Growing Cherry Tomatoes

You will be surprised that growing tomatoes are really easy. This is my first time growing vegetable fruit at home. We bought cherry tomatoes from the supermarket and planted its seed. The picture above is its first fruits.

General Information

Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil Type: Loamy
Soil pH: Acidic

Care

Water generously for the first few days.
Water well throughout growing season, about 2 inches per week during the summer. Keep watering consistent!
To grow really strong tomato plants, we recommend burying two-thirds of the plant’s stem when planting. This crucial step will allow them to sprout roots along the buried stem, so your plant will be stronger and better able to find water in drought. Please note that this deep-planting method only works with tomatoes (and tomatillos), not other veggies
Mulch five weeks after transplanting to retain moisture.
To help tomatoes through periods of drought, find some flat rocks and place one next to each plant. The rocks pull up water from under the ground and keep it from evaporating into the atmosphere.
Fertilize two weeks prior to first picking and again two weeks after first picking.
If using stakes, prune plants by pinching off suckers so that only a couple stems are growing per stake.
Practice crop rotation from year to year to prevent diseases that may have over wintered.

Harvest/Storage

Leave your tomatoes on the vine as long as possible. If any fall off before they appear ripe, place them in a paper bag with the stem up and store them in a cool, dark place.
Never place tomatoes on a sunny windowsill to ripen; they may rot before they are ripe!
The perfect tomato for picking will be firm and very red in color, regardless of size, with perhaps some yellow remaining around the stem. A ripe tomato will be only slightly soft.
If your tomato plant still has fruit when the first hard frost threatens, pull up the entire plant and hang it upside down in the basement or garage. Pick tomatoes as they redden.
Never refrigerate fresh tomatoes. Doing so spoils the flavor and texture that make up that garden tomato taste.
To freeze, core fresh unblemished tomatoes and place them whole in freezer bags or containers. Seal, label, and freeze. The skins will slip off when they defrost.

Problems Encountered

Blooms or flowers dying and falling off

"Blossom-Drop" is a condition suffered by tomatoes, peppers, snap beans, and some other fruiting vegetables where the plant blooms but fails to set fruit, the blooms die and fall off. It may be caused by the use of excess nitrogen fertilizers or dry windy conditions, but the most common cause is temperature extremes. Tomatoes, peppers and beans are especially picky about the air temps when it comes time to set fruit. If the night temps fall below 55 or rise above 75 or if the day temps are above 90, the pollen becomes tacky and non-viable. Pollination cannot occur. If the bloom isn't pollinated, the bloom dies and falls off.
Water the plants deeply once a week, mulch heavily to maintain constant soil moisture levels, establish windbreaks as needed, avoid using excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers, and wait for temperatures to moderate and stabilize. Earlier timed planting can help attain fruit set prior to the on-set of high temps, and the use of protection can compensate for cool nights. Some recommend attempting hand-pollination with an artist brush or a gentle shaking of the plant/cage/support prior to the hottest part of the day will also help. Fruit set will resume when temperatures moderate. Hormone sprays, such as "Blossom Set", may prevent some blossom drop due to LOW temperatures. However, the resulting fruit are often misshapen. But studies prove that hormone sprays do not prevent blossom drop due to HIGH temperatures.

Spiral designs, sticky dew and white tiny eggs on leaves

These are usually caused by whiteflies or aphids. They attack plants by feeding on the sap, causing yellowing, or even death of the plant if it is heavily infested. Whiteflies congregate on the undersides of leaves, where they also lay their eggs. They multiply quickly, so it is essential to get them under control as fast as possible. A homemade insecticide for whiteflies can be helpful to get them under control and out of your garden.
Simple recipe for an insecticide spray for whiteflies: First, make a base mixture : with 1 tablespoon of regular dish soap (not one with added bleach or an antibacterial soap) and 1 cup of vegetable oil. Pour it into a bottle that can be sealed, and shake well to mix. This base recipe must be diluted before using it on your plants. Now that you have your base, you can mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of it into a cup of water. Mix this in a spray bottle, and shake it well. Oil and water do not mix, so it needs to be shaken often as you are using it.
Once your spray is properly diluted and mixed, you can spray your affected plants. Be sure to spray the undersides of leaves, since this is where the whiteflies tend to be. This mixture kills adult whiteflies and smothers the larvae and eggs as long as they are covered in the spray, so be sure to apply it liberally. Reapply as needed after rain or watering your plants for the best results. Be sure to spray plants early in the morning or late in the day when temperatures are cooler, as the heat may cause an adverse reaction in your plant.
To make a garlic spray, the key ingredients are garlic and water. How much garlic you use depends on how concentrated you want your spray. About six cloves mixed into 1 gallon of water will give you a weak spray. This may be enough for preventative measures. For a highly concentrated spray, you can use up to two full bulbs of garlic pureed into just ½ cup of water. Crush your garlic and put it into a bowl. Pour boiling water over it, cover it and let it steep overnight. Strain it before you put it into a spray bottle so that garlic pieces won’t clog the nozzle. You can make your garlic spray even more powerful with a few more additives you probably have in your kitchen. Add a tablespoon of crushed hot pepper or a hot pepper sauce to the water while the garlic steeps and it will repel a wider variety of pests. Add a tablespoon of liquid soap or vegetable oil to the mixture, which coats larvae or eggs and smothers them.
Alternate recipe from The Old Farmer's Almanac, recommends a mixture of five parts water, two parts rubbing alcohol and 1 tablespoon of dish soap. Mix well, and spray it on the leaves of affected plants. You might want to test this on one leaf first, in case the rubbing alcohol is damaging to the plant.
Natural predators of this pest include ladybugs and lacewing larvae, which feed on their eggs and the whitefly parasite which destroys nymphs and pupae. For best results, make releases when pest levels are low to medium.

Information from :

http://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-tomatoes/

http://www.almanac.com/plant/tomatoes
http://faq.gardenweb.com/discussions/2766768/why-are-the-blooms-on-my-tomato-plant-dying-and-falling-off
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/homemade-whitefly-insecticide-37740.html
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/garlic-spray-garden-pests-22908.html