Secrets to Successful Tomato Harvests
Eating fresh, homegrown tomatoes is one of summer’s most rewarding moments for just about every vegetable gardener. They are easy to grow, but with a few smart strategies you’ll get the heftiest harvest of the most flavorful fruit. Here are tips and tricks from the Burpee pro horticulturists.
Best Tomato Varieties
You can choose from so many different tomato varieties you are sure to find one or more that fit your needs. Do you want a daily supply of little tomatoes from early summer to fall? Pick a cherry tomato like ‘Super Sweet 100’. Prefer a steady harvest of slicing tomatoes? ‘Burpee’s Better Boy’ is a standard for many gardeners because it reliably produces large, bright red tomatoes for weeks. If you’re into making sauce or salsa, look for a meaty Roma type, such as ‘Gladiator’. The most flavorful tomatoes tend to be the beefsteak types, including ‘Steakhouse’. Growing in containers? Try Bushsteak Hybrid for big fruit or cherry-size Sweetheart of the Patio.
Where to Plant Tomatoes
Tomatoes need full sun through the summer to produce the maximum amount of fruit. Late afternoon and evening sunlight is especially important as the tomatoes start to ripen. The vines grow best in soil that is rich in organic matter and well-drained. Cherry tomatoes or other indeterminate types can reach 8 feet or even taller. Site them where they can be trellised high enough to stay upright. Avoid planting tomatoes in the same spot season after season or where you’ve grown peppers and eggplant, as they all share common pests and diseases. Try to leave 12 to 15 inches between the plants to allow for root growth when they’re young and air flow as they mature.
When to Plant Tomatoes
Start tomatoes from seeds indoors under lights about eight weeks before the last frost date in spring. Set the two-month-old seedlings in your garden after a couple weeks of hardening off, or acclimating to the outdoors. You can move your plants outside weeks earlier using Kozy Coats, water-filled plant tepees that protect tender seedlings from late frosts.
How to Water Tomatoes
To stay healthy and productive, each tomato plant should get about a gallon of water a week, either from rain or from the hose. When you’re watering, give the ground around the plant a thorough soaking and then wait until the soil is dry before watering again. Frequent, shallow sprinkling encourages the plant to grow roots close to the surface rather than deep in the ground.
How to Feed Tomatoes
A balanced organic plant food such as Burpee Organic Tomato + Vegetable Granular Plant Food 3-6-4 will ensure the vines have all the nutrients they need to produce healthy leafy tops, sturdy roots, and abundant fruit from planting to harvest. Follow the application instructions carefully. As with people, overfeeding is unhealthy for your tomato plants.
How to Stop Weeds
A layer of mulch around your tomato plants helps the soil retain moisture and blocks the germination of weeds that siphon nutrients and water away. Research has shown that Reflective Red Mulch Film conserves water, blocks weeds, and shines extra light onto the plants, resulting in as much as 20 percent more fruit. This mulch also reduces the risk of fungal infections by keeping water from splashing on the bottom foliage.
How to Trellis Tomatoes
Tomatoes grow on vines that tend to sprawl on the ground, which not only takes up extra space in your garden, it makes the ripening fruit more vulnerable to mammals, insects, and fungi. Square cages work best to distribute the weight of the plants without toppling over. The XL Pro Series cages keep the vines growing upward while allowing air circulation that keeps plants healthy.
How to Control Tomato Pests
A spray of nontoxic Hot Pepper Wax deters squirrels, raccoons, deer, and other wildlife from biting your tomatoes before you can harvest them. Tomato hornworms are large, bright-green caterpillars with a horn-like tail. They chew on the leaves and fruit. They are easy to spot since they are so large. Also look for their black frass (excrement) on leaves. The easiest control is to pick the caterpillars off your plants and drop them into soapy water.
How to Treat Tomato Diseases
Blossom end rot causes the flower-side of the fruit to split open and develop dark patches. It can be caused by calcium deficiency in the soil, and you can prevent it by adding Burpee’s Natural Organic Bone Meal 6-8-0 before planting. Late Blight shows up as large, water-soaked spots on lower level leaves and then spreads upward, causing them to droop, wilt, and rot. If you’ve had a problem with late blight in previous seasons, be sure to rotate your tomato crops to different parts of your garden, use plastic mulch to keep moisture and fungi off the lower leaves, and choose a resistant variety, such as ‘Celebrity’.