Is it too late to plant Tomatoes?

Can you still plant tomatoes????? The answer is yes, yes, absolutely yes!  Tomatoes love hot weather (which I guess we are still waiting for) but they also like the soil to be warm. We are just now getting to the point where the soil is warm enough to successfully plant everything. You can plant Tomatoes sooner but the plants will not do much until the soil warms up.

If you bought tomatoes plants and did not have time to plant them and now they are huge or the only tomatoes plants in the garden center are long don’t worry, – – – plant them. If given the choice between a short tomato plant or a long tomato plant I always choose the bigger one. I dig a ditch and plant the tomato plant on its side and cover it up to the top portion of the leaves. The long part that you buried will turn into roots and make a stronger plant.

Before I started my Urban Garden I used to plant all the leftovers from the greenhouse into the field. I paid my way through college by raising a truck garden full of overgrown vegetable plants. I was always the last guy to plant because there was never time until the busy shipping season was over. Most years I never planted a garden until after Memorial Day

The really tough decision is deciding what kind of tomatoes you want to grow. There are the big ones, medium size, and of course the little cherry tomatoes. One of the most popular ones for our area is a medium size Early Girl. I love Sweet 100’s cherry tomato. It is like eating candy off of the plant. The little yellow Sun Sugars are even better than the red Sweet 100’s.

This year I planted my raised beds on May 29th. When I was looking for a Sun Sugar I found a big gallon multi branched plant and put it in an Yellow Tomatoes Cage. I’m looking forward to grazing a few tomatoes off the vine as I’m out there picking some slicing cucumbers for lunch. I think I’m going to plant my strawberry patch today. There are some big plants in the greenhouse with strawberries on them already. I’ll be eating berries before the guys in Greenbluff even get their signs up.

If you have been procrastinating about planting or replanting now is definitely a great time.

Alan Creach ~ Spokane’s Urban Gardener

The Plant Farm & Creach Greenhouse Owner