How to Grow Tomatoes - Ep 248

It’s been a while since we’ve done a full crop specific episode and I think this is the perfect time of year to talk tomatoes. We are getting about 500 tomato plants in the ground over the next week so they are on my mind!

So, today on Just Grow Something we’ll walk through the full tomato-growing process—from choosing varieties and starting seeds indoors to troubleshooting common problems and harvesting for peak flavor.

You’ll learn how to choose the right variety for your space, when and how to plant for success, how to deal with pests before they ruin your harvest, and what to do when things don’t go quite as planned (looking at you, blossom-end rot). Let's dig in!

References and Resources:

Save 20% on your new own-root rose plant or find your next favorite perennial at HeirloomRoses.com with code JUSTGROW https://heirloomroses.com

http://www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/l/lycopersicon-esculentum=tomato.php

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10050865/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12424325/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168945212001483

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
OK. It's been a while since we've
done a full crop specific episode and I think this is the
perfect time of the year to talktomatoes.
We are getting about 500 tomato plants in the ground over the
next week. So the conditions of the soil
and the air conditions are on mymind at the moment, along with
how to trellis and prune those guys as well.
I don't do as much with my tomatoes as some other people

(00:22):
do, but what I do do is pretty consistent from year to year.
So today on Just Grow Something,we're going totally tomatoes
where they originated, the nutritional benefits, what types
of soil conditions they prefer, trellising, pruning, pest
diseases, all the things. You will walk away from this
episode with all the knowledge to tackle this much loved

(00:42):
veggie. Well, fruit actually.
Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and what started
as a small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and

(01:04):
build confidence in your own garden space.
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
just grow something. So there's a lot to cover on
tomatoes, so let's just dig right into it this week.
The scientific name for tomato is Selenium lycopursicum, so of

(01:24):
course it's part of the Solon ACA family, also known as the
Nightshades. This family also includes a lot
of our familiar friends in the garden like Peppers and eggplant
and potatoes, but also some stubborn weeds as well, like
horse nettle and Eastern black nightshade and jimsome weed, and
even some very notorious ones like belladonna.

(01:46):
Yes, your summer salsa shares a family tree with deadly
nightshade. It's not just a good idea to
know the plant family something is in because it can give us
some idea about its familial traits, but it's also good to
know where a plant originated from because it gives us a clue
as to what its ideal climate is.Tomatoes originated in Central

(02:11):
and South America, so warm climates with steady rainfall
and mild winters. That origin gives us a clue.
Tomatoes like warmth, they like sunlight, and they like
consistent moisture, right? So if we want to be successful
with tomatoes, then we might need to be recreating those
conditions in our own gardens. And yes, let's just clear it up

(02:33):
right away. Tomatoes are technically a
fruit, even a Berry actually, since their seeds are on the
inside. But because they're not sweet,
we use them like a vegetable. Culinarily, I don't know anyone
using tomatoes in their fruit salad.
If you are, we need to have a talk.

(02:54):
So as far as tomatoes nutrition is concerned, they are made-up
of about 95% water with a littlebit of carbohydrates and some
trace amounts of fat and protein.
They are low in calories, so 18 calories per 100 grams, and they
are packed with nutrients like vitamin C and potassium, vitamin
K1 and folate. They are also full of

(03:14):
antioxidants, most notably lycopene.
That is the compound that gives tomatoes their red color and
it's often touted for heart health and prostate support.
There's also beta carotene and chlorogenic acid.
And then there's a compound in the skin called Neuringenon,
which is a polyphenol that likely has some
anti-inflammatory effects. But not everything about the

(03:37):
tomato is helpful. The green part.
So the leaves and the stems actually contain toxic alkaloids
and ingesting those can cause symptoms from stomach upset to
much worse in rare instances. Which is why I think I've never
had a problem with small rodentsor anything eating my baby
tomato transplants like I have with my pepper transplants.

(04:01):
But the deer do seem to not havea problem eating the tomato
plants sometimes, so I'm not sure how that's working out for
the deer. So just don't you go snacking on
tomato leaves. And tomatoes are a warm season
crop. They like the heat.
They absolutely cannot handle frost.
So in northern climates, we wantto wait until all danger of

(04:22):
frost has passed and the soil temperatures are at least 60°F
or 15.5 Celsius. We actually ideally want them a
little bit closer to 70 Fahrenheit or 21.1 Celsius.
That's even better for reducing transplant shock and making sure
that they take off growing rightaway.
We also want to wait until the overnight air temperatures are

(04:47):
staying above 50°F or 10 Celsius.
It's not going to cause obvious damage to the plant tissues if
the temperatures drop, you know,down into the 40s, but it will
absolutely slow their growth andthere can actually be long term
effects that aren't as obvious. So there have been studies that

(05:08):
show if the overnight temperatures drop down just 1°C
to 9 Celsius or down to 48.2 Fahrenheit for 9 nights in a
row, they specifically looked atthis time frame.
Then the ability of the plant tophotosynthesize is permanently

(05:29):
reduced, so its photosynthetic rate, which is how the plant
gets energy to grow and produce fruit from the sun, is
irreversibly reduced. Now, that's if the temperatures
are low like that for more than a week.
But we also know that for every hour that the air temperatures
are below that 50°F, it takes anincreased amount of time for the

(05:51):
plant to recover its functions. So we don't want to rush and put
our tomato plants out in the garden until like we don't see
any nights any cooler than 50°F in the forecast and the soil
temperatures are at least like 65°F or 18.3 Celsius before we
put them out. You might choose to put them out

(06:12):
sooner and that's fine. Just know that they may get off
to a slower start. So if you can wait, I suggest
it. Now sometimes obviously maybe we
start our plants too early and they start to get leggy and we
need to get them out into the garden and that's fine.
Just know that you are also not going to get any higher of a

(06:33):
yield or any earlier of a yield by putting them out earlier.
So we have done the tests here. We have plants that we put out,
tomato plants that went out in late April and then we also set
tomato plants out three weeks later around mid-May and all of
those plants began producing at the same time.

(06:54):
The ones that went in earlier did not start producing any
earlier than the ones that went out in May, and the mid-May
transplanted plants looked much healthier overall.
We didn't measure the yield, butI really should repeat that
experiment to see if the yield was any different.
But for sure there was number difference in terms of when they

(07:14):
started producing. So tomato plants do need at
least six hours of sunlight a day.
Ideally, we're looking at 8 to 10 preferably.
So if you are gardening somewhere where you're getting
sort of a lot of part shade in your garden, just know that, you
know, even if it's broken up. So you get like 4 hours in the

(07:34):
morning and then four hours in the afternoon and you have a
break during the middle of the day, that's OK.
It all counts. It's all cumulative, right?
So, you know, if you have a particularly shady spot in your
yard and you're trying to grow tomatoes and you really aren't
quite hitting that 6 hour mark, maybe consider doing them in
containers and being able to move them around a little bit as

(07:57):
the season progresses to the sunniest parts of your yard if
you can. And we'll talk about how to do
that with containers here in a minute.
You may also, if you're in a hotSouthern climate in the Northern
Hemisphere, you might actually benefit from some afternoon
shade that is actually really helpful to those plants in the

(08:17):
extreme heat. You know, they might be, you
know, heat lovers, but they theyhave, you know, there is some
limit to to what they'll tolerate.
They like it warm, but they didn't originate like in the
desert. So there is a limit UA also in
these in those climates, consider growing determinate
tomatoes in two separate successions.
So one in the early spring and then another one late into the

(08:38):
fall to just avoid the hottest part of the year when it's
actually too hot for tomatoes. Because once they get over a
certain temperature, air temperature wise, tomatoes will
actually stop producing. They'll either drop their blooms
or they will stop ripening the tomatoes.
So if you can avoid those those really hot times in those
southern areas, then then you might be better off if you are

(08:58):
starting seeds indoors. Tomatoes like soil temperatures
for germination between 65 and 85 Fahrenheit, preferably closer
to that 85° range. I get questioned about this a
lot when it comes to, you know, seed germination temperatures
and why they are often listed somuch higher than like the

(09:21):
preferred soil temperature for transplants.
Because remember we said, you know, we want a minimum of 60°F
for the transplants to go into the garden.
Why would we not want that soil at a much warmer temperature,
which would be similar to what the germination temperature
would be? If you think about how a seed
would naturally occur out in thewild, basically, you know, if

(09:43):
you have tomatoes that drop their fruit, OK, and over ripe
fruit, the whole idea of producing fruit is to reproduce,
right? So the the tomato is going to
drop its fruit on the ground, that's going to disintegrate.
Those tomato seeds are going to be right there within that, you
know, top layer of the soil. Well, what happens with that top

(10:05):
layer of soil in the spring, That top, you know, inch or even
2 inches is getting warmer in the spring much more quickly
than the soil, you know, betweenthe two and four inch range.
So it's going to be closer to that 85°F during the day in the
early part of the spring versus the soil further down, which is

(10:28):
going to take longer to warm up.So as those roots go down,
they're actually going towards that cooler soil, but they like
that warmer temperature at the top to actually germinate.
So This is why when we're starting seeds indoors, we
generally like to use those heatmats because we're mimicking
what is actually going to happenoutdoors where the soil
temperature at the top at germination point is much

(10:49):
warmer, but then those roots aregoing down into that slightly
cooler soil. So just think, you know, when
you're planting your seeds, whenyou're starting them indoors,
those seeds should be planted about 1/4 of an inch deep and
just keep them nice and moist. And again, if you have those
higher temperatures, that's alsovery important, making sure
they're in contact with that wetsoil all the time, or damp soil
I should say. And then once they sprout, they

(11:10):
do need lots of light. You know it.
We say they need 6 hours a day to grow while they're out in the
garden, but ideally if we can provide them with more than that
when they are growing indoors, so closer to like 12 to 14 hours
a day, even as much as 18 hours a day from a grow light, then
that's going to be better. And I know that can be a bit

(11:32):
much for beginners, which is whya lot of gardeners just want to
buy their their starts at the garden center.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Don't feel like you have to go and start your own tomatoes from
seed. The benefit to starting your own
tomatoes from seed, though, is that you get to choose from a
whole wide range of varieties that you likely are not going to

(11:53):
find in, you know, a garden and a nursery in a in a big box
store, any of those places. So if you are interested in
trying a bunch of different types of varieties or you are
looking for specific traits in general, you are likely going to
want to start your own tomatoes indoors.
And part of this is tomato typesfall into two main categories of

(12:19):
growth. We have determinate and we have
indeterminate. So determinate or like Bush
varieties will grow to about twoto three feet tall and they
produce most of their fruit overa short period of time.
So these are really great if youwant to can or make sauce all at
once. You don't want to have to

(12:39):
continue to do a bunch of batches throughout the year.
They also don't require staking and so they're very ideal for
containers and small spaces. And again, if you are in a very,
very warm climate where the center or the the middle part of
the summer is just way too hot for growing tomatoes, you can
use a determinant tomato very early in the season to get your

(13:01):
first batch of tomatoes. And then pull those tomato
plants out, making space for something else during the
hottest part of the season. And then plant another batch of
them later on towards the fall when your temperatures start to
cool a little bit, but timing itto where you know it's still
warm enough for them to grow. And that way you're getting two
different batches essentially oftomatoes.

(13:23):
You don't want to prune determinate tomatoes though,
because that is going to reduce the number of fruiting points on
the plant and since they only produce those points over a
short period of time, that will reduce your overall yield.
So some determinant varieties like in the slicing kind of

(13:43):
tomato category are things like Celebrity or Rutgers or
Butterbush. And then a lot of your sauce and
paste tomatoes like your Roma's and your San Marzano's are also
determinants. On the other side of this we
have indeterminate. These are your vining type
varieties. OK, so they will keep growing
and keep producing all season long until you get to your your

(14:05):
first frost. So think about like your cherry
tomatoes and how wild and crazy cherry tomatoes can grow or your
beef steak tomatoes, right? These guys all do need staking
or caging and this is for a number of reasons.
Number one, you want to kind of have a way to support that
longer growth and that heavier load of fruit, but also it keeps

(14:27):
that fruit up off the ground where it can be bruised or you
know, critters have more access to them, etcetera.
So these are the ones that you generally want to make sure that
you are staking or caging and we'll talk about how to do that
here in a minute. Now there is actually a third
type that isn't always differentiated a lot of the time

(14:49):
and it's called indeterminate, short internode or ISI.
These are Bush types of tomatoesthat are also indeterminate.
So they keep growing and producing all season long.
But the difference between, you know, your regular vining
indeterminate and these ISIS is that these ones have shorter

(15:11):
internode. So the internode is that space
between the nodes on the stem where the leaves are attached.
So rather than being, you know, spaced a certain distance apart
like the vining types, they're shorter, which means that they
have a bushier growth habit, which is more similar to a Bush
type or a determinant. But unlike A determinant that

(15:33):
only produces all of its fruits sort of all at once over the
span of a few weeks, these Isis will actually produce all season
long. So one variety that we grow here
for our customers specifically to be able to grow in containers
on their patio is called Husky Red.
But there's also Perths Pride and Sleeping Lady and Dwarf Wild

(15:54):
Fred. Dwarf Wild Fred.
Yeah. So even though they have a
compact growth habit though, these, you do actually want to
stake or use a cage or somethingbecause that indeterminate fruit
production will mean that it gets heavy enough with fruit
over the season to sort of be top heavy.
And so, you know, you want to prevent it from falling over.

(16:17):
You also don't want to prune ISIplants other than to clear out
dead or disease foliage around the base of the plant for
airflow. And we'll talk more on pruning
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(16:38):
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(17:00):
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(17:22):
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(17:43):
The link is in the show notes. So let's talk about the
difference between growing tomatoes in ground versus
growing them like in pots or containers.
So if you are planting in the ground or using like raised
planters, it's generally recommended that you space your
plants about two to three feet apart so that they get enough

(18:05):
air flow and sunlight. The one thing I will say is if
you are trellising your tomatoeseither on a panel or by using
the string method, and we'll go into all that here in a minute,
it is possible to plant them more closely together.
So anywhere between 12 and 18 inches is actually possible so

(18:28):
long as you have that really good soil fertility and you are
doing some pruning. So just know that if you feel
like you don't have enough room for the number of tomato plants
that you want to grow, the way that you trellis them may make
the difference and also the way that you prune them.
But when it comes to, you know, that soil fertility, we want to
make sure that we are adding good compost or organic matter

(18:50):
to the soil. And then if you want to add, you
know, bone meal or you know, a tomato specific fertilizer at
planting or around planting timeto support that root and flower
development, that's a really good idea.
Don't go heavy on the nitrogen, too much nitrogen is going to
give you like a lot of leafy green, but not so much in terms

(19:12):
of the flowering and the fruiting.
So remember we want that the phosphorus and the potassium for
supporting that flowering and fruiting.
So, you know, a standard amount of nitrogen is fine if you're
using, say a balanced fertilizerthat's like a 10/10/10 or you
can do something that is higher with that middle number and that
last number. So like a 10/15/10 to get more

(19:34):
of the, the phosphorus in there.And then a quick tip for
transplanting. Remember we talked about, you
know, maybe having leggy plants that maybe got away from you and
you started them too early and you were you waited too late to
get them in the ground. Tomato plants are very, very
forgiving when it comes to planting.
If they've gotten really leggy, right?

(19:56):
You can lay them on their side sort of in a trench and then
just leave that top part of the stem out of the ground.
And they will take off just fine.
Tomatoes will grow roots all along their stems wherever they
are in contact with the soil. So even if they're not laggy, if

(20:16):
you can dig a nice deeper hole and plant them deeper into that
hole and just leave those few inches at the top of the plant,
that is really going to help them establish a nice strong
root system. So this is not one of those
plants where we want to take them from the pot and put them
in the soil and plant them at the same depth as the soil depth

(20:40):
in the container. We want to get them as deep as
possible. OK.
And so again, if your seedlings are leggy, you can use this to
your advantage by laying them ina shallow trench and then just
burying the stem sideways. I will say that unless you are
growing determinate varieties, you want to steak or cage your

(21:00):
tomatoes at the same time that you are planting them.
Do not wait to do this. This is the voice of experience
speaking to you right now. Unless you are just doing a
single steak that is going to goright next to the stem of the
plant once they're growing, it is really, really difficult to
try to add that support later onand you can actually end up

(21:23):
damaging the plant. So if you're using cages, get
your tomato plant in the ground and then put the cage over top
of it right away. If you are doing, you know,
fence trellises or if you're doing the string methods, make
sure that all of your apparatus are there and in place before
you go and plant your tomatoes. You don't want to be doing this

(21:44):
after they've already started growing.
Now, if you're using containers,we're looking at preferably
something that's a 20 inch top with some really good drainage
holes. So usually this is something at
least like in the five gallon range, but 10 gallon is even
better. If you're doing 5 gallon, make
sure that you are, you know, doing probably a determinate
tomato that is a bit smaller or one of those ISIS.

(22:07):
You definitely want to use a good quality potting mix,
possibly mixing in some compost or or other organic matter into
there. These are plants that are going
to be in place in this for a very extended period of time.
So you want to make sure that the soil fertility is there.
So not only is this going to help with the soil fertility,
but it's also hopefully going tohelp with some water retention

(22:27):
because containers can dry out faster than like our in ground
garden beds or even our raised planters.
So number one, we want somethingin that container that's going
to help retain the moisture, butjust understand that you're
likely going to need to water more often, especially during
heat waves. We do want to stick with those
less frequent, more thorough waterings.
OK, that still applies here, butyou don't want the container to

(22:50):
get bone dry before you water itbecause that stresses the plant
out and it can also make your soil hydrophobic, meaning when
you do finally go and water it, then the water might just float
across the top and it might not soak in quite his way.
So make sure that you are, you know, paying attention to its
watering needs. And again, if you're doing these
in pots, you likely want to stick with the Bush or the dwarf

(23:10):
varieties unless you are ready to really stake some sort of a
monster vine in a pot. This is even more important if
you plan to move the pot around.So like I mentioned earlier, if
you have a problem with your garden becoming shaded at
certain points of the season andyou don't think you're going to
have enough sun, make it to where you are planting a Bush or

(23:33):
a dwarf variety in a container that you can move, You can
follow the sun as it continues around during the season.
This is one way to kind of get around that.
So when we're talking trellisingand pruning, 2 practices that
can make a huge difference in your plant health, your harvest
quality and your ease of maintenance.

(23:54):
OK, trellising and pruning. Let's talk trellising first.
Why does it matter? Trellising helps to keep your
tomato plants upright. OK, so this keeps the plants or
keeps the fruit off of the ground, so that reduces the
possibility of rot. It's also going to reduce the
possibility of disease and also damage from things like slugs or
rabbits that can grab onto it very easily when they're close

(24:16):
to the ground. Your upright plants are less
likely to break in the wind, especially when they are loaded
down with heavy fruit. So that's going to support your
harvest a little bit more. And it also increases air
circulation, which is going to help prevent fungal diseases
like early blight. This is really important if you
live someplace like where I do, where it gets very, very humid

(24:39):
and it just seems like the disease just wants to hang in
the air and it wants to attach itself to our tomato plants.
So, you know, staking or trellising in some way actually
helps to accomplish all of thosethings.
Do all tomatoes need a trellis? No, not necessarily.
We already talked the determinate type.
So all those Bush or patio tomatoes generally stay compact

(25:02):
enough and don't require support, although it is still
helpful during heavy fruiting. Indeterminate tomatoes, you
know, again, they grow and produce all season.
They really do need some supportfor their best yield and their
best health. So what are some different ways
that we can do this? The first one that you likely

(25:23):
are familiar with is those tomato cages.
These are fine for, you know, smaller gardens if you are
growing fewer than 10 plants because they can be kind of
pricey. The square cages are really nice
because they have like solid, you know, four sides around
them, which makes it, you know, a little bit more sturdy than

(25:44):
the round ones that kind of taper at the bottom.
Just make sure really what it isis that they're they're tall
enough, OK, especially for indeterminate varieties.
They're they can be a little flimsy if you don't get the
right ones, you know, and they, I mean, they have very, very
inexpensive ones. So if you are growing more than
10 plants, then you might be tempted to buy the kind of cheap

(26:07):
ones. But just know that if you're
growing an indeterminate varietyand they get particularly
vigorous, it's probably going tooutgrow that cage.
You likely are going to have them coming up and over the side
and you know, vines going out all over the place.
So just be aware that you might need to prune more frequently if
you've got a cage. The next option would be

(26:29):
individual steaks. So putting a single steak next
to each plant basically right atthe stem and then loosely tying
that main stem as it grows. This is very simple.
It is it is fairly effective depending on the size of the
steak. Again, we want to base that on
the size of our tomato plant, especially if we are doing an

(26:50):
indeterminate. It can be time consuming if you
have a large number of plants togo through and do this, but it
is effective and we do it here in a lot of the beds where we
may not have permanent trellising attached.
The next one would be a fence trellis, so a vertical structure
of some store. Our favorite thing to do is a

(27:10):
cattle panel on T posts, and I like to leave them in place.
This lets you tie tomatoes to this very sturdy frame.
So we can actually space our tomatoes much more closely
together because they're being planted at the base of this
cattle panel, and I can tie it up very effectively and control

(27:33):
that growth habit as it goes up.You know what the bonus about
this too, is? If you have these types of
sturdy, sturdy trellises in place all the time, you can
reuse it for other vining crops.So one year you might grow, you
know, peas on that trellis. Or maybe, you know, pole beans

(27:55):
and well, that's a legume. It's fixing nitrogen into the
soil. And so the next season you could
do tomatoes there because the tomatoes can take advantage of
that nitrogen for its early growth.
And then maybe the next season you can do cucumbers, right?
All, all in different seasons. So we're rotating those plant
families like we like to do, andwe're using that same trellis
over and over again. So if you can invest in a really

(28:17):
good fence type trellis, then that's the way that I recommend
doing it because I mean that's how we do it and it works really
well for us. There is also the Florida weave.
So this is another way to do it.I have done this in the past.
I'm not sure if I'm doing it this year because we sort of
moved fields where we're doing all of our tomatoes, but it is

(28:38):
very effective. So, and this is really ideal for
you if you have rows of tomatoes.
So essentially what you're doingis you're driving steaks between
every few plants and then you are weaving twine around the
steaks and around the tomato plants kind of in and out as you
go down and then back the same, you know, back, come up the

(29:00):
other direction and do the same thing on the opposite side of
each of those plants. So essentially you are
sandwiching the plants in between these strings of twine
and you just add more layers of that of the twine as the plants
grow taller. It's very efficient and it's

(29:21):
very scalable. If you are growing a lot of
plants and you're doing them in rows, it is a very, very
effective way to to get them strung up, so to say.
You just have to make sure that on either end you have something
very sturdy to sort of anchor the, the twine that you're tying
off so that so, you know, your rows don't kind of flip flop

(29:43):
around. So if you're using, you know,
fairly skinny steaks in between,you know, the, the plants as you
go every so often you want to have a really, you know, heavy
duty 1, So either AT post or a larger steak or something like
that. But it is a very, very effective
way. It takes a little practice and
you definitely have to keep up on it, but but it is, it is very

(30:04):
effective. And then of course there is also
the overhead string trellis and you can do the the lower and
lean method with this as well. So this is a little bit more
advanced and, but I have seen a lot of home gardeners start to
do this. And it's, I mean, it's very
effective. It's really good for maximizing
your yield in a very small space.

(30:25):
And essentially what you're doing is that you're creating an
overhead support of some sort. And then you are dangling
strings. You know that strings are
hanging from that overhead support.
And so the plants are tied to those strings as they grow.
Now you can just do that and call it good.

(30:47):
That's your, you know, that's the way that they, they grow all
season long. Or if you want to make it a
little bit easier on yourself, or if you have a very, very long
growing season and your tomatoesare going to get very, very
tall, you do the lower and lean method, which is very popular in
commercial greenhouses. So essentially you're removing
the lower leaves as the plant, you know, is the production, you

(31:11):
know, ceases at the lower part of the plant.
You just start to strip those leaves off and then you like
lower those plants on the string, let them kind of lean
down sideways. So now that's all touching the
ground. That whole bare section on the
bottom of the plant is touching the ground and the top part

(31:32):
continues to grow upward. You, I mean, it's, it's very
difficult to describe. You'll have to go look it up.
If you just look at the lower and lean method, you will see
what I'm talking about. But, you know, this is very
effective if you, again, have, you know, a small space or you
don't want to put any kind of a permanent trellis in place.
It's very effective. It just takes some practice.

(31:54):
But it isn't really good for maximizing your yield,
especially if you have a small space.
Now, what about pruning? OK, should you bother pruning
this is this is the age-old question and I will let you in
on a little secret. I very rarely prune my tomatoes
anymore. OK, so basically the short

(32:17):
answer is it's optional. OK, Yes, pruning can improve
your airflow, which is actually going to help you reduce
disease. So I absolutely recommend
pruning if you live someplace where diseases are prevalent,
especially, again, places like here where it gets very, very
humid. But I tend to prune just like

(32:38):
the lower, probably 12 inches orso of the plant to keep any
debris from splashing up out of the soil and causing soil still
borne diseases. And then I will just remove what
branches and leaves seem to either be obstructing the
airflow a little bit. I don't really do it
strategically in terms of, you know, pinching off the suckers.

(33:04):
If you prune, it also is likely going to increase your fruit
size, but it does not mean you're going to get more fruit.
You're actually reducing the number of fruit that you're
getting. So it's kind of like, you know,
if you if you picture the fact that this plant has a certain
amount of energy that I can put into fruiting, right?

(33:27):
And you either are going to giveit the opportunity to produce a
bunch of smaller fruits or pruneit to where it gives you fewer
but much larger fruits. OK.
I can also encourage earlier ripening too, depending on the
variety that you're growing. But skipping pruning does not
mean that your plants are going to fail.
Again, I don't do a ton of pruning because I mentioned

(33:49):
we're planting 500 some odd tomato plants and in addition to
everything else that goes on in these gardens, I don't have time
to be out there pruning all the time.
You just need to remember that you only prune indeterminate
tomatoes. If you prune the determinant
types, you're going to reduce your yield because they only
produce a fixed number of flowers and fruits.
OK. It is also very normal for the

(34:11):
lower leaves to yellow and fall off, especially for determinate
plants as that fruit matures. So don't don't worry about that
in your in your determinants, you're not doing anything wrong.
So only prune your indeterminatetomatoes.
The essentially when you're pruning, you have a couple of
things. First off, early on, if your

(34:33):
plant is fairly small when you plant them, it's generally
recommended that you pinch off the flowers until that plant is
at least 12 to 18 inches tall. We want to build a good strong
root system. We want that energy being
focused on root development and not on flowering and fruiting.
This is, you know, especially ifyou have a very, very large

(34:57):
tomato, you know that you're growing in terms of fruit size.
Again, this is not something youdo with a determinant.
You, you only on the indeterminants, OK.
And then once it starts flowering and fruiting and you
allow it to start to develop itsfruit, you want to remove the
suckers. OK, so the suckers.
And it took me a long time to figure out what people meant by
suckers because in terms of likefruit trees and things like

(35:19):
that, suckers are what come fromthe base of the plant that
continue to grow up. But when we're talking about
tomatoes, the suckers are the small shoots that grow in the
joint between the main stem and a leaf branch.
OK, So, and it's very easy to just pinch those off when
they're very small. You can just pinch them with
your fingers. OK.

(35:40):
Now, if you don't do this, thoseagain eventually become fruiting
points and you're going to have more fruit coming out of there.
So if you are focusing on getting larger fruits, then yes,
absolutely remove those suckers.If you're not that concerned
about it, then you're getting more fruit out of those suckers,
but they're just going to be smaller fruits, OK.

(36:01):
Then you can also again, remove those lower leaves as the plant
gets taller and the fruits ripenbecause that is going to improve
the airflow near the base. And of course, this is
absolutely crucial if you are trying to avoid diseases.
So what kind of pests do we haveto worry about with tomatoes?
The first thing probably earliest in the season is tomato

(36:23):
cut worm. They may actually eat the stem
of the tomato plant and kind of cuts through.
That's the stem completely. In some cases you walk out and
it's very similar to what you see in any other type of a
plant. You walk out and you're
perfectly healthy. Little tomato seedling is now
laying flat on its side like something snipped it at the soil
level. That is generally a cut worm.

(36:44):
So you either you can wait untilyour tomato plants are larger
and it's it's less difficult, less difficult, more difficult
for the cutworm to be able to cut through the stem of the
tomato plant. Or you can put collars around
the base of the plant to help prevent them from getting to the
stem at all. Because they actually might also

(37:05):
climb up the stem and feed on the leaves if they, you know, if
they can't cut through the stem.So a collar is a good idea if
you know that you have had cutworms.
Aphids too, can tend to be a problem in tomatoes.
They're generally only a problemif you have them in abundance
because they will cause yellow curling leaves and they've got

(37:27):
this white sticky residue, the honeydew that they leave behind.
If you are promoting a really good ecosystem in your garden
and you are inter planting things like we talked about
before, you likely are also going to be drawing in some of
those good bugs that are actually going to take care of
the aphids for you. Never have I had a problem with

(37:50):
such a horrible infestation of aphids that it started causing
problems with my plants before the ladybugs moved in to try to
help take care of that problem. So don't panic if you see aphids
right away. Now you can just spray them off
with a hose, OK? They often times are fairly easy

(38:13):
to just knock down that population by spraying them off
really well and waiting for those ladybugs to start to find,
you know, to show up. But if you're not noticing any
of the lady beetles or any of their larvae, which if you've
never seen lady beetle larvae, they look like tiny little
orange and black alligators. They're very cool looking.
But the first time I saw one, I had no idea if it was a good bug
or a bad bug. So just know that those are your

(38:34):
your lady beetle or ladybug larvae and they are voracious
eaters of aphids. If you notice though, that you
have aphids in addition to having a ton of ants, just know
that ants will farm aphids like livestock in order to feed on
the honeydew that the avids aphids leave behind.

(38:56):
So at that point, you definitelywant to be kind of spraying
things down just to kind of get rid of them and hope for the
best, you know. But of course, if that doesn't
work, then, you know, you can use some insecticidal soap, you
know, directly on the insects onthe plant to get rid of them.
Flea beetles are a problem, especially in younger plants.
Usually if you've gotten the plant, you know, beyond its kind

(39:18):
of ceiling or juvenile stage andthe flea beetles, even if they
are there and causing damage, they're not going to cause so
much damage that it if it, it causes a problem with the plants
production. Flea beetles are usually more of
a problem when the plant is younger because they cause those
holes in the leaves. And of course that interrupts
the photosynthesis process, which is going to interrupt how

(39:39):
well that plant grows in the beginning.
So that's one thing to to be aware of.
And of course there is a tomato hornworm or the tobacco
hornworm. They're both the same.
They 'cause that defoliation on your tomatoes.
Those are those big, thick, nasty green tomatoes that have
what looks like a horn on the end of them.

(40:01):
They will do some damage. You can walk out the next day
and see just plants completely stripped of their leaves if you
don't pay attention to what's going on.
And you can usually see the signs of the hornworm before you
start to see that they are completely defoliating your
plants because you'll see their droppings.
So you'd the tomato hornworm frass is kind of very

(40:24):
distinctive looking. It's black almost almost looks
square to be honest with you. If you look up pictures of this,
you will know if you see that that you have hornworms.
Interesting fact, if you go out into your garden with a black
light at night, tomato hornwormswill glow in the dark.
And so they're a lot easier to pick off when you can see them

(40:45):
when they're glowing in the dark.
White flies are also a problem in tomatoes.
They can, you know, also leave behind a sticky white residue.
But generally speaking, if you have white flies, you're going
to know it because as soon as you move that plant, they just
all fly up. And then leaf miners, those are
also an issue. You're going to see that kind of
tunnel or zigzag pattern on the leaves.

(41:07):
And then of course, we have cornearworms, which is also known as
the tomato fruitworm, which is why we generally don't like to
plant corn near our tomatoes because they share a host.
They're both a host for the samepest and stink bugs and slugs,
those can all, you know, cause holes in your fruit once they
start producing. So with all of these pests, you

(41:30):
generally want to monitor your tomato plants on a daily basis.
Checking underneath the leaves is a really good idea.
Check the fruit, check around your soil, make sure that you
are able to identify the probleminsects in your area.
So your university extension is a really good place to start
looking for that information to find out what tomato pests are

(41:52):
in your area. And then you can find out what
the natural predators are for those pests so that you
recognize what those look like in your garden.
And, you know, you know, OK, this is a good bug.
This is one that I don't want. And you're not, you know, doing
away with the bugs that you actually want to have there.
Again, if you can dislodge the pests just by spraying your

(42:16):
plants down with a really good jet stream from the hose, this
is a nice step. You know, especially, you know,
for things like aphids that takea while to actually cause
damage, but you can be handpicking insects to those
bigger things like the tomato hornworms.
Get yourself a pair of gloves and, you know, a bucket of soapy
water or a cup of soapy water and just walk through and pick
those guys off and toss them in the soapy water.

(42:37):
You can also use that insecticidal soap directly on
the insects on the plant. This works especially well for
smaller pests like aphids and you know, even spider mites or
other types of things. Horticultural oils or sprays
diluted in water. Neem oil sprays are also good to
use here too. If as a last resort you choose

(43:00):
to use an actual synthetic insecticide, keep in mind that
you might also be, you know, damaging the beneficial insects
as well. Just make sure that you are
following the directions on the label.
The label is the law and we do not want to under use or over
use these things because we don't want to develop reasons.
Insects. So those are all the buggies.

(43:23):
What about the diseases and other problems?
OK, early blight. This is a fungal disease that
causes leaves to drop. It is very common after rainfall
or in very humid areas like ours.
It starts with these dark concentric spots on the leaves.
They're like brown to black. They're about 1/2 an inch in
diameter and it's usually on thelower leaves and the stems.

(43:45):
If you catch it early and you destroy the infected leaves,
your plant is likely to survive.Late blight is another fungal
disease that causes Gray, moldy spots on the leaves and the
fruit, which will later turn brown.
It is spread and supported also by persistent damp weather.
This is especially true if you have your plants in the ground

(44:07):
already and you're having like acool, wet spring.
You very likely might see some late light powdery mildew is
another fungal disease. It leaves those white spots or a
dusting of white on the leaves. It definitely can be managed
again, you know it's more prevalent when it's damp out,
but I have successfully used first Saturday lime or milk

(44:27):
sprays or baking soda on the theleaf surfaces.
And with a lot of these fungal ones, this will work to help
kind of combat it because you'rechanging the pH of of the
surface of the leaves and it's less likely that those funguses
can survive outside of their like typical pH range.

(44:47):
So anything that you can do to change that pH of the surface of
the leaf or the plant, the more likely you're going to be able
to combat these fungal diseases.Now, not everything is like
fungal. We have mosaic virus, OK, so it
creates distorted leaves and it causes the young growth to be
narrowed and it's kind of twisted in gnarly.

(45:08):
And then the leaves become modeled with yellow.
And unfortunately there is nothing that you can do about
mosaic virus. You will need to destroy the
plants. You have to pull the entire
plant and destroy it. Do not put it in your compost
pile. Get rid of it in some other way
because there is no way to fix mosaic virus and it will it will
very quickly move from the actual plant tissues itself into

(45:30):
the fruits and the fruits are unedible.
So there is there is really no helping a plant that ends up
with mosaic virus and it's called mosaic virus because you
can see this sort of modeled mosaic pattern on on the leaves
out of that yellow color so thatyou'll know if it's mosaic virus
few cerium wilt. This starts with yellowing and

(45:50):
wilting generally on one side ofthe plant and then it moves up
the plant as the fungus spreads.And again, unfortunately, this
is another one where you know, once the plant has it, it needs
to be destroyed because there isno fixing it.
What you can fix is blossom and rot, sort of.

(46:11):
OK Blossom and rot is caused by a calcium imbalance.
So this causes the bottom side of the tomato to develop a like
dark sunken spot. Now blossom and rod is not just
in tomatoes. You can get this in your your
summer squashes and all kinds ofother plants that aren't getting

(46:32):
a proper amount of calcium. It does not necessarily mean
that you don't have enough calcium in your soil.
Calcium is notoriously slow to move, whether it's through the
soil or through the plant itself.
And it can be kind of thrown offby a lot of different things,
right? Really inconsistent rainfall can

(46:53):
cause calcium to move more slowly or to be less available
to your plants. So don't assume that because
you've got blossom end rot that you have a calcium deficiency.
It is just a calcium imbalance. It's very rare for soils to
actually be calcium deficient. Now, can you do something to

(47:14):
help with this? Well, number one, if it's a
matter of your watering practices, that might be part of
it. If you know you're you're
watering infrequently or you're inconsistently, I should say,
then that might cause a problem with the calcium imbalance.
So you might have to adjust yourwatering practices if you don't

(47:34):
irrigate like we don't. But you know, we mostly rely on
on Mother Nature's rainfall for the, for the, the water needs of
the plant. Then we make sure that we mulch
really, really well. So whatever moisture we do get
gets trapped in that soil for anextended period of time and
again, less likely to have calcium issues.
There is also, you know, soil amendments that you can add that

(47:57):
are liquid that will immediatelydeliver that calcium to the
plant when it needs it. And it makes it a bit easier for
it to go because it's like watersoluble.
And it's, there's a bunch of different, you know, liquid
versions of these things that you can add if you're really
seeing a problem. But in most instances, it
generally resolves itself once the weather conditions change or

(48:21):
the soil conditions, you know, change as the season goes on.
So don't immediately start amending and you know, and
throwing calcium at the problem.If you start to see blossom and
rot, give it a little bit of time to see if it corrects
itself. If there's anything you can do
to help correct it in terms of watering, then great.
And then Speaking of watering, the other thing too that you
might see in tomatoes is cracking.

(48:43):
So when the fruit grows too quickly, it the skin is going to
crack, you get these openings. This is especially a problem in
cherry tomatoes because they're so small when they crack, they
basically burst open. But this is, you know, also
common in in your regular slicing tomatoes.
This usually occurs because again, uneven moisture, whether

(49:07):
it's from water, you know, weather conditions or it's from
your uneven watering. If you have a very rainy periods
mixed in with really, really dryperiods, you know, then all of a
sudden that that fruit is takingup all of that water and it's
bursting at the seams, quite literally.
So again, we want to just kind of see if we can keep our

(49:28):
moisture levels consistent here either with, you know,
consistent watering. It doesn't mean daily, remember,
less frequent, more thorough, but we want it consistent.
So, you know, do a test to see how long it takes for your soil
to dry out down, you know, deeper and then soak it really
good and then let it dry out andsoak it and let it dry out.

(49:48):
You don't want it to get bone dry, but you also don't want to
be watering every single day at the top one or two inches
because that's not good for yourplant either.
If you're relying on rainfall, then mulch is going to be your
friend. Mulch, mulch, mulch.
I always say mulch for a myriad of reasons, but in this instance
it's for helping to water or manage your water.
And then finally, let's talk about the harvest and storage of

(50:11):
your tomatoes. One of the beautiful things
about homegrown tomatoes is being able to leave them on the
vine as long as possible and have that just beautifully
juicy, ripe, warmed by the sun summer tomato.
However, it is not necessary to leave them on the vine that long

(50:33):
in order to be able to get that full tomato flavor, especially
if you have problems with critters.
Squirrels, notoriously, you know, go out there and, and wait
until it's, you know, just the right time to pick those
tomatoes off and take a big old bite out of it, right?
Raccoons. We've had problems with raccoons
stripping our tomatoes off of our our vines.

(50:53):
So it also, you know, the the Ripper or the more ripe a tomato
fruit gets, the less firm it is.And so it actually makes it
easier for some of those insect pests to get into there too.
So you can harvest your tomatoeswhen they are still firm.
You want to and you can, you know, look at their color to see

(51:16):
when it's time to ripen them. OK?
So whether it's bunnies or it's insect pest or birds or
whatever, you might want to get to it before it gets fully
colored up. So we're talking about when they
are first starting to blush. So when they just start to turn
the correct color on the bottom of the fruit.
And I say correct color because there's so many varieties out
there. You've got yellow, you've got

(51:37):
green tomatoes. I mean like green when they're
ripe, purple tomatoes, you know,in addition to the red and the
orange. So just know what color it's
supposed to be. And as that tomato starts to
turn the right color on the bottom of the fruit, then you
can go ahead and harvest them. I promise you, they are still
going to taste absolutely fantastic.

(51:57):
Just bring them in and let them sit in a warm area in your
kitchen to just finish coloring up.
Do not place them in a sunny windowsill to ripen, OK, because
they might actually rot before they are ripe if they get that
sort of direct sunlight coming in through the windowsill.
So just a warm a warm space in your kitchen, not necessarily in
the direct sunlight. This also means that if you have

(52:23):
gotten all the way through the season and it's getting close to
frost and you have a ton of tomatoes out there on your plant
and the temperatures are starting to drop and of course
your tomatoes aren't ripen at this point, then you can do one
of two things. You can either pull the entire
plant and just kind of brush offthe dirt, remove all the foliage

(52:43):
but leave the fruit and then just hang the plant upside down
in your basement or your garage.It will continue to ripen up
those fruits using the energy stores that are still in that
plant. You also can just pick any of
the mature pale green tomatoes. So you know when tomatoes just

(53:04):
get ready to start ripening up, they are.
They go from that real dark solid green color to start to be
like a pale green. They're mature at that point,
but they're just still green. So you can store those stem side
up in a paper bag or wrap them loosely in newspaper and put
them in a cardboard box and thenjust store them in a cool space

(53:26):
somewhere between 55 and 70°F inthe dark.
And the cooler on the, you know,the cooler side of those
temperatures, it's going to slowthe ripening a little bit, a
little bit warmer on that, you know, the 70° side they're going
to they're going to speed up that that ripening.
You just check them every week and pull out the ones that are
ripe. And if any of them start to get
softer, you know, spotted, then you know, you get rid of those.

(53:48):
But that's one way that you can harvest tomatoes towards the end
of the season if they're not ready to, you know, if they're
not ripening. Just don't ever refrigerate your
tomatoes. Temperatures below 55 Fahrenheit
actually destroy the enzymes that give tomatoes their flavor,
and it can actually ruin the texture.

(54:09):
So you know, obviously if you'veonly eaten half of 1 then you
need to cover it and put it in the fridge to keep it from
spoiling. But just know the second-half of
that tomato is not going to taste as good as the first half
of the tomato. You can store tomatoes in the
freezer just by coring them and placing them whole into a

(54:32):
freezer bag or a container. Just seal it, label it, freeze
it and there you go. The cool thing about this is
when you decide that you want touse them, the skins just slip
right off when they start to thaw.
You can just, you know, run it under the water and whoop, there
it goes. So this is a great way to save
your tomatoes if you have too many coming on at once, but you

(54:53):
don't have time to can them up. I don't have time to be canning
my sauces or my stewed tomatoes or anything else during the
busiest part of our season. So I throw them whole into bags
in the freezer. And then I, I, you know, I
process them later on. So otherwise, yeah, you
absolutely can, you know, can them up as stewed tomatoes or as

(55:13):
a sauce or whatever to continue to enjoy that fresh from the
garden flavor for all winter long.
But other than that, yeah, freezing them works absolutely
great. So that's the down and dirty on
tomatoes. I hope that gave you a good jump
on the season and being able to go and get those favorites into

(55:35):
your garden this season. If you have tips or tricks for
pruning or trellising or storingyour tomatoes that I didn't
touch on today, send me a message, let me know.
I would love to share it with everybody else.
We'll put it in the Facebook group.
We'll post it on Instagram. Tell me your tomato growing
secrets. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll

(55:55):
talk again soon.