Days to Maturity
Choose tomato varieties that mature in 68 days or less. These produce more tomatoes in our growing season. Tomato varieties named Early Girl, Celebrity and Heatwave do well in Oracle.

Heat Resistance
The pollen of most tomato plants becomes sterile at 90° F and tomato production often ceases during hot periods such as the last half of June. Pollen of the Tomato variety Heatwave, however, remains fertile up to 95° F and the plant sets fruit over a longer period of time in Oracle. Avoid varieties such as "black" Russian tomatoes that are not well adapted to our hot, dry desert climate and thereby produce few tomatoes

Disease Resistance
Tomato tags have a sequence of capital letters after the variety name such as VFNTA. Each letter stands for resistance to a different disease or pest. V = verticillium wilt, F = Fusarium wilt, N = nematodes, T = tobacco mosaic virus, A = alternaria stem rot canker. The greater the disease resistance, the better.

Determinate and Indeterminate
Determinate tomato plants grow to a certain size and then quit growing. Celebrity and Heatwave are determinate varieties. Indeterminate plants are true vines and continue to grow. If they go dormant during the hottest months, prune them back by one-third in the fall, and this will provoke new vigor and result in another crop until frost. Early Girl is an indeterminate.

Fighting Insects and Pests
Organic gardening is gardening as it was done up to 1940 when there were no synthetic pesticides. Avoiding pesticides means using companion plants, beneficial insects and proper growing techniques to fight pests and improve crop yields. A problem with pesticides is that they kill beneficial insects and pests alike and may leave undesirable residues in your food.

Organic gardening also means being able to recognize pest and beneficial insects and their larvae. Several books on the Recommended Books page have drawings and pictures of these insects.

Companion Plant Techniques
Good companion plants may (1) give off an aroma that drives selected pests away; (2) attract beneficial insects that prey upon pests; (3) provide a chemical presence in the soil through their roots that improves the growth or flavor of fruit on another plant; or (4) provide shade or support to other plants.
For example: Cosmos and Tansy attract ladybugs, garlic repels aphids, basil improves the flavor of tomatoes growing on the vine and corn stalks can provide support for bean vines.

Some plants make bad companions because (1) their roots produce a chemical in the soil that stunts or harms other plants, or (2) they vigorously compete for the same nutrients. Fennel, for example, is disliked by most plants; potatoes take up the same nutrients as tomatoes.

Plant Placement
When all plants of a given species are planted in the same place, pest insects have an easy time finding them and making a general feast of the neighborhood. This is called mono-cropping and should be avoided in the vegetable garden.
To confuse pest insects, place a variety of plant species throughout the garden in seeming random fashion. It will not be truly random, because we must know which plants go well together and which plants do not. Placing plants in a garden is almost like seating guests at a dinner table.
The companion plants we place in a vegetable garden will either have aromas that drive pests away or have flowers that attract beneficial insects.

Soil Acidity
Tomato plants are tolerant and accept soil pH between 5.5 (acidic) and 7.5 (slightly alkaline). Oracle soil is usually pH 7 (neutral). Composted mulch provides the best long-term soil acidification when necessary.
Soil sulfur (powder) can be worked into the soil to adjust acidity but takes several months to work. A second method is to add two tablespoons of natural apple cider vinegar to one gallon of water when watering the plant. The brown instead of clear vinegar adds a few trace minerals to the soil, but standard vinegar is fine also. Finally, cocoa hulls or coffee grounds can be used as a mulch that will acidify the soil over time.
Avoid ammonium sulfate to acidify the soil because this is a high nitrogen fertilizer. Tomato plants grown in high nitrogen soils tend to be all foliage and no tomatoes.

Periodic Fertilization
Use a bagged garden soil mix (for vegetables, not flowers) that has built-in slow release fertilizer. Spread it evenly on top of the raised garden bed to a depth of 2"-3" and water through it.
Or, spray foliage and soil with a commercially made 18-18-21 fertilizer. Follow directions on the package for dilution and frequency. Start the first day the seeds or transplants have been put into the garden bed.
Do not use spray-on fertilizer and soil with built-in fertilizer together.

Good Companions
Surround tomatoes with companion plants that ward off pests and attract beneficial insects. Basil and marigold are great companions for tomatoes. The aroma of basil repels aphids, caterpillars, moths and hornworms. Marigold repels aphids, caterpillars, moths, grasshoppers and whiteflies, and attracts hoverflies and other beneficial insects. Geranium in containers is said to repel leafhoppers. Other good companions of tomatoes include asparagus, corn, nasturtiums, peas, sage and sunflowers.

Bad Companions
Some plants do harm to tomatoes and should not be grown in their vicinity. Pole bean, dill, fennel and potato are bad companions.

Rotation
Tomato plants should be rotated yearly. No garden bed should have tomato family members (tomato, eggplant, pepper, potato, tomatillo, petunia) more then one year in four. That is, three years should pass without tomato family members before a given garden bed sees tomato plants again. This will prevent the accumulation of diseases in the soil that attack nightshade family members.

Preventing Cutworm Damage
Cutworms can eat into a stem and cause the tomato plant to fall over. To prevent this, surround the stem with a cardboard tube or a half-height, bottomless, thin-plastic cup pushed into the soil about one-half inch. Cutworms cannot climb over.

Shade
Provide 50% shade for tomato plants all day or full afternoon shade in Arizona. White plastic lattice or sun shade cloth can be used. This will discourage leafhoppers, which carry the Curly Top virus, from visiting your plants, reduce overheating and water loss, and reduce sun scald.

Supports
While tomato cages provide traditional support for plants, high winds in Oracle can cause stems and leaves to shred against the wire. One solution is to attach string to wooden stakes, replacing the wire. Another is to lay indeterminate plants on a horizontal trellis one foot off the ground to avoid the wind.

Suckers
The non-flower-bearing branches of a tomato plant that grow in the crotch between the main stem and the flower-bearing stems are called suckers. Some east coast authors recommend removing them. Do not do so. In Arizona, the extra leaves are needed to shade the tomatoes from sun scald and to provide added nourishment to the roots.

Grow tomatillos like tomatoes except use somewhat less water. Periodic fertilization is unnecessary. Avoid bagged garden soils with built-in fertilizers. Do not rotate into a garden bed where a legume has been growing because tomatillos do not like high nitrogen soils. The fruits are ripe when the husk splits or when the husk is well filled out and the fruit begins to soften.

While many insects can be repelled by aromatic plants, mealybugs, thrips and whiteflies can only be handled by beneficial insects. Try to have some of these flowers blooming the entire growing season to attract the good guys:

• Calendula - blooms summer to fall
• Chamomile - blooms late spring to summer
• Coreopsis tinctoria - blooms summer to fall
• Limnanthes douglasii - Poached Egg Plant - late spring to summer
• Nasturtium - blooms late spring to summer
• Viola Tricolor - blooms in spring

Upward-Curled Sides of Leaves
This is the Curly Top virus spread by leafhopper insects. The plant will eventually die and the tomatoes will taste bad. Leafhoppers like full sun, not shade, so put tomatoes in part shade to reduce the probability of infection. The use of geraniums in containers next to the tomato plant may also repel leafhoppers. If a plant does show signs of the disease, pull it up. Do not place it or the tomatoes on the compost pile because the compost will then spread the virus. This disease is common in Western North America and affects many species of plants. There is no treatment.

Tomato Fruits Ripen Too Small
It takes a certain amount of leaf area and root length to produce each tomato fruit. Some gardeners pinch off all blossoms appearing before June or July in order to give the plant more time to develop roots and leaves. If the number of tomatoes on the plant exceeds the root structure to support them, some will be too small. Cut back on the number of fruits allowed to develop at one time if some tomatoes ripen when too small.

All Foliage, No Fruit
There are two causes of this condition. (1) The plant may have been given too much nitrogen. Vegetable fertilizers are usually 10-10-10 or 18-18-21. Avoid fertilizers where the first number (nitrogen) is greater than the second number (phosphorous). Another possibility is that ammonium sulfate has been used to acidify the soil. Ammonium sulfate is a high nitrogen fertilizer and should not be used with tomatoes.
(2) Blossom drop before pollination may be caused by temperatures below 55° F or above 90° F. Also, there may be no pollinator, or blossoms may be knocked off by high winds or heavy rain. Pollination by hand is easy. Just tap the top of the blossoms gently and they will self-pollinate.

Yellow Shoulders on Fruit
Tomatoes with yellow shoulders or patches may also have a green area inside the yellow. This condition is caused by too much direct sun and/or heat. Some tomato varieties are more affected than others. It happens less often in acidic soils. One solution is to have the tomato plant in 50% shade the entire day or full afternoon shade. Another solution is to create an opaque cover for each tomato fruit not fully shaded by leaves. The cover must keep out grasshoppers. Tomato fruits do not need sun exposure to ripen.

Large Whitish Spot on Fruit
The whitish spot is called Sun Scald. Sometimes there will be a smaller center of wrinkled skin inside the whitish spot. This condition is caused by too much direct sun. The best solution is to have the tomato plant in 50% shade the entire day or full afternoon shade.

Dark Brown Spot on Bottom
A dark brown spot on the bottom of a tomato is called Blossom End Rot. It is caused by a calcium deficiency due to inconsistent watering. Water every day at the same time with the same amount of water. Be sure to mulch the soil around the plant to retain moisture. This is not due to a calcium deficiency in the soil but rather a problem with the transport of calcium within the plant.

Split Skin and/or Scarring
Split skins and scarring are caused by irregular water amounts - too much water, then too little, then just enough, etc. Be sure to account for rainfall when watering, and know how much water the plants are getting every day. An increase in daytime temperature can cause tomatoes to grow faster resulting in higher water needs.

Tomatoes Do Not Turn Red
This is caused by overwatering. Keep watering at the same time every day, but reduce the amount. The top one inch of soil should be dry 24 hours later.

Yellow Leaves
A lack of nitrogen produces yellowing leaves starting from the bottom. The long term solution is to have plenty of organic matter such as composted mulch and composted manure in the soil. Use of a standard vegetable fertilizer should prevent this problem.

Purple-Reddish Leaves
Insufficient phosphorous results in reddish-purple stems and leaves. Use of a standard vegetable fertilizer should prevent this.

Stunted Tomato Plants, Slow Growth
A potassium deficiency causes slow growth, stunted plants, crinkled new leaves, pale older leaves and bronze spots near large veins. Use of a standard vegetable fertilizer should prevent this.