Terrific Tomatoes!
Grow your best tomatoes ever. Use our tips to bring in a fantastic crop.
It’s hard to beat a garden-fresh tomato. Sun-ripened, juicy, and jammed with flavor, summer’s first tomato stands out as one of the season’s most delicious delights. Passionate gardeners pursue that first tomato with the zeal of a holy grail hunter, setting their seedlings out while frost still beckons, swaddling their plants beneath frost-resistant row covers or water-filled plant protectors. In the end, whether you tuck your tomatoes in a pot, a 5-gallon bucket, or a compost-enriched garden, the result is the same: Sun-ripened goodness you just can’t beat.
In the Lowe’s Giant Garden, we’re growing several kinds of tomatoes: Big Boy, Bonnie Select, and Roma. At harvest, Big Boy tomatoes can weigh from 1-2 pounds apiece. Ideal for slicing, these fruits hold their own in sandwiches and salads. Bonnie Select yields shorter plants that boast high numbers of disease-resistant fruits. A classic for cooking sauces and stews, Roma tomatoes form meaty, thick-walled, plum-shaped fruits with fewer seeds and pulp.
Whether you grow the same selections or have a favorite of your own, you can put your tomato crop on the road to success by trying a few of our favorite tried-and-true tips. Some feature homegrown wisdom; others stand on the merits of university research. But all these tips will get you on your way to savoring one of the season’s finest fruit offerings: a juicy tomato. We’d love to hear your best tips for growing great tomatoes. Share your tips below in the comment section, and share photos of your tomato crop in the Lowe's Giant Garden Grow Along.
Water.
It’s best to water tomato plants deeply and infrequently. As summer temperatures soar, water tomatoes once a week, delivering an inch of water. Ideally, you want to apply water directly to soil. If you use overhead watering, irrigate plants early in the day, so leaves have a chance to dry before dusk.
In the Lowe’s Giant Garden, we’re using drip irrigation to deliver water directly to roots. You can get water into the root zone by burying—at planting time—64-ounce cans or bottles with both ends removed. Place the container so it’s located within 3-4 inches of the tomato seedling. Bury the container so the upper edge protrudes about an inch above the soil line (high enough to prevent soil from washing into the container during downpours). When watering, fill the container to the rim; water will slowly soak into soil.
Mulch.
By midsummer, in all but the coldest zones, if you haven’t mulched tomatoes, do so. Prior to mulching, add a thin layer of compost around plants, extending it to cover soil beneath the foliage canopy. Add a 2-inch layer of grass clippings, straw, shredded newspaper, or pine needles.
You can also use red mulch to enhance tomato production. Researchers have proven that red mulch increases the number of tomatoes per plant by 20 percent and also yields larger fruit. It’s best to add red plastic to beds prior to planting, but you can cut it to fit around plants. Mulch is optional in coldest zones, since a mulch layer can reduce soil temperature.
Mulching does several things. It retains soil moisture, which helps tomato plants ripen the most fruit. Mulch also suppresses weeds, which means less work for you. You may have to freshen some organic mulches during the growing season as materials break down. Try to keep a 2-inch-thick layer present at all times.
Fertilize.
Too much nitrogen in soil yields tomato plants long on leaves and short on fruit. The secret to growing a great tomato is to add compost to soil prior to planting, preferably the season before planting (late this fall for next year’s crop). At planting time, toss a handful of worm castings and eggshells into each planting hole. The worm castings pack a nutrient-rich punch that gives tomato seedlings a solid start. Eggshells add calcium to soil, which prevents a condition known as blossom end rot, where the underside of a tomato develops a brown, sunken spot.
If your tomatoes evidence blossom end rot, add eggshells to planting holes next year. Save them for a few weeks prior to planting or simply visit a local diner one weekend and drop off a 5-gallon bucket for collecting eggshells. Oyster shells and crab shells also supplement soil with calcium.
During the growing season, give plants a splash of fish emulsion, manure tea, or worm casting tea every 2-3 weeks. To make tea, place a handful of manure or worm castings in a 5-gallon bucket of water. Allow to steep for 48 hours, strain, and dilute to the color of weak tea. Apply directly to leaves as a foliar fertilizer using a sprayer or pour on the soil between plants. After straining tea, toss any remaining compost or manure into your compost pile or garden. Make sure your tea is weak; too strong a brew can burn plants. This is one case where less is more.
Pinch.
If you’re growing vining selections (referred to as indeterminate tomatoes), remove shoots that form at the juncture between the main stem and side shoots. These shoots are called suckers because they suck the energy from plants, producing foliage, not fruit. Check plants weekly to remove suckers.
If you haven’t removed suckers this growing season, check plants by working your way upward from the base of the stem. Removing suckers allows more light to penetrate into the center of plants, which means sweeter, juicier fruit—fruit that isn’t shaded by foliage has a richer flavor.
Stake.
Use 6- to 8-foot stakes for vining tomatoes. In the Lowe’s Giant Garden, we’re using 8-foot stakes (#55673). Drive stakes deeply into soil so that top-heavy vines won’t wrestle them to the ground, especially when summer storms gust through the garden. It’s best to add stakes when you tuck tomatoes into soil to avoid damaging root systems. If you didn’t add stakes at planting time, water tomatoes before driving stakes into soil. Insert stakes in the late afternoon or early evening to limit stress on established plants.
Attach vines loosely to stakes using soft ties, such as twine or cotton string. Some gardeners swear by pieces of nylon hose or strips of cotton sheeting. When tying vines to stakes, wrap the tie around the stem first, crisscross ends between stem and stake, wrap around stake, and tie. The result should be two separate loops, one encircling the stake and the other cradling the stem. This prevents stems from snapping in high winds. Tie plants weekly at the same time you’re pinching suckers.
Protect.
Ripening fruit can draw curious, hungry critters to the garden. If you have ever left a tomato on the vine only to discover it’s been sampled by a varmint that’s taken one bite and left the rest, you know the heartbreak of tomato growing. While one alternative is to pick tomatoes just before they fully color and ripen them on a windowsill, another choice is to barricade fruit.
An easy way to do this is to swaddle ripening fruits with bird netting. This plastic netting cuts easily with scissors. Simply snip netting into individual fruit size pieces. Wrap ripening tomatoes loosely with the netting; if necessary, hold it in place with spring clips or clothespins. Because the netting is plastic, it won’t decompose or weather.
Harvest.
Pick fruit when it’s fully mature on the vine. Or, pluck tomatoes at the first sign of color, ripen at room temperature (in a brown paper bag is best), and experience no loss in flavor. Never refrigerate unripened tomatoes, as the cold air zaps flavor. If you stash ripe, unsliced tomatoes in the fridge to hold them, you may discover that the fruit becomes mealy and mushy, especially with heirloom types. It’s best to eat them when they’re ripe.
As your area’s first fall frost date looms, trim plants. Remove lower leaves and any small, hard, green fruits (these won’t ripen by the end of the season). Pinch out the growing tips of vines. This pruning encourages plants to ripen remaining fruit. Cover plants during light frosts with cloth, plastic bags, or newspapers. Remove covers after the sun rises and air is warm.