Tomatoes are the most popular crop in American home gardens. They're also fussy about timing, water and heat. These ten habits make the biggest difference.
- Wait for warm soil. Plant after your last frost, once nights stay above 50°F. Cold soil stalls tomatoes for weeks.
- Give them full sun. Aim for 8 hours of direct sun. Fewer than 6 hours means few fruits.
- Plant deep. Tomatoes grow roots along buried stems. Strip the lower leaves and plant so only the top third shows, or lay the stem sideways in a trench.
- Choose the right type. Determinate varieties grow to a set size and ripen at once, which is good for canning and containers. Indeterminate varieties keep growing and fruiting until frost and need tall support.
- Support them early. Put cages or stakes in at planting so you don't damage roots later.
- Water deeply and consistently. Uneven watering causes cracked fruit and blossom end rot, the dark, sunken patch on the bottom of the fruit. Blossom end rot is a calcium-uptake problem driven by irregular moisture, so steady watering usually fixes it.
- Mulch. Two to three inches of straw or shredded leaves keeps moisture even and stops soil from splashing disease onto leaves.
- Go easy on nitrogen. Too much fertilizer gives huge green plants with little fruit. Use a balanced or tomato-specific fertilizer at planting and again when fruit sets.
- Watch the heat. Tomatoes drop blossoms when days run above about 90°F and nights stay above about 75°F. In the South and desert Southwest, plant as early as possible in spring, then plant again in midsummer for a fall crop.
- Rotate and clean up. Don't grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or potatoes in the same spot two years running, and remove diseased leaves promptly.
Good companions
Basil and marigolds are classic tomato companions. The evidence that they repel pests is mixed, but they attract pollinators and beneficial insects, and basil belongs in the same salad anyway.
Pick your region on the map to see when warm-season vegetables go in where you live.