Tomato plants are here!

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Tomato plants have arrived in your local big box stores, local hardware stores and nurseries!  Tomatoes are Americans favorite vegetable to grow.  There really is no comparison between a home grown tomato and a store bought tomato.  There are just a few tips to get your tomato transplants off to a great start. 

The first is knowing what type of tomato to purchase

There are two types of tomatoes-indeterminate and determinate.  Determinate grow to a set height and the fruit sets all at once.  These can be a great candidate for canning if you would like to get your tomato canning done all at once.  Indeterminate continue to grow and yield fruits (yes, the tomato is actually a fruit) until frost.  These are the best for fresh tomato eating all season long.  Determinates height typically stays below 4'; indeterminates can grow well over 8' in a season.

Choosing which tomatoes to grow

I grow only indeterminates.  For what we don’t eat, I freeze whole in quart freezer bags for chili and salsa until fall.  Come fall, I start canning the surplus.  I like growing a variety of tomatoes, with different colors, salad tomatoes, slicers, and paste tomatoes.  I like adding paste tomatoes to each freezer bag as they give a silky sauce.  And colors are just fun!  I always have red and purple tomatoes in the garden.  Three that I have every year are Chocolate Pear for salads, heirloom Italian Pear Paste for sauces, and heirloom Cherokee Purple for slicers.
The Power of Purple

All tomatoes are chock full of antioxidants and lycopene.  They contain vitamins A, C, E, K, and B-complex as well as potassium, manganese, and copper.  

Hardening your tomatoes

If you are purchasing a tomato plant that has been under a cover like a greenhouse, you will need to get your tomato used to the sun.  Just like us, plants get sunburned when first exposed to full sun.  If they have been inside, they will need to get used to both the sun and the temperature swings of the great outdoors.  This is called "hardening off".  I put mine on the back patio which gets northern exposure under our awning.  I move them gradually into more and more sun.  When they have been worked up to 6 hours of sunlight, they are ready for their permanent pot or garden spot.

I always like to plant when it is overcast.  The ideal is overcast and calling for a nice slow rain.

Tomato supports/cages

It's a good idea to put out your tomato support when you plant your tomatoes.  If you wait too long after planting, you won't be able to get the cage over your plant without breaking some branches.

With indeterminate tomatoes, they definitely need something to help them grow upwards (although not required, it does make harvesting much easier, takes up less garden space and protects against disease).  A very sturdy pole can be used and the plant tied onto it as it grows.  The more popular option is a “tomato cage” that the tomato grows up in to.  This is what we use.  It is important to get the cage on while the plants are small or severe damage may ensue when you try to force the gangly plant into it’s cage.  Be sure to get a strong cage for large indeterminate types of tomato plants.  I also add a stake to the really big tomatoes to give extra support.  If using smaller cages, you can just pinch off the top when the plant starts growing too large.

In my garden, even the determinate benefit from a cage to keep them upright.  Determinates just don't need to be pinched to keep from outgrowing their cage.

If you grow dwarf or patio tomatoes, they may not need any support at all.  I did end up using a stake for each plant as they put on large tomatoes which caused the plant to lean when I grow the patio types.  

Staked dwarf tomato

Tips when planting

To get your plants off to a strong start provide the right fertilizer and nutrients when planting.  In each planting hole, I add a handful of worm castings, balanced fertilizer, and dust the roots with a starter fertilizer which contains mycorrhizal, vitamins and minerals.  This blend improves soil fertility and the plants ability to take in the nutrition it needs.  It is not all about just the big 3-nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.  They are important but vitamins, minerals, and particularly living soil makes a huge difference in how healthy and lush the plants become.  I use fertilizer made specifically for tomatoes so that they get the calcium they need.  As your plants take up minerals, you will get these minerals when you eat your garden produce.  Every other year, I add Azomite to all my plants which contains over 70 minerals and trace elements just to make sure the plants have all the micronutrients they need.
The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

When you plant your tomato, make sure to plant it deeply.  I take off all the limbs except the top couple and bury the plant up to these stems.  Roots will grow from where the stems are removed.  This gives the plants a much stronger root system to support growth.

Now, just make sure they get enough water over the first couple of weeks and monitor for large green hornworms.  We usually get our first ripe tomatoes around the Fourth of July.

I also like to plant early in the season (in the next couple of weeks) and then again in the middle of the summer (July).  When the new plants come on strong, the early planted ones are slowing down.  It keeps the harvest going strong.  We do like to have sliced tomatoes for burgers and cherry tomatoes for salads.  I'll plant 10 at the beginning of the season for fresh eating, freezing and making sauce and then at least one of each, slicing and cherry, in the middle of the summer.