Vegetables
Perfect Soil for Growing Great Tomatoes
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Jun 25, 2005 - 5:16:00 AM

If you haven’t already begun to compost garden materials and green kitchen wastes at home, you should start as soon as you can. Composting at home is one of the best ways to improve your soil and grow great tomatoes. Compost improves soil texture, adds valuable soil nutrients, improves drainage, and attracts and supports beneficial soil orgarnisms. Even if you’ve already planted your tomato garden, you can start composting today so that you can improve the soil for next growing season.

Composting is a very easy and ecologically responsible way to recycle green waste. Home composting requires collecting green kitchen scraps and garden wastes and placing the waste in a compost bin or compost pile. Allowing the material to decompose creates a rich, dark, earthy material to add to your soil. For effective composting, you should consider buying or constructing a compost bin if you don't already have one. A compost pail is also useful to collect kitchen scraps. Good quality compost bins and pails will increase the quality of your compost and make the process easier. They are available at your local nursery and on-line.

The type of material you add to your compost pile is very important. Meats, dairy products, and animal bones are not recommended for composting. Only garden and kitchen wastes such as grass clippings, leaves, washed egg shells, coffee grounds, and fruit and vegetable peels will work for composting. For complete instructions on composting, see this excellent Guide to Composting offered by the University of Nebraska.

Composting at home is of course the ideal way to improve your garden soil, but if you choose to buy pre-composted material to add immediately to your garden, be aware that some commercially available organic composts haven’t completed the process and can be of poor quality. If you think that the compost you’ve purchased is of low quality, you can add liquid humic acid or compost tea to improve it.

Another important factor in growing healthy tomatoes is maintaining the correct soil pH. pH is defined as the measure of acid-base balance. pH levels are read on a scale from 1 to 14. 1 is defined as extremely acid; 7 is neutral; and 14 is extremely basic (alkaline). Because pH works on a logarithmic scale, a pH of 6 is defined as 10 times more acidic than 7, and 5 is 100 times more acidic than 7. Therefore, 8 is 10 times more alkaline than 7 and 9 is 100 times more alkaline than 7.

Soil pH can often be the determining factor in what kinds of plants will or won’t grow in your garden. If you plant an acid-loving plant in alkaline soil or vice versa, the plant may grow, but may end up being weaker and more susceptible to attack by pests and disease. Tomatoes will grow within a soil pH range of 5.8 to 7. Although they are adapted to slightly acidic soil, they will grow best near the 6.5 pH mark. Tomato gardening in soil with the proper pH will insure healthy plants with strong immune systems that can resist pests and disease.

Check the pH of your soil before you decide to add any soil amendments. This will help you choose what amendments to add. Inexpensive soil pH test kits are available from most garden centers and on the Internet. If you check your soil pH and find it extremely acidic or extremely alkaline, you can add amendments to bring the soil closer to the desired level.


For instance, if your soil is very acid, you can add lime to neutralize the pH. If you test your soil and find it very alkaline, you can add an agricultural sulfur to help neutralize the pH. In both cases, you should add enough amendment to reach a pH level of 6.5 to 7. The addition of organic compost will help balance out both kinds of soil. Adding compost is a good idea, even if your soil is near neutral.

Soil texture is also important to growing tomatoes. Clay soils don’t drain well and are difficult for roots to penetrate. Sandy soils drain well but don’t retain nutrients. The “Ribbon Test” is a basic soil test you can do without special equipment. Take a small soil sample with a trowel, and roll it back and forth in your hand. If the soil is tacky, it is probably high in clay. If it falls apart, it is probably has a lot of sand. Adding organic compost helps to improve both sandy and clay soils.

The best overall way to determine if your soil is ready to plant is with a basic soil tester. An electronic soil tester will test both the pH and fertility of the soil. There are also more complete testers available on-lone that measure light levels, moisture, etc.

During the growing season, you’ll need to add organic fertilizers to the soil to keep the soil nitrogen levels up for your tomatoes. Fish emulsions or compost teas added about every two or three weeks are a great way to keep the soil healthy without chemical fertilizers.

Mulching your tomatoes plants is also recommendable. The mulch will help to keep weeds from growing and keeps moisture in the soil longer. Through the course of the growing season, mulch also adds nutrients to the soil as it decomposes.

Add more mulch each year to your tomatoes as it decomposes. The mulch will keep the soil healthy and productive. You can further support your soil by adding an organic fertilizer product. Your mulch will work best when you add a natural fertilizer over the entire garden bed so that the whole area will gradually become healthier.

This Complete Guide To Composting is also a great resource worth checking out.

For more info on tomato gardening the natural way, see here: Tomato Gardening Tips

Check out this great ebook with recipes using tomatoes and tomatillos.

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