fruit, tendrils, etc) of plant and when doing so injects toxin that kills plant cells.

In this way flowers and fruits fed on not only stall in development but also progressively die and thus a significant loss in harvest. The pests are mobile can feed on many tomato stands in a day.

Their host among other fruit crops include tomatoes hence why you should worry. Tomato farmers complain about them.

Growing cucumber I noticed that when I began sighting the particular pests my plant stands started dying and having issues. I took to research and what I suspected was confirmed.

Controlling this pest requires frequent crop inspection and monitoring as the pest’s population gradually builds over time unnoticed only to suddenly emerge and wreak havoc.

Pyrethroid-based pesticides is an effective control, this is because citron bug is very mobile taking to flight away beyond reach on slight disruption and also come feeding when no one is around.

When the mentioned pesticide is sprayed on the farm the active component remains on plants and in the air so when the bugs arrive back they come into contact with it. The pesticide shuts down their nervous system.

And since the pest is a sap feeder a systemic pyrethroid pesticide or any other potent pesticide with similar mode of action works best.

But you want to be careful and put on protective wears since the pesticide aerosols will still be in the air so as to prevent inhalation and skin absorption.

You must ensure the health safety of those around you to not spray on a windy day and in the direction of wind.

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