A Great Smaller Idaho Cold Frame I Built and listed on Craigslist.

Here's a cold frame I built. I made two smaller units. It is 32 inch, by 24 inch and is 10 inches deep. Ideal to start your seedling outside with. I recycled a wood window.

How to Grow Great Patio Tomatoes

If you want to know how to grow patio tomatoes, read on. If you don't have a garden or greenhouse, don't worry, because tomatoes can grow very well on the patio as long as you care for them correctly.

Patio Tomato Containers

First of all, choose a suitable container. You might want to go for something decorative if you want to spruce up your patio. Some patio tomatoes come in containers that can be placed inside decorative ones. As long as the tomato plant is not too snug, this also provides adequate drainage.

Choose a tomato plant from your local garden center that is clearly marked "patio tomato". Regular tomatoes don't grow so well in containers. Choose a potting soil designed for growing flowers and vegetables.

Fill the container with soil about halfway and place the tomato plant in the middle. Fill the rest of the container until the soil is 2 or 3 inches from the top. Make sure you add fertilizer as required and water your plant enough. Anyone who knows how to grow patio tomatoes will reaffirm that tomatoes love a lot of organic material in the soil. A couple of inches of compost on top and worked into the top couple of inches works wonders for them. There are healthy microorganisms in the compost which earthworms break down. This frees the minerals which will nourish , discourages pests and makes tomato diseases more unlikely. You can put a few inches of mulch on top too, such as leaf or straw, to combat wind and water erosion, conserve moisture and stop weed germination.

The tomato plants need to be moist rather than soaking. Uniform watering is the key to the best because it prevents end rot and leaf-end roll. It need to be moist 6 inches down. They need 1 inch of water weekly. It is best to water in the late afternoon or early evening with enough time for the plants to dry off before nightfall.

Planting Patio Tomatoes

Plants won't begin to bear fruit until the overnight temperature is at least 55ºC but you can plant them when it is 50ºF. Patio tomatoes do not usually need to be staked. If your pot does not have a drain hole, you should put some gravel in the bottom of the pot before you put the soil in.

The container needs to get a lot of sun if possible. You will also need to prune the plants frequently. This conserves the energy of the plant and directs it towards fruit production. You need to pinch off any side shoots. You should prune your patio tomato plants weekly.

Harvesting Patio Tomatoes

Patio tomatoes are ready to harvest in 60 or 70 days, when they are completely ripe and beginning to soften. Keep them in warm, dark conditions but do not refrigerate them because they will lose a lot of flavor. For the best results, use your tomatoes within 3 days of harvesting. Remember than cooked sauce with home grown they freezes well. It is easy to learn how to grow patio tomatoes and thanks to their ability to freeze well, you can have an endless supply as long as you follow the above tips.

Grow Huge Idaho Tomatoes

If you want to grow record-breaking big tomatoes, follow the lead of Gordon Graham. He holds the Guinness World Records title for the heaviest tomato—a 7-pound 12-ounce whopper grown back in 1986. This winning tomato came from a 'Delicious' vine, so that's obviously a variety to keep in mind. But there are lots of others that are up to the challenge.

Most huge tomato varieties are indeterminate (plants that grow and fruit all season) slicer or beefsteak types. 'Giant Belgium' produces sweet fruits that average 2 pounds. 'Hillbilly' is an heirloom beefsteak type with pink-and-yellow bicolored fruits that weigh in at 1 to 2 pounds. 'Big Zac' is a hybrid of two heirlooms, and it regularly produces 4-to-6-pound fruits! Then there are the tomatoes that I like to call the "big beefies" ('Beefsteak', 'Italian Giant Beefsteak', 'Watermelon Beefsteak', and 'Beefmaster'), which are all well known for producing heavy fruits.

It's a lot of work to coax your tomatoes into really packing on the pounds. First of all, you'll need to provide the best basic care: full sun, fluffy soil with plenty of organic matter, lots of space between plants, an inch of water per week, and support (stakes or cages). Get the plants into the ground early and protect them with Wall-O-Waters or cloches. Hold off on mulching until the ground warms up and the plants begin to flower. Fertilize every two weeks with a dilute fish emulsion fertilizer (but be careful not to provide too much nitrogen, or you'll get a lot of foliage and few fruits).

Once the plants begin to grow, the real training begins. Allow only one stem to develop, and pluck off suckers (the sprouts that form between branches and the main stem) when they are very young. Remove all but two or three fruits from each plant. It's best to eliminate developing fruits at the top of the vine and leave older fruits at the bottom. Prune off tomatoes that develop farthest from the stem and leave one fruit per cluster. Prevent branches from breaking by supporting the tomatoes with pantyhose slings when they start to get really big. And wish for some good luck. You're going to need it if you want a shot at knocking down that record.

Growing Tomatoes in Idaho

Growing tomatoes in the Pacific Northwest isn't hard but it's not as easy as pie.

The key to successful tomato growing here is to grow a fast growing, early maturing variety. Do not bother buying seed for beef steak tomatoes; they will not ripen before the weather turns cool and rainy in the fall. Instead, either buy starts from local nurseries that always carry varieties suited to your climate or buy your seed from a local seed catalog like Territorial Seed Company. I've also found that Johnny's Selected Seeds offers varieties that are suited to the Northwest climate.

I start my tomato plants from seed on the first of March and grow them under lights in my basement. I start seed in 4" pots and thin to 2 plants per pot in the first week or so.

They're usually ready to be transplanted into gallon cans around April 15th. I plant three plants in my greenhouse--two in the ground and one in a very large pot--proof that tomatoes make a great patio plant too. I plant these on April 15th so they don't every see the gallons.

I plant my outdoor tomatoes two ways. One batch gets planted under a large plastic cloche about May 1st. This cloche can be closed up entirely to keep the plants warm on cold days and nights but can also have it's sides rolled up to keep them from getting too hot on those rare sunny days in May. There are always a couple to tantalize you into thinking summer has come early when it's not so. The plants usually are busting out the top and sides about June 15th and I take the cloche off entirely. Since the cloche is only in use for about 6 weeks I can usually get the plastic to last 4 or 5 seasons before I have to replace it.

The other batch gets planted singly here and there in the garden. I either surround their cages with plastic to keep them warm or if I'm feeling particularly lazy I just wait to plant them on June 1st. By then the weather has warmed enough that the plant's leaves won't turn purple due to the cold. And they seem to do just as well this way. If the plants have gotten pretty big I bury a portion of the stem in the ground when I plant them to give the plant a bigger root system over time.

Favorite Varieties
I've tried all sorts of varieties over my time of growing tomatoes in the NW and my favorites are First Lady, Santiam, Sweet Million (a wonderful cherry tomato), Brandywine (an heirloom variety that has superior flavor) and for the greenhouse I grow Territorial's Greenhouse 761 Hybrid. Every year there are new varieties to try and new types introduced. Find what you like and go for it. Experiment if you have the space. It's not hard to find people who will accept your excess crop.

Seed vs. Starts
I just like to grow things from seed. It's a bit like magic that a huge plant could grow from that tiny seed. But not everyone has the space, time or patience for it. If you're going to buy starts it's much better to buy small plants with good roots than to buy a gallon can with a plant with a few fruit already set. I know that the gallon is really tempting because it has that fruit on it but studies show that plants like that tend to bear less fruit than ones with no fruit. If you insist on buying a large plant at least find one that hasn't set fruit yet. I try to get my plants in the ground before they start blooming and they do pretty well that way.

Cages vs. pruning
People can spend hours arguing the merits of one kind of pruning and trellising versus another. I haven't seen any real difference in the success of my plants using one method versus another--blasphemy! So I made my wood tomato cages and put them over my plants at planting time and let them grow. It's quick. It's easy and I get more tomatoes than I know what to do with. What more could you want?

Mulches etc
Studies have shown that tomatoes do better with red mulch. But until they make a red biodegradable mulch I'm sticking to compost! Feel free to experiment, that's what gardening is all about.

Fertilizer
Tomatoes are heavy feeders. They like fertilizer. I use my universal mix in the bed when I plant outdoors and that's it. In the greenhouse I give them another shot of organic fertilizer mid-summer because of the higher temperatures and the longer season. The plants in the greenhouse get lots bigger than the ones outdoors.

Watering
Tomatoes like to be evenly watered. Don't let them dry out too much and don't overwater them, especially once they have fruit on them. The fruit will split and get moldy which is very sad. I use drip irrigation and water once a week outdoors and for 20 minutes every other day in the greenhouse. If we get an inch of rain in a week I don't water outdoors.

Crop Rotation
As with most crops, it's a good idea to plant your tomatoes in a new location each year. I try to rotate mine so that they don't return to the same location for at least 3 years. I also make sure that it's been at least a couple years since potatoes, who are close cousins, have been grown in the same location.

Pests and Diseases
The biggest problem with tomatoes in the NW is Late Blight. It's the disease that caused the great potato famine in Ireland. It's a soil born fungus-like pathogen. It likes mild temperatures (60 to 80 degrees) and wet conditions so it can be a big problem in a cool wet summer. The pathogens in the soil splash up onto the plants and they rapidly reproduce in cool wet conditions. One week your plants will look fine, the next they'll look at little droopy and the next they will have turned black and slimy. There is no saving the fruit, they rot too--trust me, I've tried salvaging fruit that looked fine when I picked it and in a few days they were mush.

If you have an attack of late blight do not plant either tomatoes or potatoes in that bed the next year. Don't put the dead plants in your compost pile--it takes high temperatures to kill the pathogen and most of us don't don't get our compost hot enough to kill late blight. Put it the trash pr your yard waste barrel.


Happy Tomato Growing This Year

Use These Wood Tomato Cages For Peony Flower Support Also, Great For Large Perennials

These are also great for flower supports. Need or want a custom support? email me anytime. I am affordable and offer free delivery in Boise, Eagle, and Meridian. These are Proudly Made in Idaho.

A New Sturdier Wood Tomato Cage Shape

I did this tomato cage shape for some extra stability for bigger tomato plants. Wire tomato cages lose there tomato plant support power as the plant grows. The wide top and narrow bottom does not offer much support as your plants grow to size. These are wider at the base and will offer extra support as your tomato plants grow larger. These measure 36 inches tall, 17.5 inches wide at the top and 23 inches wide at the base. This style is stackable for easy storage and also has been sprayed with a wood protectant. At $11.00 each a great deal. Email me anytime with your needs. I will also do custom sizes for you and offer free delivery in Boise, Eagle and Meridian.

The Idaho Lady Bug Series Tomato Cages

I did a few tomato cages with lady bugs added to them. A Fun add on. These tomato cages are 32 inches, by 18 inch by 18 inch. Email me anytime to order some for your garden. I made custom sizes and offer free delivery in Boise, Eagle and Meridian.