How to Plant Tomatoes in Raised Beds
Growing tomatoes in your garden is both rewarding and healthy. Not only is it fun to watch the tomatoes grow, eating from your own garden allows you to eat fresh foods without chemicals. A raised bed can be an easy way to enjoy garden fresh tomatoes.
Using a raised bed to plant tomatoes in is very beneficial. It is important that you know what to do differently when planting in a raised bed so that you can get the full benefits of using them. Not only are raised beds beneficial to you, they are to your tomatoes as well.
What You’ll Need:
- Stakes
- Mulch
- Hoe
- Starter Fertilizer
- Compost
- Garden Twine
- 5-10-10 Fertilizer
- Use about three pounds of your fertilizer for every 100 square feet of your bed. You will then need to add about three inches of compost and then mix them together thoroughly with the hoe.
- Take off the bottom leaves of your tomato seedlings. Put the tomatoes into your raised bed and plant them about three inches deeper than whatever they were in their nursery pots. You will need to space each tomato about two feet apart in each direction. Be careful not to put any weight onto the bed.
- Put a stake behind each plant. Drive it deep enough where it is in the actual ground. Water your tomatoes after you have planted them. You can then put in the vegetable starter fertilizer into the garden.
- Wait until the tomato is about 10 inches in height and then tie the main stem onto the stake. Do this as the tomato grows every six inches.
- Keep an eye on how moist the plants are. When the top part of your soil is getting dry, moisten them back up. Use mulch as a top layer on your raised bed.