Joan E. Hixson - Growing Tomatoes Like A Pro: How to Grow Juicy, Colorful, Tasty, Organic Tomatoes in Your Backyard & in Containers

Joan E. Hixson

Copyright 2013 by Joan E. Hixson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved.

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This book is not intended for use as a sourceof legal, business, accounting or financial advice. All readers areadvised to seek services of competent professionals in the legal,business, accounting, and finance fields.

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If you are reading this guide, you areclearly interested in growing your own tomatoes. This book is notjust intended for those who have very little knowledge about theprocess of growing tomatoes, but it will give a beginning tomatofarmer all the information needed to get started. It is also agreat resource for those already growing tomatoes. It can give youa quick refresher on growing if you need it, it can help pinpointsome ways to increase your crop yield, and/or it can help youtroubleshooting growing issues you may be dealing with such asannoying pests and diseases.

You may also fall into the curiositycategory and just have an idle interest in growing tomatoes andwondering about the benefits of doing so. You might be thinking,Why grow your own tomatoes? The answer to that is people growtomatoes for many different reasons that usually include one ormore of the top five reasons: nutrition, price, contamination frompesticides, availability, and flavor quality with variety.

Nutrition A medium ripe tomatocontains a long list of nutrients including calcium, iron,potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamin, lycopene, and riboflavin.No wonder they are so good for you! And since tomatoes are about95% water with only 22 calories per medium-sized tomato, consumingfresh tomatoes regularly is highly beneficial for your health.

Availability With tomatoes being sonutritional, the easier it is to get them, the more you can enjoytheir health benefits. Growing your own tomatoes will make them allthe more available on demand without having to run to the grocerystore whenever you need some.

Pesticides Chemical pesticides usedby commercial tomato growers expose consumers to a variety oftoxins with significant health threats. This is currently a matterof much debate among the experts. You are safest when you adopt theage-old life recommendationbetter safe than sorry. Growing yourown tomatoes and controlling their environment ensures you will notbe consuming toxins unless you choose to use the same chemicalpesticides.

Price The price for purchasing freshtomatoes at your local grocery store varies according to season aswell as shipping costs. They are available year-round throughoutthe country whether grown fresh in natural growing seasons or grownin greenhouses out of season. You will pay between $.80 and $2.00 apound generally and in this difficult economy, that can add upquickly if you enjoy eating tomatoes on a regular basis. You canbuy a tomato plant for around $4.00 and tomato seeds cost justpennies. Depending on the variety of tomatoes you choose to grow,one large plant can give between 10 and 50 pounds of tomatoes bythe end of the season. Pricing clearly indicates growing your owntomatoes is much cheaper than buying them even when you are justconsidering purchasing costs without factoring in the indirectcosts such as the time it takes to grow tomatoes.

Enjoyment Some people grow tomatoesmainly because either they enjoy growing vegetables or they enjoythe higher quality homegrown tomatoes can offer, or both. As youwill see in the following chapters, there are many ways to growtomatoes and many varieties of tomatoes with unique flavors tochoose from. Most agree that tomatoes you grow yourself are muchmore flavorful than the ones you can buy in a grocery store.

All in all, growing your own tomatoes isbeneficial to you in a variety of ways. Whether you choose to do sobecause of one or more of those reasons mentioned or others,growing tomatoes is an enjoyable activity. You have many optionsand decisions to make when you start the growing process. Theinformation contained in this book will give you the details neededto successfully grow your own delicious tomatoes.

Once you have come to the conclusion that youdefinitely want to try growing your own tomatoes, this guideprovides all the basic steps necessary to be successful and able toenjoy eating your very own tomatoes during the next growingseason.

In this guide, you will learn everything youneed to know to produce big, juicy, colorful, and tasty tomatoes inyour own home or backyard. You will learn the best way to growthem, how to care for your plants, how to avoid pests &diseases, and the best way to harvest them.

Remember that there are solutions to justabout any problem or difficulty you may face while growingtomatoes. You can find answers in this guide, online, or at yourlocal agriculture office, or from your local friends that arealready successfully growing their own vegetables.

Ready to get started? Lets begin!

The composition of the soil that yourtomatoes plants are grown in is one of the most important detailsthat determine how successful you will be. Poor soil can lead toyour plants dying in the worst case scenario or a low yielding cropof tomatoes at best and everything in between. If you are going totake the time to grow your own tomatoes, make sure your time iswell spent by first ensuring your soil composition is appropriatefor the needs of healthy tomato plants.

The first step of preparing your soil to growhealthy tomato plants requires time. The time needed variesaccording to climate because this is time needed to dry out thesoil of your garden bed. You cannot break it up and get it readyfor planting if it is still damp enough to squeeze a handful into aball shape and it stays that way. You do not want clumps and chunksmessing up the beds you are getting ready to plant. If the soilsticks to your gardening tools, it is too wet. You need to give ita little more time to dry out before preparing for plants.