If you want fresh tomatoes for your table, it's time to get planting. Plant cherry, Roma, standard and beefsteak tomatoes soon to enjoy harvests before summer heat takes hold.

This most popular vegetable likes a sunny spot and a well-prepared bed.

Select stocky, quick-maturing, disease-resistant types, and plant soon so they can grow and produce before it gets hot. Fruit sets when night temperatures are 50 to 70 degrees and days are 60 to 85 degrees. Many slicing tomatoes won't produce when night temperatures rise above 72 degrees and day temperatures hit 92 degrees. Cherry tomatoes may continue fruiting in the heat.

Tomatoes are best in eight hours of sun and in raised beds or rows of well-draining, organically enriched soil that provides abundant nutrients. Plant tomatoes in a different area than the previous year, if possible.

Work 6 to 8 inches of compost into the soil before planting. Add 2 cups (1 pound) of a 15-5-10 or a 13-13-13 fertilizer per 50 square feet. Cottonseed meal, fish meal and molasses are popular organic additives.

Plant tomatoes deeper than they're growing in the nursery pots. Pinch off leaves that will be underground. New roots will develop along the buried stems and help feed and support the eventual extra-heavy plant tops.

Space the plants about 4 feet apart to provide growing room and better air circulation, which will discourage disease. Place heavy-duty cages over young plants so they will have support as they grow. Veteran tomato gardeners often wrap cages with row cover to keep insects and airborne diseases from young plants while allowing water and light to penetrate. Remove the row cover when the plants have grown to the cage tops.

Provide nutrition early: Water the transplants with a diluted seaweed and fish emulsion solution according to the label. Add a tablespoon of molasses per gallon of solution.

A 3- to 4-inch layer of mulch helps to retain soil moisture, reduce weeds, discourage soil-borne diseases, keep fruit clean, keep soil temperatures down when it's hot and enrich the soil as it breaks down. Compost, alfalfa hay and pine needles are suitable mulches.

Keep the soil evenly moist. Dry conditions stress plants; so does soggy dirt. Drip or soaker irrigation systems place water at the root zone and avoid wetting the foliage, which can make it susceptible to disease.

Remove fallen leaves regularly, especially those that appear diseased.

Fertilize when you see the first tiny tomatoes. Continue applications every week or two through the growing season.

Spray the foliage weekly with a diluted seaweed and fish emulsion solution to provide continuous nutrients.

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