1. Sunlight. Tomatoes require a minimum of 8 hours of continuous sunlight each day.

2. Temperature. Tomatoes need 3 to 4 months of warm, clear, fairly dry weather to produce best. Tomatoes need consistent night temperatures between 55°F and 75°F to set fruit. (A few varieties will set fruit at lower or higher temperatures.) Fruit will not color properly when night temperatures stay above 85°F, and plants will quit growing when temperatures go above 95°F.

3. Continuous and even watering. Keep the soil evenly moist--not too wet and not too dry. Too much water will drown the plant; too little water will stop fruit production. Test soil moisture by sticking your finger into the soil--if it comes out dry, it's time to water; if it comes out wet, hold off. During periods of drought deep water tomatoes once a week. A constant, even supply of water can prevent blossom end rot, but too much water will cause it.

Continue reading Tomato Success at the next page:

If you know the average date of the last spring frost in your garden or region, you can make a schedule for starting vegetable crops indoors and get growing weeks before the outdoors temperatures warm. (Check at your local library or the county cooperative extension if you are unsure of the average last frost date.)

Here is a list of vegetables that are commonly started indoors and later transplanted to the garden:

For more articles on seed starting: click to the next page.

The Kitchen Garden Almanac for March: Cool and Cold Regions

The Kitchen Garden Almanac for March: Warm Regions

If you are looking for a vegetable garden calendar of tasks and planting suggestions for the year, here it is:

Vegetable Garden Calendar

And if you are struggling with very cold weather, do not forget the cold frame to get the spring garden started:

Cold Frame Calendar

As well, now is the time to visit the Seed Starting Category for articles on getting your crops growing.

Heavyweight rows covers and garden blankets or quilts are used to protect plants from cold temperatures, chilling winds, and frosts--most often in late autumn, winter, and early spring. Lightweight floating rows covers are used to shield plants from insects and diseases in spring and summer. Shade cloth is used to shade soil and plants in hot summer weather.

Row covers and floating row covers are commonly made form spun bonded polyester or polypropylene fabric--often called horticultural cloth. Heavyweight covers are used to extend the growing season by keeping plants up to 10°F warmer during the day and 2° to 3°F warmer at night. Lightweight covers are used to exclude insects but are thin enough to allow light, water, and air to reach plants.

Row covers can be draped over hoops or frames set above rows of plants (to form protective tunnels) or they can be laid loosely or floated over plants. Medium to heavy weight row covers weighing from 1¼ to 2 ounces per square yard should be partially lifted on hot days and removed as the season advances to prevent plants from overheating.

A cloche can cover a single plant or a small group of plants. You can use a cloche to protect a plant from an overnight frost or chilling winds. Cloches are commonly made of plastic or glass. A gallon milk jug with its bottom cut out can be used as a cloche.

Cloches are not a long-term solution to protecting plants. Because they are small they do not retain enough solar heat to sustain plants when temperatures fall below 40°F for more than a day. Conversely, because a cloche is small and has no venting other than lifting it away from the plant, the temperature inside a cloche can quickly overheat (the smaller the cloche the quicker it will overheat).

In late spring and early fall when the weather and temperatures are unsettled, the daily and nightly use of cloches may keep plants protected enough to add 2 to 4 weeks to your garden's growing season.

A plastic tunnel works much like a cold frame. The temperature inside a clear or opaque plastic tunnel can be heated by the sun 5 to 10 degrees warmer or more than the outdoor temperature during the day. The residual solar heat inside a plastic tunnel can keep plants 2 to 7 degrees warmer than the outdoor temperature at night.

A plastic tunnel can be portable--as small as 3 to 6 feet long, 3 feet wide, and a couple of feet tall, just large enough to grow salad greens--or nearly permanent, 25 feet long or more and tall enough to walk in. A large walk-in plastic tunnel for growing tall crops such as tomatoes is called a hoop house.

Cold frames can vary in size: 3 feet wide by 6 feet long is the size of an average home garden cold frame. The back side of a frame is usually taller (often 18 to 24 inches high) than the front (commonly 8 to 12 inches high) with the clear top sloping down from back to front allowing rain to run off and sunshine to flood in. The taller the frame the taller the plants it will accommodate. A home garden cold frame need be no deeper than a person's reach (24 to 36 inches); this will allow plants to be tended without stepping into the frame.

Wooden-sided frames are can be made of long-lasting wood that has not been chemically treated: well-cured pine, cypress, redwood, or chestnut can be used. The translucent top or lid of the cold frame can be made from a standard window sash--approximately three by six feet. Several sashes can be placed in a row to make a long cold frame. Sheets of Plexiglass or other plastic sheeting also can be framed to create the cold frame lid. The lid or sash is usually hinged to the back side of the frame but an unhinged lid can simply rest on the top of the frame.

• Start cool-temperature spring vegetable seeds and seedlings in late winter.

• Start summer warm-temperature vegetable seeds and seedlings beginning in early- or mid-spring.

• Start fall and winter crops under shade cover (replace the frame's glass or plastic sash with framed shade cloth).

• Protect warm-temperature crops from an early frost before harvest.

• Protect cool-temperature and cold-tolerant crops for harvest through the winter.

• Over-winter cold-tolerant crops started in fall for renewed growth and a spring harvest.

Cold frames can be made of heavy lumber, cinder blocks, concrete, or clear plastic. The transparent top or cover is tilted toward the south or southeast to catch the sun. The back side of the cold frame is commonly six inches or more higher than the front to give a slope to the top cover (or sash) so that rain will run off and the sun's rays will strike the inside of the frame more nearly at right angles.

Cold frames can vary in size: 6 feet long by 3 feet wide is the size of an average home garden cold frame. A small cold frame is commonly no wider than a person's reach so that plants can be tended to without stepping into the frame. A typical cold frame is usually made eighteen to twenty four inches high or deep at the back sloping to twelve to eighteen deep at the front. The deeper the frame the taller the plants it will accommodate.

For most home vegetable gardeners, nearly all the plants in the vegetable garden can be started successfully in a cold frame or hotbed (a hotbed is a heated cold frame--sometimes heated by electricity or solar power or by--in decades and centuries past--decomposing steer or horse manure placed below the inside planting bed).

Soil is too dry. Small seeds sown very near the surface often fail from lack of moisture. They may have enough moisture to germinate, but then the soil becomes so dry that the sprout which is beginning to push out from the seed is dried up. Neglect that would do no harm to seedlings an inch or two high will prove fatal to seeds that are just germinating. Check soil moisture once or twice a day. Keep the soil evenly moist and not too wet. If you are germinating seed indoors keep containers away from excessive heat or drafts. Cover containers with plastic or glass until seeds sprout.

Covered too deeply. Seeds covered too deep may not have the strength to push through to the surface; they are weakened by the struggle. As a general rule sow seeds twice to three times their diameter. Check the proper seeds sowing depth on the seed packet. Tiny or very fine seed can be scattered on a potting or seed starting mix surface and lightly pressed into contact with the mix.

Convenience. Select a spot near at hand, easy and quick to get to. Choose, as you can a spot, close to the kitchen. A garden close by will capture your spare moments for tending and for watching the garden. And a garden close by will be greatly appreciated once you have made a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass.

Exposure. A yield of delicious vegetables is greatly beholden to exposure. Site your garden in an "early" spot--a plot facing or sloping a little to the south or east that seems to catch sunshine early and hold it late--eight hours of sunlight each day is optimal. Make a "sun map" of your yard tracking the sun across the property in the course of a day. Avoid situating your vegetable garden in the shadows of buildings, trees, and fences. Choose a spot that is out of the direct path of chilling north and northeast winds. A building, a fence, or a hedge to the north of your plot can protect your garden from chilling winds. Even low-growing shrubs or young evergreens can protect vulnerable tender vegetables.

Vegetable gardening indoors has most of the same requirements as an outdoor garden: bright light, water, nutrients, and protection from pests and diseases. Since space is likely to be more limited growing crops indoors, choosing quick-maturing crops planted in quick succession is your best strategy; for example, sow a few seeds of leaf lettuce each week and harvest leaves often while they are still young and tender.

Here are tips for growing an indoor vegetable garden:

Crops. Choose compact, miniature, or dwarf varieties of crops and crops that are quick maturing. Small, quick-growing crops will require less space and time to reach harvest.

Click here for list of Dwarf and Miniature Vegetables for Containers.

Click here for a list of Quick-Maturing Vegetable Varieties.

You will have the best success growing indoor crops close to the natural season each crop grows outdoors. Cool-weather crops such as leaf crops and root crops are a good choice for the autumn and winter indoor garden; these crops naturally require less bright light. Warm-weather crops--fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers--require longer days to ripen, so planting these in spring and summer makes sense.

Poke a hole in the bottom of each egg compartment (or egg shell or newspaper cone) and fill with moistened sterile seed starting mix. Use the egg carton lid as a tray beneath the compartments.

Sow two or three seeds in each compartment and just cover them with seed starting mix; the rule of thumb is to cover seeds to a depth of three times their diameter.

Use a clear plastic bag as your seed-starting greenhouse. Place the egg carton in the plastic bag (don't tie the bag--germinating seeds need fresh air) and set it in a warm, light place--on a kitchen countertop or under fluorescent lights. A consistent temperature of about 70 to 75°F is best to ensure quick sprouting. Keep the starting mix just moist until seeds germinate; remove the plastic bag if mold should start to grow.

Planning the work ahead is important. A simple checklist can be used to make sure that everything is started and carried out at the proper time--starting with preparing the ground and the sowing of seeds.

Here is a month-by-month calendar of operations for the vegetable garden. Use this checklist as a timely reminder of things to be done or as the basis for your own check list. Keep your schedule of garden reminders in a Looseleaf notebook with a section for each month. A Looseleaf notebook will allow you to make changes and add information. You can add to and modify this calendar from year to year, and you can post the calendar for the month in the garden or in the garden shed.

JANUARY

Probably one of the good resolutions made with the New Year is a better garden for the coming season. Psychologists say that the only hope for resolutions is to nail them down at the start with an action--that seems to have more effect in making an actual impression on the brain. So start the good work by sending at once for several of the leading seed catalogues.

• Planting Plan. Make out a list of what you are going to want this year, and then make your Planting Plan.

• Seeds. Order your seed. Order now while the seedsman's stock is full and before the spring rush.

• Manures and compost. If you have a place under cover where you can collect manure and compost for the coming season, do it now, or if the weather allows, add these to your garden now. Soil amendments can often be gotten less expensively at this time of year. If possible, add compost and rock phosphate now to allow for several turnings.

• Frames. Even at this season of the year do not fail to air the frames well on warm days. Practically no water will be needed, but if the soil does dry out sufficiently to need it, apply early on a bright morning.

• Onions. It will not be too early, this month, to sow onions for spring transplanting outside. Try Prizetaker, Ailsa Craig, Mammoth Silver-skin, or Gigantic Gibraltar.

• Lettuce. Sow lettuce for spring crop under glass or in frames.

• Fruit. This is a good month to prune grapes, currants, gooseberries and peach trees, to avoid the rush that will come later.

Continue year on next page and see Related Articles: