Watch out for wilt and rot this spring | In Your Patch

And so it goes.

We’re through winter – on paper anyway – and into spring.

It’s an especially busy time of the year in the garden as seed trays filled with zucchini, tomatoes, basil, corn, cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins dominate most back yard growing spaces.

Use the poor person’s hothouse – an upside-down plastic crate, to help those seeds germinate.

Not only do they help to maintain warmer soil and air temperatures, they also protect from harsh wind and rain and the myriad of pests that are just waiting to eat those first particularly succulent, soft shoots as they emerge from the soil.

Hopefully your beds have had a bit of rest time – even a few days is good, between your last winter harvests and the spring planting you’re about to start.

Let’s focus on tomatoes. Make sure you know what variety you have – determinate, semi, or indeterminate.

If your variety is determinate it will grow to a certain size and then stop, producing all of the tomato crop within a few weeks.

Determinates don’t necessarily require a cage or staking, for example the popular Yellow Cherry Patio Choice.

Other determinates may benefit from a tomato cage, like Bush Beefsteak , or Black Russian (we grew in the school garden several years ago – what a bumper crop we got).

Indeterminate tomato varieties continue growing like a vine to an indetermined height, producing a continual harvest for several months or sometimes longer.

They require sound staking or tying and even the store bought tomato cages don’t really cut it. Examples include most of the self-seeding red cherry varieties, and Grosse Lisse.

You can also get semi-determinate, like Roma, but I’d actually class this as an indeterminate as the plants grow tall and still require staking of some sort, and your harvest time, although not as short as determinate varieties that are usually done and dusted within three weeks, is longer.

To pinch or not to pinch?

Well, it’s all about the variety.

Determinate tomatoes produce fruit on every stem so it’s very important not to pinch them out.

Encourage the plant to grow into its natural shorter, wider, bushier shape.

Indeterminate will continue to grow as tall as the season will allow and it is these that do benefit from pinching out.

How to pinch?

It’s actually very simple.

At the intersection of every lateral grower with the vertical stem, you’ll end up with a shoot.

Pinch these out.

It’s better for tomato production, and the fruit is of a higher quality.

There is also less crossing of branches, or branches touching the ground, so more space and air result in less pests and diseases.

My last word on tomatoes – watch for tomato wilt and blossom end rot.

Wilt is easy to identify when your plants have been watered yet continue to wilt.

Note: a tomato plant requires about an inch of water a week, more if in a pot that is prone to drying out and more if the temperature is over thirty degrees for two days running.

Google ‘tomato wilt’ should you be unlucky enough to encounter it, and you’ll find a myriad of potential treatments.

Blossom end rot will see the end of your tomato start to brown off and literally begin to rot, with the affected area getting bigger with each passing day.

Blossom end rot can also affect zucchinis, melons, cucumbers, capsicums, and pumpkins.

The disease is caused by a lack of calcium in developing fruit, exacerbated by fluctuating soil moisture caused by under or overwatering, or high amounts of nitrogen.

Google it for treatment options.

As I suggested last year, if you’re considering growing anything this summer, try a tomato.

There is nothing like the taste of a home-grown tomato – all the more rewarding if it’s come from your own patch (or pot) and is the literal fruit of your labour.

Enjoy our spring beautiful gardening weather.

Terri Sharpe is the Coordinator and Garden Specialist of the Margaret River Primary School Kitchen Garden Program and a Horticultural lecturer at South Regional TAFE.