The highly-coveted, homegrown summer tomato is like a zesty, wholesome little ball of sunshine you can eat. This year happened to be perfect for growing tomatoes, apparently, as we’ve been enjoying an abundance of them! If you have a little bit of room, you can grow some, too.
The Basics for Growing
The bare essentials needed for growing the perfect tomatoes are soil, sun, water, and patience. And of course, you’ll need either seeds or a tomato plant. (You might need a few other things along the way, which I’ll address later in this article.) But for now, if you have the aforementioned items, you can grow tomatoes.
Seeds or Plants?
So, should you be starting with seeds or a plant? Growing tomatoes from seeds will cost less per plant in terms of money, but most people won’t end up using anywhere near all the seeds provided in a packet, and additionally, growing from seed requires an extra investment of space and time. In most climates, you’ll need to start seeds in your house or in a greenhouse, as tomatoes aren’t particularly cold hardy (meaning they don’t tolerate cold temperatures very well.)
If you’re a beginning gardener, and/or only needing a few plants, your best option will be to purchase a tomato plant or plants from your local nursery. These come in small plastic containers, so you’ll need to transplant your tomato directly into the ground, or you can use a large pot or container when growing smaller varieties like Bushsteak or Yellow Pear Tomatoes.
Tomato Varieties, hybrids, heirlooms, and GMOs…
There are many, many tomato varieties to choose from, some being more commonly available than others. Two terms you’ll hear thrown around are hybrid and heirloom.
Hybrids are plants bred by intentionally cross-pollinating two different varieties; ideally, this will result in a final plant that has the best traits of both parents. Some benefits of growing hybrids can include a longer shelf life (ideal for tomatoes grown for grocery stores) and disease resistance. However, these benefits sometimes come at the cost of other traits, with many people finding them to be less flavorful than heirloom varieties. Also, if you grow a hybrid tomato (or any hybrid plant) and then save the seed, you can grow something from that seed, but it will not be the same as the parent plant, and will likely be less vigorous.
Heirlooms are open-pollinated varieties that have been passed down through generations (hence “heirloom”). If you plant a seed from an heirloom tomato, it will grow up into the same plant that it came from. Again, heirlooms are generally thought to be more flavorful than hybrids, but tend to be more delicate in terms of shelf life, which is why you don’t often see them in supermarkets.
Popular hybrid tomatoes include:
- Big Beef Tomato
- Big Boy
- Celebrity
- Early Girl
- Lemon Boy
Popular heirloom tomatoes include:
- Amish Paste
- Black Krim
- Cherokee Purple
- Brandywine
- German Pink
- Kellogg’s Breakfast
- Mortgage Lifter
- Roma Tomato
Determinate vs. Indeterminate
Another consideration when choosing which tomato to grow is whether it’s determinate or indeterminate. Determinate tomatoes bear fruit all at once, whereas indeterminate tomatoes begin to bear fruit and continue throughout the growing season. Many people prefer the latter as they can usually continue to harvest until the first frost.
Planning for Tomatoes
Once you decide on what type of tomatoes you want to grow, you’ll need to find a place to plant them. Most varieties will do better if planted directly in the ground, as they need room for their root system, and many need two to three feet of space for branches to spread out. (However, choosing a smaller variety like Baxter’s Bush Cherry or balcony tomatoes will allow you to successfully grow in containers.)
Tomatoes also need about 8 hours of sun a day. Once you plant them in the ground, you should also create a water ring or water well; using a hoe or shovel, simply heap up some dirt in a ring around the base of the tomato. The ring should be approximately 2’ in diameter. This will help you when you go to water your tomatoes, which you should do somewhat frequently. It allows for lots of water to be applied without running all over the place.
Mulching your tomatoes will also help keep the ground moist. Straw is our preferred mulch, or you can use grass clippings too. It’s very important, though, that you make sure no chemicals, like herbicides or pesticides, have been previously applied to your mulch, as this can kill your tomato plant.
When watering, use a hose and make sure the end is pointed at the ground or base of the tomato—do not let the water run all over the leaves and fruit, as this can encourage disease and other problems. When you water, you want there to be enough so that the ground is soaked 6” to 8” deep. This will promote a deeper root system.
Soil & Fertilizing
Tomatoes like it best if the pH of their soil is 6 to 7. To determine your soil’s pH, you’ll need to get it tested; this service should be offered by your local extension center. Once you find out your soil’s pH, you may need to amend the soil if it isn’t ideal. Again, you can consult with your extension center and they should be able to tell you what to add based on your test results.
If you’re using a fertilizer, organic is best; I personally don’t like to use synthetic fertilizers, as they are responsible for a myriad of problems, including the deadly algae blooms we’re seeing. Some gardeners like to use various solutions like fish fertilizer. One year, we used a good amount of horse manure as fertilizer when we planted our tomatoes. This resulted in a lot of big, bushy foliage, but we didn’t have an abundance of actual fruit. This year, we tried no fertilizer, which resulted in smaller plants, but we had tons of tomatoes! So, fertilizer isn’t always necessary.
Signs of Tomato Disease
There are a number of diseases that can plague tomatoes, causing minor inconvenience, or sometimes devastating your crop. More common problems include:
Blight: this causes brown spots on tomato leaves, and sometimes require pruning and the application of fungicides to combat. Be sure to give your plants adequate room between plants.
Sunscald: sunscald causes the fruit to become whitish or discolored where they receive too much exposure from intense sun. Fruit can be partially shaded to prevent this, or you can choose varieties at that are especially disease-resistant.
Blossom end rot: the blossom end, or bottom of the tomato, appears black or brown, sunk in and leathery. This occurs when your tomato isn’t getting enough calcium, which can mean your soil’s pH is too low. Before planting in the spring, have your soil tested; again, it should be somewhere around 6.5 for best growth.
If your tomatoes are developing signs of disease, the best thing to do is contact your local extension center, and they should be able to help you find the right solution for your particular area and variety of tomato. It’s very important that when you’re using any type of spray or soil amendment, you’re using it for its intended application.
Another common problem with tomatoes is the tomato hornworm; they will eat your stems bare! These can be naturally controlled, though, by picking them off by hand. Bonus: if you have chickens, they’ll enjoy the worms as a treat.
Harvesting
My personal advice is to pick tomatoes when they’re starting to turn orange (if they’re a red variety) and allow them to then ripen indoors at room temperature. (If it’s a yellow or purple variety, or some other non-red tomato, simply pick them when you notice they’re turning a color beyond green.) You can allow them to fully ripen on the vine, but the longer you wait, the more chance there is of bugs or other critters getting to them first. Then, just before your first frost (you can consult the almanac for predictions on this, and then follow the local forecast) pick as many green tomatoes as you can. You can fry them, or even wait for them to ripen! If they’re very green, it can take a couple months for them to ripen.
There is absolutely nothing like a homegrown tomato eaten raw or cooked for sauce or salsa. You can also can tomatoes, but be sure to research thoroughly before doing this and follow all safety precautions. Tomatoes can also be scalded, skinned, and frozen for later use in soups or other cooked dishes.
