How to Grow Tomatoes From Hybrid Seed
Growing your own tomatoes is not only rewarding, but it can put fresh healthy produce on your table. A healthy set of tomato plants can produce a large yield. Hybrid tomato seeds combine the good attributes of multiple tomato varieties. You can have a larger selection of tomato tastes, colors and sizes by growing hybrid seeds. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Hybrid tomato seed packets
- Till or hand-spade
- Gardening gloves
- Pruning shears
- Water
- Tomato plant fertilizer
- Garden trellis structures
Instructions
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Select a hybrid seed to match your tomato taste preferences. You can ask the gardening store employee about the different ones available for your local area.
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2
Till the soil area to assure all soil clumps are broken with a tiller or hand-spade. Select an area with good drainage. Light soil will produce ripe fruit earlier. Denser, richer soil will produce a higher yield, but the tomatoes will be slower to come in and ripen.
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Plant your hybrid seed tomatoes in late March, after the last frost. Planting your hybrid seed before this can lead to a poor yield of plants. Planting them too much later will result in plants starting to fruit before they have reached full maturity.
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4
Make rows of holes about one to three inches deep in the soil with a gardening trowel or wide dowel. Space the holes about 12 to 18 inches apart. Space the rows about 2 to 3 feet apart. Place 3 to 5 seeds in each hole. Cover the holes, but do not pack the dirt hard.
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Cover the hybrid tomato seedlings in the evenings for the first week or two. This will keep the plants warm at night and protect them from potential surprise frost damage. Remove the covering each morning and set aside to use again that evening.
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Place garden trellis structures next to each of the hybrid tomatoes once they have reached 1 foot or higher in height. Encourage the hybrid tomatoes to grow along the trellis to support the weight of the tomatoes.
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Regularly water the hybrid tomato plants a couple of times weekly. Use a good vegetable plant food once or twice monthly. Remove any excess or single large leaves from the plant as it grows.
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Tips & Warnings
Read the hybrid seed packet and be sure to follow any specific instructions that come with the seed. Some specialty varieties require special care. However, most hybrid seed grows in the same conditions as regular tomato plants.
Select hybrid seeds that produce different flavors and plant a row of each one to enjoy specialties tomatoes.
Tomato seedlings are very sensitive to frost and cold.
Take care to avoid getting the fertilizer on the leaves or flowers to prevent damage to your plants.
