Everything you need to know to grow tomatoes

Summer tomato plant

Sunday, April 28, 2024

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 know about growing great tasting tomatoes. 

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 tomatoes 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

This year I am trying a medium red slicer, Red October, that is an early fruiting and storage variety, taking 55-68 days to produce ripe tomatoes.  I started all my tomatoes from seed a couple of months ago and planted them out this past week.  Fingers crossed it gives us some ripe tomatoes in June!

I overwintered 2 Tumbling Tom tomato plants.  They are dwarfs that do well in pots.  They have fruited on and off for the last month or so.  I have taken them outside with lots of small green tomatoes on them so should have some salad tomatoes in a couple of weeks.  The early ripe tomatoes didn't taste sweet.  With direct sun, this should greatly improve the taste.

There are several "storage" tomato varieties available.  You can pick these at frost and they will keep for up to 4 weeks longer than typical tomatoes.  Red October is a hybrid option.  The downside of hybrids is they will not come back true to the parent with seeds from this year's crop.  There are non-hybrid storage tomatoes like Evil Olive and A Grappoli D'Inverno that will grow true from seed.

Right before the first frost, I pick all the tomatoes left on the vine and put in a dark place for them to ripen.  We have fresh tomatoes into December.  They are definitely not the same as summer tomatoes, but better than anything you can buy in the store!  For more tips on preserving the tomato harvest:  Preserving the tomato harvest

Tomatoes kept in pantry at Christmas

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.  For a full listing of nutrition, SELF magazine has an informative nutritional database:  tomato nutrition

Tomato supports/cages

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

Tomatoes are susceptible to blossom-end rot and fungal diseases.  End rot is typically caused by not having enough calcium in the soil.  Fungal diseases remain the soil.  It is important to rotate vegetable plants and not plant them in the same spot every year.  You can use organic fungicides as a preventative.  You should spray when you transplant your seedlings and continue to spray every couple of weeks.  Organic fungicides are preventative so you have to keep the fungus from growing to start with.  Keeping fungal diseases at bay will greatly increase yields in late summer.  

Another preventative of disease is to 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 mycorrhizal life support 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.

I also like to plant early in the season and then again in the middle of the summer.  When the new plants come on strong, the early planted ones are slowing down.  It keeps the harvest going strong.  Last year, we had 24 tomatoes and that gave me about 4 years of sauce.  This year we have 15 growing and I think that is more than enough for canning and freezing so I won't be adding extras in mid-summer unless several appear to be dying off.

Pruning tips

Now that your plants have the right start, pruning is the next step.  To get the highest yields, some say it is important to prune your tomatoes.  You want no branches below 12” (some recommend 18”).  You also want to prune the plant to only 2 branches, the center stalk and one side stalk.  You want to keep the “suckers” cut or pinched off as well as the tomato grows.

The amount of pruning is controversial among tomato growing connoisseurs.  Some swear by pruning, others say it makes no difference.  If you live further south, keeping the greenery helps protect the fruits from sun scald.  If your plants seem to get fungal diseases, doing some pruning to open up the plant for air circulation can be beneficial.  For plants up north, increased greenery helps the plant have more energy going to its fruits.  I have tried both and for my garden, very limited pruning has worked the best.  I prune out the suckers but leave all the other stems and leaves.

Watering and fertilizing

Now, to on-going watering and fertilizing.  Many think more is better when it comes to watering and fertilizing.  Not so for tomatoes!  What you end up with are tons of greenery, mushy tomatoes, and very few of them.  Some tomato afficiados recommend a deep watering and fertilizer at planting, then again at flowering, and that is it.  I do water when there is a long dry spell.  Overwatering or erratic watering can also cause the fruits to crack and blossom end rot.  I provide the same water to my tomatoes as my other veggies, trying to make sure they are getting about 1" of rain or watering each week.  

For the tomatoes in the garden, I fertilize when planting, again when the first flowers appear, and monthly thereafter.  If growing in containers, I fertilize every other week with a liquid fertilizer when flowering.  I also add Azomite every other season to make sure the plants are getting all the trace minerals they need.  The first time I added Azomite, my plants seemed to grow and bush out within a few days.  If they respond favorably, then they really needed those nutrients.  Kelp meal also contains alot of minerals and hormones.  Kelp will stimulate your plants to grow upwards.  If your plants are staying stubby, I would apply kelp meal.

If your plant will not flower and fruit with lush green foliage, quit fertilizing and watering.  Nitrogen stimulates green growth.  If you go overboard, the plant will be focused on its greenery instead of fruiting.  A little stress should jump start it into producing flowers and fruits.

Although tomatoes love hot weather (they will not flower until night time temps get above 55), they also don’t like it too hot.  If daytime temps get above 90 and nighttime temps above 76, the plant will drop its flowers.  Not to worry, as soon as temps come back down, your plants will begin flowering again.
 Summer garden tips

Growing in containers

If you want to grow tomatoes in a container, you need to either have a really big container for full size tomatoes (5 gallon) or plant varieties that are adapted for containers. Tomatoes for containers would be labelled as dwarf, patio, container.  Some varieties that fit this bill:  BushSteak, Patio Princess, Bush Early Girl, Tumbler, Bush Big Boy, Baxter’s Bush Cherry, Lizzano, Sweetheart of the Patio, Tumbling Tom Yellow or Red, Bush Better Bush, Balcony (look for bush/patio/container types), Husky Bush.
Compact tomatoes for small spaces and pots

If you grow in containers, you will need to water weekly or maybe even more depending on the container and plant size combo used.  For more on container gardening and types to purchase for pots, Decorative container gardening for edibles

I have grown dwarfs in a larger container and have only needed to water weekly when I put a large catch pan under the pot so the plant can absorb water from the bottom.  They have grown and fruited the same as growing in the ground.  I have also grown indeterminates in extra large containers about the size of a half whisky barrel.  These plants did fine in the pot, but did not produce nearly what they do when planted in the ground.  My husband is trying the upside down 5 gallon bucket technique this year with any automatic watering system so we will see how that does.  Always fun to try something new! 

Seed saving

If you are growing open pollinated or heirloom tomatoes, you can save the seed from the best fruits and plants to grow for next season.  If you are growing hybrids, the seed will not produce a plant like the parent.  For very productive hybrids, I will save seed just to see what I get from them.

Why save seed?  Saving seed from the plants that produce the best fruits year on year will give you plants acclimated to your garden conditions and the best producers.  Save seed from plants that have the characteristics you want in future plants.  The ones with the best fruit, the largest fruit, the best tasting fruit, the earliest producer, the latest producer or the best producer.  You get to choose what you want in your future tomato plants.  Just do not save seed from any diseased plant as the disease stays in the seed.
Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver