Growing Tomatoes if You Always Fail

Tomatoes are tricky in Las Vegas, but they typically don’t die suddenly, to get them to produce well. The idea of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is always a good plan when doing something for the first time or when you move to the desert from a wetter place.

That's the end result we all want...big, home grown tomatoes. These were tomatoes grown near Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan. If they can do it, YOU can do it.

KISS steps for tomato growing:

• Plant in early spring, Feb 15 or later depending on the weather and weather forecasts for the next two weeks. Local tomato transplants are usually okay. Sometimes you can plant early and get away with it and sometimes not. If planting late, pick cherry, grape or yellow pear types. Always use a "determinate" tomato until you want to experiment.

Start with 15 gal nursery container and fill it with potting soil for your first tomatoes. Dont use a smaller container than 15 gal. 

• Select varieties that are known good producers; Champion, Early Girl, Patio, Jet Star, Roma for full sized tomato fruit. For smaller fruit choose cherry tomatoes such as Sweet 100 or grape tomatoes or yellow pear. They are very reliable. Select transplants that are about 6 to 8 inches tall and healthy. Avoid large transplants.

Select small transplants for the container. These transplants have a surface mulch of pine animal bedding around them to keep the soil most but you wont have to have it if planting in the cool spring months.

• Pick a soil mix and not potting soil, compost, or something similar. It should be somewhat heavy and not light weight. Maybe in a couple years you can play around with different soil mixes but not at first.

I am holding Viragrow's Premium Garden Soil Mix. It is mixed about 1/3 compost and 2/3 sand plus some seaweed extract, rock dust and some other goodies. You dont have to use something this full of stuff but having the soil heavy and well drained helps establish transplants and is forgiving if you are not sure of your desert irrigation talents yet.

• Try planting in new, 15 gallon containers first before going to a raised bed until you get the knack of it. Use an established soil mix known for growing tomatoes in the desert in the past for vegetables. Fill the container from the bag and then water it thoroughly so that the soil settles leaving a 1 inch headspace at the top. Locate them on the east side of a wall or building.

This is a five gallon plastic nursery container and it will work but the 15 gallon container is more "forgiving". It holds more soil so it doesn't run out of water as soon and doesn't heat up as fast.

• This next part is a bit tricky. If the soil mix did not have any fertilizer in it, then water with a starter fertilizer mixed in the water used for watering. This can be a small bucket or can.

This is a water soluble fertilizer that can be dissolved in water and watered in the soil just after you plant. Its nitrogen content (the 15 on the left) is lower than the middle number (30) which is phosphorus. When planting transplants or seed it is important to have more phosphorus available to the plants than nitrogen. This helps get their roots off to a good start. The 15 on the right, potassium, is ALWAYS a good idea to have in a fertilizer. ALWAYS.

Fertilizers used for getting transplants and seeds off to a good start are fertilizers like this Arizonas Best Starter Fertilizer. It is a granular fertilizer that is mixed with the soil before planting.

• Plant in this soil when it is moist. The first time you water, use water with a starter fertilizer in it. Use a clean digging device like a garden trowel. Remove the transplant from its container even if it’s a peat pot. If an expandable peat pellet was used with that netting on the outside, slice or cut the netting in several places until it nearly falls apart. Do this even if they tell you, you don’t have to. Plant it at the same depth it was in its old container into its new container and water it in until water comes out the bottom of the container. If there is no container, water it in until its muddy. Do this two more times in the next 24 hours.

• Buy a soil moisture meter used for houseplants. It should cost less than $10. Stick the end in the soil about one inch and water next time when it reads 5. Use that soil moisture meter to tell you when to water until you feel the watering rhythm. If you aren’t sure if its time to water, use the soil moisture meter to tell you.

Soil moisture sensors like this one intended for houseplants will work in our soils but dont last very long. They fall apart after a few times.

• If you applied a fertilizer when you planted the transplant, don’t apply any fertilizer until you see small fruit that formed from the flowers. Then start applying fertilizer, lightly, once a month.

Tomato fruit setting (right) and the flower open and ready for pollination (left).