Growing Big Beef Tomato

Big Beef Tomato,lycopersicon esculentum is a very heavy producer and produces some great slicing tomatoes. These delicious heavy producers have a flavor similar to the Brandywine heirloom yet yields a lot more per plant and are disease resistant. The Big Beef is also a vigorous grower in many areas, which go as far south as Texas and North as Nova Scotia.

big beef tomato Planting Time

The Big Beef takes from 80 to 85 days after you sew the seeds before you harvest. It's always best to start the plant indoors if you live in a northern area. Normally, the seedlings are planted outside after the last chance of frost. There are so many varieties, some of which are heirloom, select one that is best in your area.

Planting Instructions

If you started the plants indoors, you simply dig a hole large enough to bury the plant up to the leaves. If your seedling is large enough, pinch off the lower two leaves and bury it up to the next set of leaves. The plant grows additional roots from the area where you pinched off the leaves. This gives you bigger and stronger plants and healthier fruit.

Space the plants 36 to 48 inches apart. They get 3 to 6 feet and so you'll need to stake or cage them. Plant the tomatoes in full sun, which means they get at least 6 hours of direct full sun each day.

The soil needs to be well drained. The best soil for these types of tomatoes contains compost and is rich in organic material. About a week to two weeks before you plan to put the plants into the soil, work in about 2 to 5 inches of compost or aged manure.

You need to keep the soil moist but not wet. Unless your area is extremely arid, the plants normally require about an inch of water each week. Mulch around the plant with at least three inches to help the plant maintain soil moisture and keep the weeds from setting in around its base.

growing big beef tomato in Containers

You can grow the tomatoes in five gallon buckets or other large containers. Make sure you have drainage out the bottom of the container, fill it with a layer of pebbles and then fill the rest of the container with potting soil.

Use the instructions for planting the Big Beef tomato plant listed above. The biggest difference in container gardening is that you need to keep the soil watered more frequently and fertilize a little more often.

Fertilizer big beef tomatoes

A spoon full of Epsom's salt is great for the tomato plants. Use a vegetable fertilizer or make your own tea from manure or fish. If you composted the area thoroughly, you won't need to fertilize until the plants being to bear fruit and not then if you continuously mulch the area with a composting material. Diseases and Pests.

Big beef tomato plants are resistant to fusarium wilt verticuillium wilt, root nematodes and tobacco mosaic. Check the plants carefully for the hornworm, the larvae of the sphinx moth. You can find natural predators. One is the wasp that lays eggs on the hornworm. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the worm alive. It's a little gruesome but it does keep them under control. If you find a hornworm that looks like it has rice on it's back, it's under attack.

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