How to Plant "Solar Fire" Tomatoes
“Solar Fire” tomatoes are a hybrid developed to grow in high summer heat that would keep other tomatoes from placing fruit. “Solar Fire” tomatoes also resist cracking in wet climates. They’re resistant to Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt and gray leafspot. The tomato plants grow up to 5 feet tall in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 14. The fruit is medium-sized, weighing about 8 ounces. “Solar Fire” tomatoes can be planted in spring or summer and take 72 days to mature.
Dig or until compost to the top 8 inches of soil before planting. “Solar Fire” strawberries like a slightly acidic or neutral soil, so add peat moss to a alkaline soil or lime into your highly acidic soil to improve the pH. Insert the amendments in late autumn or early spring to give them time to incorporate into the soil. Insert 2 lbs per 100 square feet of 6-24-24 fluid in precisely the exact same time.
Plant the tomatoes in full sun once the soil temperature warms up to above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Space plants 3 feet apart. Stake every plant, or even put it in a tomato cage.
Fertilize each “Solar Fire” plant using a starter tomato soup in the time of planting according to the manufacturer label instructions. Insert a side dressing of a hydrogen peroxide following blooms appear, in a rate of 1/2 pounds of actual nitrogen per 100 feet of row. Insert another side dressing two weeks after the first tomatoes are selected, using a third additional a month after that.
Water tomatoes deeply, with 2 inches of water weekly. Mulch around every plant with 2 to 4 inches of organic mulch to keep soil moist. Do not enable the mulch to touch the plant stem.
Pull weeds should they look during the growing season. The mulch helps suppress weed growth.