Proper Technique for Tomato Soil Preparation

Tomato Soil Preparation: One of the crops that taste amazingly good when eaten shortly after harvest is the tomato.  If you have ever eaten one that has been vine-ripened, you will know that grocery-bought tomatoes fall miles short.  For this reason, many home vegetable gardeners choose to set aside space for growing their own tomatoes.  Proper tomato soil preparation is necessary to ensure that your garden produces plump and healthy tomatoes.
The steps you need to do for tomato soil preparation in your vegetable garden depends on several things: first, you will need to decide what types of tomatoes you wish to grow, and what type of soil you already have in the garden.  If your garden soil is hard and clay-like, tomato soil preparation is bound to be a longer and more labor-intensive process.  On the other hand, if you have topsoil that is already rich and aerated, expect your tomato soil preparation efforts to require lighter work.
Generally, tomatoes of all varieties require rich, loose soil so that their roots can quickly grow.  This is important because the flavour and the juiciness of your tomatoes depend on the amount of nutrients that tomato plants can extract from the soil.  Tomato plants prefer a neutral pH balance, something in the range of 6.5 to 7.0.  You can check whether you have the right pH balance by using one of the relatively inexpensive soil ph testers available in most gardening supplies stores.

Tomato Soil Preparation for Clay-like Soil

If your garden soil is hard and clay-like, you will need to dig it out so that you can break it up and aerate it as you go.  A high concentration on clay makes it crack and dry easily.  Mix in some mature compost, manure and either peat moss or coconut fiber to help the soil with water retention and improve its nutrition.  It would be best to use a double digging technique:  dig up a deep trench about one foot wide and one foot down, then loosen the next foot of soil all throughout the garden area.

Tomato Soil Preparation for Sandy Soil

The main problem with sandy soil is that it cannot retain water long enough for the plants to access.   Add some organic matter like mature compost and peat moss to sandy soil; this will provide nutrients to the soil and help it to retain moisture longer.

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Tomato Soil Preparation for Low pH Soils

To decrease the acidity of low pH soil, add some line or wood ashes in addition to mature compost.  If your soil is highly acidic, mix in some peat moss ad elemental sulphur as you dig for best tomato soil preparation.

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