There’s nothing quite like a homegrown tomato! Store-bought just can’t compare to the exceptional freshness, quality, variety, and, most importantly, taste of a tomato you grow yourself. Raised bed tomato growing makes the whole process, from soil to table, convenient and easy for the home gardener.
Why Raised Beds
Raised bed gardening offers several advantages over growing in the ground; these include:
- Improved soil conditions
- Earlier planting
- Easier maintenance
- Decreased garden pests
- Higher crop yield
Preparing Raised Beds
Growing vegetables in a raised bed are essentially the same as growing vegetables in any container, and did you know that high-quality soil packed with compost and rich in nutrients is your best choice for a raised bed garden?
International Garden Center can recommend the perfect power-packed soil and compost that feeds the soil, which will, in turn, feed your tomatoes!
Don’t forget the fertilizer! At planting time and regularly, apply an organic fertilizer recommended for vegetables. This will ensure your tomatoes get everything they need to grow and fruit to their full potential.
You can grow the best vegetables ever this year! With the help of International Garden Center, you are guaranteed the best seeds, vegetable starter plants, soil, compost, and plant food available anywhere, making it possible for even the newest gardener to obtain outstanding results.
Tomatoes for Raised Beds
When selecting tomatoes for a raised bed garden, we recommend looking for bush and tumbling varieties. These designations should be listed on your plant tags, or we are happy to help you with your tomato selection beyond the list provided in this article.
Bush tomatoes are compact-growing, non-vining tomatoes that economize on the limited space that a raised bed garden offers. Bush tomatoes also require less care than their tall vining partners as there is no need to prune them, and they are easily supported with a standard tomato cage. Bush-style tomatoes are perfect for slicing to use on sandwiches.
- Better Bush
A medium-sized tomato with a great flavor, borne on a vigorous, bushy plant.
- Celebrity
A flavorful, medium to large-sized fruit, perfect for slicing on a 3 to 4 feet high plant.
- Patio
A small but very productive, compact plant, about 2 feet high, with smaller, yet tasty, fruit to match.
- Roma
A well-known and highly prized sauce tomato, Roma is a pear-shaped Italian-style tomato. Roma is less juicy than other tomatoes making it perfect for freezing too!
- Rutgers
Rutgers is a very productive heirloom tomato known for its large, red, super-tasty fruit.
Tumbling tomatoes, also called cascading tomatoes, are vining varieties, usually cherry or grape style, and make the perfect addition to a raised bed tomato garden. Plant this type of tomato along the edge of the bed, allowing it to tumble or cascade over the side for easy access to the fruit. No need to stake!
- Juliet Roma Grape
A very sweet, grape-shaped variety, great for summer kabobs.
- Black Cherry
Round, dark, and flavorful, perfect for snacking right off the vine.
- Sun Sugar Yellow
Super sweet, orange-colored tomato on a heavily producing plant, Sun Sugar Yellow tomatoes will sweeten your summer salads.
- Super Sweet 100
This tomato’s claim to fame is its high sugar content, which creates its unsurpassable sweetness.
- Tumbling Tom Yellow
Perfect for containers, hanging baskets, and raised bed gardens, small, yellow, delicious fruits are abundant on this tiny tumbler.
Planting in Raised Beds
Tomatoes, even bush type, should be planted deep by burying about two-thirds of the plant’s stem with the first leaves just above ground level, meaning all leaves below the soil level should be removed at planting time. If tomato plants become leggy before being set in the ground, they may be planted horizontally as roots will continue to develop on the buried stem.
Ongoing Care in Raised Beds
Water and fertilize at planting time and adhere to a regular schedule for both. A well-adhered-to-watering schedule or routine will ensure a good fruit set, a high yield, and avoid blossom end rot disease.
In addition to fertilizing at planting time, established tomato plants should be fed every 4-6 weeks through the growing season. Nutrients can be leached from the soil due to excessive rainfall and regular watering. Fertilizing with the correct product will feed your plants all the macro & micro-nutrients they need, including calcium, to prevent a common tomato problem called blossom end rot.
Growing in a raised bed makes getting quality tomatoes to your table a whole lot easier, giving you more time in the summer to enjoy a good tomato sandwich, and International Garden Center is here to provide all the information and products necessary to make your summer tomato dreams come true.
