There are two known ways to grow tomatoes. Both produce great results.

Growing tomatoes in water using aquaponics

Aquaponics is an art! it's about creating a balance between water, fish and edible plants such as tomatoes.

How is it actually done ? How to transplant plants in aquaponics?

The plant is inserted with its root ball directly into the clay balls (called biofilter). It is necessary to leave the compost or the ground around the roots not to break the rootlets which allow the absorption of nutrients. These balls are gradually filled with bacteria essential to plants! these bacteria come from fish waste and are nitrifying, ie they transform nitrates and ammonia into elements that can be used by plants. Also note that it is possible to add these bacteria to accelerate the cycle.

See our article on aquaponics here

The aquaponics system, not to mention that it is easy to create (some people do it in their apartment) you get many benefits from it. You can have fish and vegetables on your plate.

The most common culture, in the ground.

Whether you plant it in an aquaponic system or even in the ground, it is necessary to plant tomatoes deeply because they produce roots, from the stem, which promotes their growth. It is better not to hesitate too much to put it in the ground, covering part of the base stem.

By putting the plant without covering part of the stem, you will not get as many roots as necessary to have the beautiful leafy shrub that would give us a good harvest. We can and should remove some branches so that all the little hairs on the stem can produce several new roots that will allow the plant to take in more nutrients and grow faster and stronger.

It is normal to feel compassion and to try to find the best ways to handle our plants with care. Plants always regenerate and when you remove a branch it's like a little scratch, but it brings tons of benefits because when we want to transfer the plant from the pot to the ground, we want to cover the stem as much.

From pot to soil: useful tips

First, the goal is again to bury the stem as much as possible, and we recommend digging a 5cm hole and transferring the plant with one or two branches previously removed.

A second common doubt concerns the buds or more precisely the epicormic bud. It's those tiny branches with leaves that we see just above a fully formed branch.

Sometimes we might believe that these are not good for the plant, and we want to eliminate them. However, this is actually counterproductive for what we are looking for, which is a broad, leafy plant with a large number of branches that will produce beautiful tomatoes. The reason is that these buds will grow and produce leaves and flowers like any other regular branch, and the result will be a good space in your yard or garden with a tall plant with tons of tomatoes.

The next thing we recommend is a plant stake. This will provide one of two basic things the plant needs: sunlight. When these types of plants grow, they do not produce a strong stem like avocado, for example, or basil. On the contrary, as you may know, the tomato plant will grow close to the ground and will not grow tall like other plants.

The effect of this is that not all plants will receive the same amount of sun, as most of them will be tangled up and covered by the branches and leaves that have grown above, which in the end will produce those branches to dry out and fall off, limiting its potential to produce more tomatoes.

It is quite easy to find the materials needed to make this structure, all you need is 4 or 5 branches or stick stems, 7 to 9 feet long, or you can buy them at any store if you can't find them in the wild. It is not necessary that they are only made of wood, they can be made of iron, wood or metal.

To build this structure, just squeeze them together to create a kind of “hut”. This structure will allow the plant to climb on the stems of different parts allowing it to spread its branches healthily, open its leaves and receive all the energy it needs. Plus, it will look great in your garden.

You can also create like a fence from point A to point B by climbing your tomato plants there. This will have the advantage of facilitating branch opening, light exposure and better disease control – as tomato plants are susceptible to many diseases.

The cold is not always a good friend

Tomato plants are extremely sensitive to multiple factors such as soil quality, water, the amount of sun they may or may not receive, and especially temperature. Cold temperatures will eventually damage your plants.

We recommend waiting until the end of winter after the temperatures rise a little more to guarantee certain temperature-related conditions, for example:

• The soil must remain between 15 and 20 degrees, which is fundamental, since the roots are the most sensitive part of each plant.
• Outside, the temperature cannot drop below 10 degrees. It would mean the end of all our effort and loving care that we give to our plants. We recommend keeping them in a greenhouse if possible to prevent the cold air from harming our plants.

One last recommendation

The soil is also essential, because for our delicate tomato plants the quality of the soil is fundamental, it must be as fertile as possible, so be sure to use good compost. Tomato plants grow best in slightly acidic soils, in fact between 6.2 and 6.8 pH is perfect.

People with aquariums, ponds will be very advantaged, namely that the waste of fish is extremely beneficial to plants, especially tomatoes!