How To Grow The Biggest Tomatoes In Town in 6 Easy Steps
By Amelia Tucker
1. Start early OR buy plants.
Use seeds if you are set up to grow them with proper space, lighting and will be able to keep them moist. If you are not able to devote the time then buy plants. Let the greenhouse do all the early work.
2. Plant deeply.
It can not be said often enough that the root system is where a tomato gets its growing power. Plant your seedling as deep as the top two leaves, and you will have the best root system to support the most fruit. Don’t worry, the plant will not be set back by this.
3. Keep the ground moist using mulch.
After you have planted deeply, moisture is the next most important thing to get right. If a plant dries out enough to wilt just once, it will not bear the fruit it is capable of no matter how well it seems to recover. Water deeply and immediately mulch with at least 4 inches of your chosen material. Straw makes a great mulch, especially if it is partially composted.
4. Keep the plant dry.
Fungus can be transferred to the plant that will cause it to wilt and die. It is a good practice to keep the extra leaves pruned to allow air circulation to prevent this.
5. Prune unmercifully.
You have to remove all the leaves except the top ones that provide the plant with nutrients. This means carefully looking at the plant and nipping off all of the stems and extra leaves. You end up with a main stem and any branches bearing fruit.
6. Fertilize!
Whether you use a premixed, or make your own fertilizer, it is important to follow the directions and keep the soil nutrient rich throughout the growing season.
August 7th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I would, with great respect, take issue with #3. Wilting won’t hurt a tomato plant. Certainly not one wilting episode. Prolonged lack of moisture will certainly take a toll. On the other hand, over-watering is one of the great destroyers of tomato plants. In fact, I’d argue that a good test of whether a plant needs water is wilting. If it wilts in the heat of the day, wait till the sun goes down. If it perks up again, it’s fine. If it’s still wilting, water. Tomato plants are remarkably tough critters.
n addition to #6. Tomatoes aren’t big feeders so I’d stress not to over-fertilise. In particular, don’t fertilise with nitrogen-rich fertilisers. You’ll end up with plenty of leaves and no fruit. I usually fertilise twice in a season - a couple of weeks after transplanting and once more later in the season. This presupposes, of course, planting in reasonable soil. As with the watering situation, I’d suggest that more tomato plants die from over-kindness than from neglect.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I like to keep my tomatoes to a more usable size, you know aroung about the size of an orange. I don’t prune mine as much but then again I am not trying to grow the biggest tomato possible. BTW - just how much did that tomato weigh?
April 16th, 2008 at 1:55 am
The thing is, a tomato’s size is pretty much dictated by its genes. Hybrid varieties, in particular, will hardly vary at all given reasonable growing conditions and care. Under the same circumstances, heirloom varieties can vary in size because of genetic instability.
May 4th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I agree pruning is essential for a good yield of “marketable” Tomatoes.
We grow our Tomatoes same as we did Cotton years a ago.
A little stress after Bloom set and then once fruit is set, we pour the water and nutrients for next layer of fruit.
Started a Video series this year on a 24 plant plot weekly videos on progress
Growing Tomatoes for Health and Wealth, 2008
Appreciate your stopping by and commenting
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I found deeper is not always better. I dig a trench and lay them in, then bend the top up so it sticks out. It is cool way down there and the bottom will just die and be useless. A little compost tea and I will pick over 100 from a 12 foot tall plant by October.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Yes, trenching is yet another way of planting them. On the other hand, I’ve never lost one from planting deeply.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 am
I use fish emulsion on my tomatoes, Ocne the plant starts to bloom I begin spraying the entire plant with a fine mist.I recently picked some 1 3/4 pound tomatoes with many in the 10 oz, to a pound range, All this from an above ground 6 x 12 garden.
May 18th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I noticed a little disagreement on watering. Your first
consideration must be your local climate. I live in the foothills around Los Angeles. May I say we have excellent drainage here, (upward). So I use subteranean watering and
feeding.
Start with a pit 12″to 18″ deep. Pack the bottom with several sheets of newspaper and set a 4″ x 4′-0″ PVC pipe
into the pit, on the newspapeer. Fill hole with compost and local soil. Plant, stake and cage. After plants reach 18″
water through pipe daily. Works great in LA, might over water in Oreagon.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am
The number one, topmost mistake tomato gardeners do, unknowingly, is growing tomato plants with leaves. It’s an innocent mistake because, after all, we’re used to seeing plants with leaves.
With any other vegetable, you can simply plant it in the ground, add some random fertilizer and vegetable food, water it, and see what happens. This is not the case with the tomato.
Thanks
September 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Thanks for your advice, -Graeme.
Perhaps soluble Miracle-Gro at 24-8-16 is too rich.
I do have starter solid fertilizer at 11-22-10 that would meet your recommendation, sprinkled perhaps weekly.
I do have lots of leaves spilling out all over, and could use some more guidance about the pruning.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:58 am
What are you saying Happytomatosecrets? What is the mistake with the leaves?
March 12th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Pic showing the record 7 lb+ delicious variety. A 35 foot greenhouse plant that actually got destroyed in a storm prior produced it.