URGENT: Plant Your Tomatoes & Peppers Now!

It sure feels like summer outside, but in order for fall tomatoes and peppers to have time to produce lots of fruit, we gotta plant em now! Here are a few tips for growing the most and the tastiest tomatoes and peppers.

1. Count Your Days to Maturity

The average tomato, like our beloved Celebrity slicing tomato, needs about 70-80 days to mature and produce fruit. That means they’ll be ready around the beginning of November if we plant today. Similarly, Jalepenos and bell peppers need 60-80 days to maturity. Be sure to get them planted now or very soon so you can get a good harvest before we have chances of cold weather which tomatoes and peppers can’t handle. 

2. Adequate Spacing + Cages for Support

When planting, keep in mind that tomatoes should be planted a good 4 feet apart, and peppers should be 2.5-3 feet apart. This gives them room to grow to their full potential, ensures good airflow around the plants, and helps prevent pest outbreaks. Remember – tomato cages are your friends! It’s important to cage the tomato right when you plant so you don’t risk breaking branches if you try to add a cage later. A tomato cage works great for supporting pepper plants too. And be sure to have some flexible green garden tie tape to help secure floppy branches, especially when they get heavy with fruit! The flexible tape is nice because it’s soft and won’t cut into the plant like string or wire would. Yes, we have some!

3. Follow DeAnna’s Tried & True Feeding Schedule

Remember that plants use lots of energy to produce fruit, so they need plenty of good food! Use compost and Biotone Starter Plus you plant to promote good soil microbes and bigger roots. Then take DeAnna’s advice on feeding:  apply a quality granular fertilizer (Plant Tone or Medina Growin Green) on the 1st of the month, then supplement with liquid Hasta Gro on the 15th. Add these reminders to your calendar to make it easy. Follow this schedule and you’ll have tomatoes & peppers to share!