How to Grow Tomatoes

• Plant your tomatoes in a spot that gets at least six to eight hours of sun a day. This applies even if you’re planting mature tomatoes from containers. Early morning sun is best, because it provides the light they need without intense heat.
• In hot climates, tomatoes can get sunscald, or dry, pale, discolored spots, from too much sun. In particular, they struggle in daytime temperatures above 85 degrees Fahrenheit and nighttime temperatures greater than 75 degrees. You can also use clean straw, shade cloth or row covers over the developing fruits. Do this from about noon to 2 p.m. each day, or when the sun is at its hottest. Some gardeners grow sunflowers or other tall annuals nearby, so they’ll cast shade over the tomatoes when the sun is directly overhead.
• Tomatoes thrive in rich, well-draining, neutral to slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.8. To determine your soil's pH, use a test kit or ask your local Cooperative Extension Service to test your soil for you. Tell them what you want to grow, so they can recommend any amendments you may need.
• Dolomitic lime will help lower the soil’s acidity. Garden sulfur and composted organic matter will both lower alkalinity. Follow the directions on your product and your test results to know how much to use. Retest your pH every couple of years, since it can change.
• If your soil is hard clay or of poor quality, you can plant tomatoes in raised beds with fresh garden soil instead of in the ground.

You can choose from many varieties of tomatoes. They're classified as determinate or indeterminate, depending on how the vines grow.

• Determinate tomatoes are plants that grow to a certain height and then stop. Bush varieties are an example of determinate tomatoes. The tomatoes on these plants usually ripen in a month or two. This can be helpful if you want all your tomatoes to ripen around the same time, so you can freeze or can them. Determinate tomatoes can be caged or staked to keep them from sprawling. But they don’t need as much support as indeterminate types.
• Indeterminate tomatoes are plants that keep growing and producing fruit until a killing frost. They’ll give you a continual harvest, so you can pick fresh tomatoes throughout the season. For best results, use tall stakes, cages or trellises to support them. Or you can prune their sprawling stems as desired.
• If you want, plant both kinds of tomatoes in your garden. That way, you’ll have tomatoes growing and ripening throughout the summer.

Don’t rush the season. Planting at the right time helps your plants thrive and produce lots of fruits.

• Tomatoes don't do well in cool weather, so avoid planting them until the soil temperatures stay consistently above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Planting too early can stunt their growth.
• If an unexpected frost or cold snap comes along, don’t let it harm your plants. Protect them with frost protection bags or garden covers.
• Tomatoes need room to grow, so don't crowd them. Dwarf varieties can be spaced about 12 inches apart. But if you’re going to stake them for support, double the spacing to 24 inches. If you plan to use cages, space dwarf varieties 36 inches apart.
• Most other tomato varieties can be spaced 30 to 48 inches apart, with rows about 48 inches apart. Check the tag or label on your plants for more specific information. If you’re sowing tomato seeds directly in the garden, check the seed packet for spacing instructions. Proper spacing does more than give tomato roots room to take up water and nutrients. It also lets light reach the lower leaves. It also improves air circulation, which can help deter some pests and diseases.
• Before you plant, remove most of the lower leaves from each tomato plant's stem. Dig a deep hole and put the plant in. Cover the stem with soil up to the first set of leaves. New roots will start growing from the buried stem and a strong root system will develop.
• If you’re starting your plants indoors, sow your tomato seeds in a seed-starting kit or mix about six weeks before your last expected frost. The seeds need temperatures of 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit to germinate. Be sure to look for the seeds of disease-resistant varieties.
• After they sprout, put the seedlings in a south-facing window or under grow lights. Adjustable grow lights are great to use. That's because you can keep them close to the plants, so they won’t become leggy.
• After the second set of true leaves appears on the seedlings, start fertilizing them with a water-soluble fertilizer. Be sure to follow the product’s instructions. Wait until the weather is reliably warm to transplant them into the garden or large, outdoor containers.

Tip: Don’t put tomatoes on a windowsill indoors to ripen. Instead, place them in a loosely closed paper bag. A ripe tomato’s rich color comes from warmth, not light. In cooler weather, use your hands, pruners or snips to pick the red-orange fruits and bring them inside to ripen.

Tomatoes need air to grow and produce fruit. To boost airflow, you can remove your plants’ suckers. These are shoots that grow in the joint between stems and branches. You just need to remove the tomato’s small leaves and stems. Or you can use pruning snips for a cleaner cut. This approach exposes more of the plant to the air and reduces disease risk.

Some gardeners argue against removing all of the tomato’s suckers. They feel it’s better to leave a few of them on the lower stems. This is thought to increase the plant's yield. You may want to experiment with a few tomatoes and decide for yourself.

Tomatoes also benefit from removing the leaves from the bottom of the plant. Aim to have 18 inches of open space from the plant’s base to the ground. This leaf removal may also ward off soil-borne diseases that can impact lower leaves.

Tomatoes need regular watering, especially in the summer, about 2 to 3 inches of water a week. A watering can is usually sufficient. But what if your garden’s layout makes it difficult to get to every plant?

• If there’s not enough rain, water your plants with a soaker hose or kit. Snake the hose through the garden and heap mulch on top. As the hose slowly releases water, it will penetrate the ground and reach the plants' roots. For more efficient watering, hook up a hose timer to the spigot to control the flow. Or, you may want to set up a drip irrigation system.
• A layer of mulch, which can be anything from shredded pine bark to grass clippings or compost, will help keep the water from evaporating in the summer heat. Mulch helps discourage weeds from sprouting and cools the tomato plant's roots.

With proper care, tomatoes will grow throughout the season. However, as they get bigger and heavier, the plants can droop and touch the ground. When branches flop over or sprawl along the ground, the sun can’t reach all of the plant. This means less fruit is produced. Contact with the soil can also increase its chances of rotting. Stake your tomatoes to keep them upright and prevent problems.

• Choose stakes recommended for the type of plant that needs support.
• You may also use trellises, cages or other plant support.
• Start early, because tall, lanky plants can get out of control fast. Their branches may break if you try to move them around too much.
• Position the stake about 5 inches from the plant and drive it at least a foot into the ground. Tie the stakes to the vine every 6 inches.
• Place a stake on either side of the plant for large tomatoes, like heirlooms.

There are many methods to staking and trellising tomatoes. The Florida weave technique, also called the basket weave, is a commercial tomato growing method that can be used at home. It's inexpensive and scalable to your garden's needs.

Think of the Florida weave as supporting a tomato vine with strands of twine woven between stakes placed alongside every two or three plants. The twine securely holds the plants in place, allowing maximum airflow.

Benefits of the Florida Weave:

• The Florida weave's main advantage is it's an inexpensive way to trellis plants. Instead of using cages or metal trellises, you use stakes and twine to elevate the foliage and fruit.
• Keeping tomato fruit away from the soil reduces disease and pest problems and ensures better access for sunlight to find the fruit.

You can set up the Florida weave at the same time as you plant the fruit. Experts recommend setting the stakes in place at the time of planting (or before) and adding the rows of twine when the plants are about a foot tall.

Florida Weave Trellising Technique Steps:

• Place stakes 4 to 6 feet apart, along the rows in your tomato garden bed. Suggested stakes: plastic garden stakes have grooves to hold the twine and come in a variety of lengths. You can also use wooden fencing stakes or even metal fencing posts.
• You can trellis between two or three stakes. Beginning about 8 inches above the ground, tie a weather-resistant twine like jute twine on the end stake.
• Run the twine along the row, pulling the line taut as you go. Loop the twine around the intermediate stake (if using). At the end stake, loop the twine securely and then weave back along the other side of the plants. Tie off at the starting stake.
• As the plants grow, add a new row of twine every six to 10 inches. Tuck the new tomato branches and leaves securely between the two lines of string.
• The lines can sag as the plants grow in the season. Pull the lines taut to keep the plants as upright as posssible.
• As your tomato plants grow, prune suckering stems from the base of the plant. This helps the plant focus on developing fruit.

Tip: You can plant pruned stems in healthy garden soil and they'll root and flourish in your garden.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so they'll need some fertilizer, unless your soil is already rich. These fruits need potassium, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous. You should test your soil to see what nutrients are needed.

• You can use a chemical test kit for best test results. Look back at your soil test results to see what fertilizers it recommends. If you didn't test, a rule of thumb is to use a balanced fertilizer like 8-8-8 or 10-10-10. Don't use too much nitrogen, which can produce lots of foliage and few fruits.
• Follow the directions on the fertilizer product. You can usually start fertilizing when you plant the tomatoes. Then, reapply once the plants grow fruit and throughout the growing season. Continue to feed them once every one to two weeks until about one month before the first frost in fall.
• Don’t let the fertilizer touch the roots, as it can burn them.

Cherry and heirloom tomatoes are just two types of tomatoes that are fun to grow.

• Cherry tomatoes are bite-sized fruits, and they can be determinate or indeterminate. Look for dwarf or patio varieties if you’re growing them in containers, and stake or cage indeterminate types if you plant them in the garden.
• Heirloom tomatoes are varieties that have been around for 50 years or more. Many cooks grow them for their rich flavors and unusual colors, such as purplish-black, yellow and orange. Some people enjoy growing heirlooms because their ancestors grew them, and they're a link to the past.

Tip: When growing heirloom varieties, save the seeds and grow the same variety next year. Saving seeds ensures heirloom varieties continue to delight tomato growers.

Tomatoes are easy to grow, but can be tempting to pests like insects and squirrels. They can be susceptible to diseases. Following are tips for managing common problems when growing tomatoes:

• Inspect your tomato beds or containers on a daily basis for signs of pests and diseases. This is called scouting and it's the best way to stay ahead of problems in your garden. It's helpful to take photos with your phone to view any changes and to identify problems.
• Aphids are a common, yet serious insect threat to tomatoes. Infestations can cause leaves to turn yellow, twist and curl. They may also cause stunted, dead shoots and poor overall growth. Aphids live in weeds, so promptly remove weeds when you see them. Most aphids can be removed with a strong blast of water. For severe aphid damage, apply insecticidal soap or neem oil, a natural insecticide. Be sure to follow the directions on the package when you prepare and use it.
• While not a disease and not caused by pests, blossom end rot can be a problem when growing tomatoes. This common condition occurs when developing tomatoes don't get enough calcium. It typically appears either as mold or soft, sunken, water-soaked spots on tomatoes’ bottoms. Most soils have sufficient calcium for growing tomatoes, so the problem is typically in having enough moisture in the soil to push the calcium to the growing fruit. Consistent watering when the fruit is forming will help eliminate blossom end rot. Drip irrigation systems can also help, as they consistently provide plants with calcium through water. Should blossom end rot develop, fertilize with an organic product designed for tomatoes.