Tips For Growing Potatoes and Tomatoes

Step 1: Tomatoes and Potatoes.

It's late spring, and it's a great time to talk about tomatoes and potatoes. Both plants are part of the Nightshade family and are native to South America.

Step 2: Planting and Harvesting Potatoes.

In order to grow potatoes, you have to hill them with either soil or mulch. The tubers grow above the seed potato, and once you start seeing the flowers, you can begin harvesting them. And you can harvest them throughout the fall in temperate conditions. This year, I purchased organic seed potato from Maine. And in this bed, I've planted a large variety of potatoes, from an all-blue variety to a cranberry red variety. I can't wait to start cooking them up!

Step 3: Harvesting Tomatoes.

A tomato is actually a fruit. A tomato is formed wherever you see a cluster of flowers. Tomato seeds need to be started indoors before the last day of frost and planted in your garden in mid-spring. It can take as little as 65 days to begin harvesting tomatoes in early varieties and as late as 95 days to begin harvest in late tomato varieties.

Step 4: Types of Tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes are some of the best tomatoes you can grow in your garden because they're the tastiest tomatoes you can grow in your garden. Other genetically modified tomatoes aren't bred for taste, they're bred for size or color; whereas, heirloom tomatoes are passed down from generation to generation, where only the best tomatoes get replanted year after year. This heirloom tomato, here, is called "Tiffen Mennonite." It grows into a huge plant that grows one-pound, red tomatoes.

Step 5: Supporting the Tomatoes.

Tomatoes need to be supported while they grow, and you can do that by using one of three different methods. The first is staking. As the plant grows, you attach the tomato plant to the stake with a garden tie. For caging, you can purchase one like this and place it over the tomato plant. The plant will grow through the cage. The last method is with a trellis like this one. As the plant grows, train it through the vertical support.

Step 6: Health Benefits

Some quick facts about tomatoes. Tomatoes get their red color from lycopene. Lycopene is an antioxidant and has been proven to prevent certain types of cancer. Now, if you find red tomatoes a little too acidic, you can grow your own yellow or orange varieties of tomatoes that contain less acid.

I'm Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl. Thanks for watching.