Soil for Growing Tomatoes

There are a number of tomato cultivars (plants that have been grown only under cultivation according to Webster’s Dictionary). It is helpful to check with the nursery store to find out which cultivar does best in a specific region. Cultivars ripen in different numbers of growing days. There are also determinate (plants that are predicted to grow to a certain height and then stop) and indeterminate (plants which grow all season) tomato plants. Many gardeners find it helpful to purchase a variety of kinds.

No matter which cultivar or kind of tomato is planted, most thrive with similar soil. Tomatoes grown in a container usually lose calcium from watering, so calcium then needs to be added.

It is easy to mix the soil for the container with exact measurements of the ingredients. These ingredients might include potting soil, perlite, mulch, peat moss, and compost. In most cases it is best not to dig up soil from the ground for it may contain soil pests. It is better to make your own as indicated above. If you have black walnut trees you may have difficulty with the soil for the black walnut root systems gives off a toxic juglone which will make the tomatoes wilt. A solution is to cut down the walnut tree or to use container gardening with specially prepared soil. For fertilizing, it is probably best to use a slow releasing fertilizer for nutrients throughout the growing season. Watering the soil should be done with restraint, with the soil in containers needing more water than
tomatoes planted into ground in the garden. The soil in the garden also needs mulch and although tomatoes grow in a variety of kinds of soil the well-drained, loamy soil that has nutrients is the best.