Growing organic tomatoes should be the aim of every backyard gardener.
Why? Because they are healthier for us!
Why has the supply of organically grown vegetables increased over the past decade? We are more concerned about what we put in our mouths these days so we are demanding more naturally grown products! And we think about our health.
Every one we know knows someone who has had or has cancer. We are becoming more aware of toxins and the impact they have on our health. And we are more aware of where the toxins are coming from. So it is a natural reaction to the increasing toxicity of our food that people are looking for more naturally or organically grown fruit and vegetables to limit the toxins which accumulate in our bodies.
Tomatoes are particularly good in this respect. They naturally contain lycopene which is a phytochemical and cancer fighting substance. Diets rich in lycopene have a very low incidence of cancer and heart disease. This is why the Mediterranean diet is becoming so popular in western cultures. Remember the Godfather? He had his patch of tomatoes in the back yard. He knew what was good for him!
So, what is the secret of growing tomatoes organically?? There are two things you need to consider:
- Fertilizer
- Pest and Disease control
Fertilizer
Because the large-scale commercial food producers have large areas to cultivate they use machinery to sow, fertilize and harvest the crop, so it is not practical to use small scale organically produced fertilizers. They use large scale, synthetically produced fertilizers spread by machines or from the air.
This is to our advantage. Because our plots or pots are small scale we can use a range of organically produced fertilizers as nature intended.
So, products like cow manure, chook manure, broken down compost from all your vegetable scraps make excellent organic fertilizer providing all the essential nutrients for your tomatoes. The essential nutrients comprise nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and if you buy a commercial organic fertilizer it will give you the breakdown or ratio of those nutrients in the product so that you can be sure that your tomatoes are getting the nutrients in the right amounts and the right ratio.
Pest and Disease Control
If your plants are strong and well fed they are in a strong position to ward off insect and fungal attack with a healthy immune system. However, just like us, they can succumb to pest and disease attack even with a healthy immune system. So, what are some of the problems you might encounter?
Fungal disease: There are a number of fungal diseases which might strike your tomatoes and these are almost always weather-related. When the weather is warm and humid fungal spores will reproduce and attack your tomatoes.
Some of the fungal diseases are as follows: Early Blight, Late Blight, Grey Leaf Spot, Septoria Leaf Spot and Verticillian Wilt.
