Having good tomato growing tips can be the difference between growing great tomatoes and having nothing to show for your effort in the end! I’m hoping you will have a bumber crop of tomatoes, no matter what variety you choose to grow or where you choose to grow them, be it in containers, raised beds or even right in the ground ~ heck you can even grow upside down tomatoes if you want. If you follow these basic tomato growing tips you’ll have great success with them all.

1. If your growing season is short, as it is in the far north, make sure you choose an early variety. This will give you the best harvest.   Early season tomatoes ripen quickly which means they are usually ready within 4 months of planting seeds.

2.Think about if you want all your tomatoes at once or over time. If you enjoy canning the fruit, and want your harvest all at once for canning, choose a determinate variety. These plants grow as a 3- to 4-foot-tall bush and set all their fruit within a few weeks. If you want to enjoy your Tomatoes throughout the season, choose an indeterminate variety, which grows as a vine and needs staking.

3. Tomatoes are best started indoors. This needs to be done 5 to 7 weeks before the last anticipated frost date. The seedlings can then be transplanted into your garden anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks after the last actual frost date. If you don’t know the date of your last frost call your county extension service, they will be able to tell you.

4. When planting, bury the stem almost up to the lowest set of leaves, even if this means covering up several extra inches. They can root from the entire stem and will make them nice and strong.

5. Make sure you give your tomato plants enough room.  How much room depends on they type of plant you choose.

Determinate and compact indeterminate — 2 feet apart
Indeterminate grown on stakes — 18 inches apart
Indeterminate grown in cages — 3 feet apart
Container varieties — 2-gallon pot

6. Try very hard not to  plant your tomatoes where peppers, eggplants, or tomatoes were planted the previous year. These veggies all belong to the same plant family and have similar nutritional needs. They are also likely to get the same or similar diseases.  The plants that were there last year probably depleted the soil of important nutrients. This is also called “rotating crops”.

There ya go! 6 Easy tomato growing tips ~ stay tuned, there’s sure to be more.

Tags: growing tomato tips, growing tomatoes, how to grow tomatoes, Vegetable