Join the club Shwetagard...But i must warn you it CAN be addicting, you can feel mood swings and so on.Well thats what happened to me any way and im new to growing tomatoes as well.

Ok first of all raised beds are better. Depending on Determinate or indeterminate then spacing and room will differ.

Determinate= The plant will grow to approx 4feet high and produce all its fruit at once(needs caging, should not be suckerd as it will reduce fruit and should not be pruned)

Indeterminate= can be grown into a vine by pinching suckers and pruning,produces fruit until last frost and can grow very high.

You should add some compost to your soil and if you can organic fertilizer with a ton of calcium to avoid blossom end rot.

I recomend growing tomatoes from seedlings for the first time but make sure they are virus free.

Not sure what your climate is like so cant help much about that.

But as i said you buy one plant...the next day you will have 3 more...buy 3 more youll have 6 more and so on its very very addicting, Plus i got depressed when i saw my tomato plant had tomato leaf curl virus.

Good luck.

WELCOME!

Growing tomatoes is a lot of fun and even more fun if the plants preform well.

GET A SOIL TEST... there is no way to know what your soil needs without a test. Your county will be able to assist you finding a professional testing source, usually a state university.

The test gives the Ph, other soil components and the amount of fertilizer needed.

You will hear a lot about adding compost.

The compost you buy in bags is poor and tends to be full of saw dust and larger wood particles.

Adding organic matter can cause problems like changing the Ph.

The best way to start is with a soil test and go with the results.

You can add some peat moss which lowers Ph (slightly) before the soil test.
Peat helps with moisture and air in the soil and can be purchased in 3.8 cu foot plastic containers for about 12 bucks.

I like organic fertilizer and use Tomato Tone with directions on the bag.

Too much fertilizer is more harmful than not enough.

Good luck,

John

I suggest you go to a garden center on sat. and ask customers if they grow tomatoes. tom growers love to brag about their tom growing skills. another is to call the agriculture extension office and ask for pamplets on growing toms. you might ask for the phone number of a master gardner, who will give you more info than you need.
Good luck Bill

I would suggest you consider using containers until you've had sufficient time to pick thru these pages of posts and gleen out the info you need to make your garden the best you can. There is enough information here to get anyone thru Tomato-ology 101, 102, 201, and 202. And you can come here at any time with specific questions about YOUR garden plot. There's a large contingent of PNW folks here who can help with plant selections and other things specific to your weather and locale.

Any tomato can easily be grown in containers of the 10 gallon (and larger) sizes. Many folks use 5 gallon buckets and smaller containers (although watering becomes a steady job the smaller you go). As an example, this year, I grew Husky Bush cherry (Small 3 foot tall rugose vines), Giant Tree (Large 12 foot tall Potato leaf plant), and a couple dozen others in between. I have a problem with high levels of "jugleone" in the native soil at my location. Jugleone is something that Walnut Trees and a few other trees produce to prevent other plants from growing nearby to them. I didn't know that until after I had built concrete and brick beds and then found out that my "Bitter Hickory" trees were poisoning the soil. Thus,
I became Container Ted. The above advice is good - have your soil checked. Most county extension offices offer the service for a small fee.

So, with a storage tub or a large planter, you can get a bag or two of a good Potting MIX and some liquid fertilizer and you can be growing tom's while you're not wasting money on things that may not work because you were rushed and made decisions based on incomplete info. It takes time to properly prepare raised beds and/or supplement native soil. pH values, drainage, composting, and the list can get long. Take the pressure off the clock and go with containers for at least the first year.

Have you heard of "Earth-tainers"? They're self watering containers you can easily build and the production from them is something to behold. There's several variations on the design of these and the plans are free. Best of all, the cost of building them isn't much. Couple of storage tubs, some PVC, and some landscape fabric and you're there. There's a lot of folks going to containers for tomatoes, corn, peppers, lettuce, and the list goes on. I even did some Red Pontiac Potatoes this year. And when you get to the end of the season, and old man Frost is coming early, you can move them inside the garage overnight and extend your growing season.

I guess my bottom line is, "just don't get in too much of a hurry." Look around, ask questions, and feel the love out here. You'll find no lack of folks wanting to help or to advise.

Take care.

Ted - who, now, does not have a jugleone problem.

:>)

regarding the soil test...can the landscape guy tell me anything about it.Also what is the best place to get the seedling I dont want to go cheap and regret later.
thanks for all the help

I wouldn't put too much faith in a landscaper--stick with your local county extension agent. If you go to the PNW garden forum folks over there can tell about the general soil characteristics of your area. Don't start adding a bunch of stuff, except good quality compost.
As far as seedlings---you could get some hybrids from one of the big box stores or better yet go to a local garden center and pick from a better selection of hybrids and heirlooms.
I perfer planting from seed and recommend giving that a try at least. You can easily find out how to start seeds if you use gardenweb's search function.
Make sure to pick a spot that gets full sun.

Pete

I hope you don't mind but I am going to link you to some great past discussions to review for even more info. Be sure to browse through the one called "If you had to teach a Newbee one thing about growing tomatoes" as it is full of tips.

You'll also find the FAQ on how to grow plants from seed, how to prune, how to make more tomato plants from cuttings from one plant, etc. Hope it is of help.

As to soil test - I agree, go with a professional test. Local extensions usually charge something in the range of $10.00. Seedlings (transplants) are available many places depending on what the planting time in Seattle is next spring. Spend the winter finding local plant nurserys for spring buying.

Good luck and enjoy your tomato plants! ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: New to growing tomatoes discussions...

Shwetagarg
Excellent advice all ready posted here. Dave's suggestion to review links here will benefit you a bunch. In Seattle you have several excellent garden choices. Try Molbaks if you get into Woodinville or City Gardens on Madison street uptown. If you get near the airport a trip to Furneys is time well spent. Two years ago I know Furneys was selling heirloom tomato plants. If you have access to a pickup you can haul excellent compost and/or soil & compost mixes from Cedar Grove Composting in Maple Valley. The people here and at the local nurserys can get you started and provide ideas that fit the local climate. Good Luck,
Len

I followed some old wisdom about adding crushed eggshells to my compost/planting holes for the tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot... the eggshells provide calcium. I don't know if that's what did it, but I didn't lose a single tomato to BER!

Lori

I followed some old wisdom about adding crushed eggshells to my compost/planting holes for the tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot... the eggshells provide calcium. I don't know if that's what did it, but I didn't lose a single tomato to BER!

*****

Lori, the problem with BER, see the article in the FAQ's at the top of this first page, is not one of uptake from the soil, rather, maldistribution within the plant.

And there are many ways in which BER is encouraged to develop ( see the FAQ article)

And a plant that has fruits with BER one year may not have it the next year, same variety.

So while the old advice was to add calcium, in one form or another, that was before it was discovered that uptake is not the problem. There are two exceptions. One is if the soil has NO Ca++, which is exceedlingly rare, and the other is growing tomatoes in soils that are very acidic which binds up the Ca++, but that can be reversed by bringing the soil to a more normal pH.

I had absolutely no BER on any of the fruits on the plants that I grew this year, and no extra Ca++ was added either. ( smile)

Carolyn

Lori, I goofed. LOL

This is NOT the message site where a BER article is in the FAQ's, but I think I've written enough for you to understand the essence of the BER situation.

Any other questions about BER please just ask or go to the bottom of this first page and enter BER in the search box and a slew of threads will pop up.

Carolyn

Tomato Happy said:
"But as i said you buy one plant...the next day you will have 3 more...buy 3 more youll have 6 more and so on its very very addicting"

LOL. LOL. LOL!!
A month ago I was swearing that I was only going to grow 15 varieties next year. Now, I'm DEFINITELY stopping at 30. Well, 38, if I absolutely have to count the dwarfs and those that are likely to stay under two feet tall.

Every time I break out my tomato planning spreadsheet I feel like King Midas with a hoard of treasure. Sometimes I sort my seed list by color, sometimes by type, sometimes by DTM, sometimes by...well you get the idea.

I had no idea that I was starting down the slippery slope last year when I FINALLY got that one or two purchased starts of determinate plants would never provide enough tomatoes for this Italian/vegetarian household. I added just a few grown-from-seed varieties to the mix, but one of them was a true 50+ year old heirloom and that's the one that got me hooked.

I learned three important things over the course of the growing season:

(1) It's very easy to grow different varieties of tomatoes from seed, particularly if they are going into containers.
(2) Wowza, was that big indeterminate heirloom tasty!
and
(3) You can never have too many tomatoes. They freeze easily and a few popped into a recipe later make it ten times zingier than any can of Hunts or Del Monte ever could.

So yes, very, very addicting about sums it up. But Of all the possible addictions a person could have, tomatoes have to be the healthiest, so welcome to the club.
j.