Sun
As much as possible, you’ll get more fruit and they will ripen faster. 4-6 hours minimum.
Avoid hot afternoon summer sun in warmer climes.
Water
Regular water in consistent amounts is best after fruit forms, although they can withstand some drought during foliage growth stage. Water deep as they have a tap root, at least once a week, more if hot.
Try to avoid getting water on the leaves to keep diseases at bay.
A thick layer of pine needles or straw will help retain soil moisture.
Soil
Loose and loamy, lots of organic matter and manure. Well drained.
Sandy soils produce earlier and clay and loam soils good for late varieties with large vines.
Ph of 6.5-7
Fertilizer
If starting from seeds, use seaweed or kelp dilution once a week till transplanting.
At transplanting time into the garden, add handful of balanced organic fertilizer and a little extra phosphate rock. And add lots of compost to the planting hole upon transplanting.
Avoid new additions of manure as it will cause lots of foliage growth due to high nitrogen and not a lot of fruit.
As blooms begin add more potash in the form of bone meal or wood ashes.
Low nitrogen, high phosphorus fertilizer produces early and heavy crops.
Tomatoes also appreciate crushed egg shells for calcium. Or just crush a calcium pill and put in when transplanting.
Hardiness
A tropical perennial in hot climates, can get two seasons of fruit in California. Florida is tough due to humidity bringing in all sorts of viruses.
In the rest of the country it is treated as an annual. Tomatoes are grown to be eaten as soon as possible.
But, remember it is a tropical plant, so don’t put out too cold or you might stunt their growth. They prefer temps of 70-90 deg. to grow.
Tomatoes won’t set fruit if temps below 55 deg. or over 100 deg for any length of time.
If an unseasonal frost catches you off guard with plants full of fruit at the end of the season, remove leaves and leave fruit, they will ripen on the vine if it warms up again. Pick the green ones.
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Planting & Care
There are two types of tomato plants:
- Determinate – Bushy varieties that ripen fruit over several weeks. Good for preserving.
- Indeterminate – Vining varieties that need caging or staking that ripen fruit over several months. They produce more fruit but take more space and time. Also tend to be more disease resistant.
Base your selections on what you desire in the kitchen.
Big slicing tomatoes are big tomatoes because of the seed variety selected, not by how much you lovingly pamper it. There are early, midseason and late varieties so that you may have a a long season of fresh tomatoes.
There are 100’s of varieties to choose from but only a few are available in plant form at nurseries. Try them to start and then you can try seed starting some you would like to try.
Tomatoes may be planted directly into the ground if season is long enough. They will develop a strong taproot. And will be tougher against dry spells and disease. Plant 5 seeds per hole, cover with 1” compost. When 6” high, clip all but the strongest plant.
Starting Indoors
Start indoors 5-7 weeks before transplant date. Frost date in the north. In the south you can start seeds in the late winter to get fruit before the summer & also at the end of summer to try to get a crop before frost threatens, if your area gets an occasional one.
Start seeds in cell packs or small pots two seeds per cell, clip the weaker after true leaves form. A sterile growing medium is best, peat and perlite or vermiculite. Cover seeds with 1/2 inch fine soil mix Keep uniformly moist, but not wet, at all times.
Seeds germinate in 8-10 days, harvest is 65-100 days later depending on variety and sun.Tomatoes are not recommended for growing in the house, although the greenhouse is a viable place to start plants to get a jump start on the season.
If not using a heating pad, germinate your seeds in the house as they will need 65-70deg. to germinate.
When seedlings begin to pop up, place in sunny windowsill. They may grow leggy due to lack of sunlight, at which time you should transplant into a larger cell or pot and bury the stem up to first true leaves.
Slowly introduce them to outside temps by slowly increasing the time outside before transplanting, called “hardening off”.
When transplanting outside, in cold climes bury in long trench horizontally for warmer soil around the roots.
In the south, transplant deep for cooler soil around the roots.
If possible, transplant on a cloudy day to limit shock to the plants. Space 18 in. if staked and pruned to a single stem, up to 3 ft. apart if caged and kept to 3 stems. Give more space in wet and warm climes to improve air circulation to help prevent bacterial and viral diseases. Disturb roots as little as possible and do not spread them out.
Water well with compost tea or diluted kelp solution.
Greenhouse Growing
Tomatoes can be started & succesfully grown in the greenhouse. Temps cannot get too hot or too cold, Keep well ventilated to keep bacterial & viral diseases at bay. A fan blowing helps keep the humidity down.
In the south, you can start plants in big pots outside & bring in when frost threatens to finish up.
Outdoor Growing
If season permits, seeds started outdoors are tougher and will develop a long taproot.
Make a planting hole and amend heavily with compost. Plant seeds 5-6 seeds per hill covered with 1 inch compost. Space the same as with transplants. When 6 in. high, clip all but strongest.
When plants are young, fertilize with diluted kelp or compost tea. Water twice a day when young.
After transplants or garden grown plants are settled in, then you need to provide support for the growing plants as they can reach 6-12 ft. depending on pruning and length of season.
Vining types need tall trellis or fence-like support, very sturdy. Bush types will need staking or cages to support when fruit begin to form.
You can make your own cages out of 6 in. mesh wire fencing 4-6 ft. tall with 2 stakes at either side for support.
Keep a layer of pine needles or straw mulch around base of plant to keep fruit clean and prevent soil borne disease from splashing onto fruit and leaves.
Pruning
When staking or trellising vining types, snip out any shoots that grow out of the leaf joints. Two stems should be the max and chose the one that grows beneath the first flower cluster.
On bush types, just prune crowding branches so as to provide air circulation.
If you don’t prune, space 2 ft. apart.
Fruiting
The fruit size is determined by the seed variety selected, but to maximize the fruit size of that variety, you can pinch out all the flowers but one or two in each cluster to send all energy to remaining fruits.
Pollination is a must, so provide beneficial attracting herbs and wildflowers to bring the bees.
Remember to fertilize for fruit production, not foliage. Keep up the phosphorus to get good flower and fruit production.
Cracked fruit is usually a sign of irregular watering or too much water.
Enemies, Pests & Diseases
Minor infestations should be left for nature to handle. Parasitic beneficials should come to the rescue if you have not been spraying on a regular basis. So be a little patient before going on the attack or simply remove a branch or two that are infected.
Pests
- Large green worms with a red hooked tail. Easy to handpick but do frequently as they eat a lot. In bad cases, spray with Bt (bacillus thurengensis) in the evening
- If one has a layer of white egg sacs on it’s back
- Beige to tan larvae in the soil, 1-1.5 in. longCome out at nite and nibble on the stems, allowing entry for disease
- Place cardboard collars around bottom of stem extending 1 in. in to soil
- Cover till plants mature
- tiny spider-like insects damage usually minor not affecting fruit
- Control by soapy spray or insecticidal soap
- Microscopic worms that attach to the roots, usually forming knotlike growths on the them.Prevents plants from getting nutrients and water. Plants always look like they need water and fertilizer.Prevalent in the south, especially Florida.Plant resistant variety “Better Boy”
- Very difficult to eliminate, some ways to combat:
- Solarize the soil with a plastic cover for previous season
- Plant marigolds in plot and till in at end of season
- Interplant with asparagus
- Amend soil heavily with organic material for proper Ph
- Line the planting hole with landscape fabric and then fill with new soil or potting soil
Diseases
To prevent most diseases, practice good sanitation, air circulation, mulching, and even and consistent watering avoiding splashing water on plants. Rotate plants each season and do not grow where any member of the Solanaceae family have grown to break the cycle of soil borne diseases. Also, hybrids have been bred to resist disease. They will have one or more of the following letters in the variety name:
- V- verticillium wilt
- F- fusarium wilt
- T- tobacco mosaic virus
- A- alternaria blight
- S- Septoria leaf spot
Here’s some common diseases:
- (early blight)- Dark spots on the leaves and fruit with concentric rings. Prevent with copper spray or good sanitation and plant resistant varieties.
Verticillium Wilt or Fusarium Wilt
- Plants suddenly look sick and wilt or start yellowing leaves from bottom up. Common in seedlings if seedbeds not cleaned before or too much water. On older plants, keep yellow leaves trimmed if most of plant looks good, otherwise pull plants and destroy.
- Brown discoloration on bottom of the fruit which becomes sunken and leathery. Correct with consistant watering in added calcium to the soil. More prevalent on early crops and plants pruned to one stem.
Harvest & Storage
Harvest when fully colored just as skin gives to gentle pressure unless you desire green fried tomatoes.
This is why you grow your own. Fully ripe tomatoes do not ship well so you will never find them in the supermarket.
Storing
Store at room temperature to maintain sweetness and flavor.
For end of the season fresh tomatoes plant variety “Long Keeper” and “Garden Peach” as they will store unrefrigerated for a long time in ventilated boxes not touching each other using perfect fruit. At 40-60 deg., they will last for months.
Canning
Tomatoes are like fruit in that they are high acid and can be canned and processed by the hot water bath method. The most common is to simply blanch, peel and can whole with tomato juice. But you can also prepare marinara sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa and other tomato recipes by way of the hot water bath method. Just be careful that any low acid ingredients such as peppers or onions are in small proportions to the tomatoes. Check our recipe section for some good recipes for canning.
Drying
Small tomatoes may be dried by hanging the whole plant or split tomatoes in half and lay on screen covered with cheesecloth or screen and place in sun till dry but pliable. Store in olive oil or in glass jars or zip bags out of lite. Good variety for drying is “Principe Borghese” or “San Marzano”
Tomatoes may also be dried in the oven. Slice paste or plum tomatoes ¼ inch, Lay single layer on cookie sheet. Bake at 200 deg. for 6-10 hour till leathery not brittle.
In the Kitchen
Depending on what you want to do with the tomato in cooking determines the type to use.
Here’s a rundown on all the “types to grow” as far as function:
- Big – for fresh and slicing
- Meaty – a lot of flesh to juice ratio are for cooking and preserving
- Small – for salads, stuffing and fresh
- Juicers – very juicy
Nutritional Facts
Nutrient value in 1 medium tomato
- 22 calories
- 1.1 gm. Protein
- 4.8 gms. Carbs
- 1.5 gm. Fiber
- .2 gm. fat
- 623 IU Vitamin A
- 19 mg. Vitamin C
- 11 mg. Magnesium
- 291.5 mg. Potassium
- 12.3 mg. Calcium
- 15 mg. Phosphorous
Resources
totallytomato.com – Largest selection of tomato seeds
organicaseeds.com – organic seeds of Tomatillo, Brandywine, Oxheart, Beefsteak, Red Pear
superseeds.com – numerous varieties, many heirloom, great prices, tomato plants and seeds, many unusual gourmet varieties
cooksgarden.com – tomato plants and seeds, many unusual gourmet varieties
seedsofchange.com – small selection of organic seed