How to Grow Tomatoes: The Ultimate Start-to-Finish Guide ~ Homestead and Chill

Craving fresh, juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes? Come learn everything you need to know to grow tomatoes at home – including in containers. This start-to-finish guide will explore popular varieties, planting tips, how to prune and support tomato plants, organic pest control, and the best ways to harvest, store, or preserve fresh tomatoes. After growing tomatoes for almost 20 years, I’ve included all my top tips!

For easy reading, I’ve organized the guide into 4 main sections: Getting Started, Planting and Pruning, Ongoing Care, and finally Harvesting and Storage.

A close up image of a bunch of Sungold cherry tomatoes on the vine is shown. The sun is shining in from the background, illuminating the tomatoes to even more orange colored globes. The bottom half of the vine consists of Sungold cherry tomatoes that aren't quite ripe yet, ranging in color from dark green to lightish green yellow to fully ripe and orange at the top of the bunch. Other fruit from the plant is visible in the background although the surrounding image is out of focus compared to the featured tomatoes. — Sungold cherry tomatoes, a prolific and easy long-time favorite.

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Getting Started: Timing, Seedlings, Varieties and Soil

When to Plant Tomatoes

Tomatoes are warm-season crops that do not tolerate frost, and can be planted outside in early spring after the last risk of frost has passed. I always keep frost cloth on hand to protect young tomato seedlings in case of an unexpected late frost.

However, tomatoes thrive in warm soil and will grow very slowly if the soil is still too cool. In fact, studies show that planting tomatoes too early can make them more susceptible to nutrient deficiencies! For the best results, wait to plant tomatoes until the soil temperature is consistently over 60°F in the daytime if possible. Use a simple soil thermometer to monitor (down in the root zone) before planting.

For example, based on the frost dates in my area (Central Coast of CA, zone 9) I could technically plant tomatoes outside in late March. Yet we have very cool and foggy spring weather, so I find our tomatoes grow more vigorously if I wait to plant them once the soil warms up in late April to early May.

A Homestead and Chill planting calendar for Zone 10 is shown. It depicts when to start seeds inside, transplant outdoors, or plant seeds outside, along with first and last frost dates. — Get a free planting calendar for EVERY zone here

Starting from Seed or Seedlings

Since tomatoes require a long warm growing season, it’s best to plant established seedlings in your garden rather than planting seeds directly outdoors. This gives them a great head start, and means you’ll be harvesting fresh tomatoes sooner! You can plant tomato seedlings that you started indoors from seed, or pick up seedlings from a local nursery. I often do a little of both!

To grow tomatoes from seed, start seeds indoors approximately 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost date in spring. Plant seeds in clean containers full of seed-starting soil mix, provide ample light, warmth, and consistent moisture. See my guide on starting seeds indoors for more detailed tips – including ongoing seedling care such as thinning, fertilizing, potting up, and hardening off seedlings.

If you opt to buy started nursery seedlings instead, get tips on choosing the best nursery seedlings here. Look for varieties well-suited for your climate or space, and pick the healthiest and freshest looking seedlings. Bigger isn’t always better!

A young tomato plant is shown after it has been potted up into 8 inch nursery pots. the plant is about 18 inches tall from the soil line. The surrounding imagery is the inside of a small hobby greenhouse, there are potting benches lined around the perimeter of the inside walls and there are various tomatoes in 8 inch and 4 inch pots. Using a greenhouse is a great way to start seedlings early when you decide to grow tomatoes. — Some tomato seedlings in our greenhouse. We start our tomatoes in 4 inch containers, and pot them up to 8″ pots for a while before they’re planted outside. This helps prevent them from getting root bound in too small of a container.

Choosing Tomato Varieties to Grow

Some common tomato varieties include Early Girl, Roma, Beefstake, Sungold, and Cherokee Purple (easy to find at the local nursery) but there are literally hundreds of other unique varieties to choose from!

Certain varieties are known for their excellent fresh-eating qualities, often called great “slicers” or salad tomatoes. Others are popular for canning and sauce such as paste tomatoes or Roma varieties. I like to grow a little of each.

To narrow down your selection, read plant descriptions carefully. Try to choose varieties that not only sound good to eat, but that are also well-suited for your climate or garden space.

For example, we live in a coastal climate with cool and foggy summer weather. The lack of heat makes it difficult to grow huge beefy heirloom tomatoes, so I often choose smaller or early-ripening varieties instead. I also look for varieties known to grow well in cooler conditions.

Some of my favorite varieties that do well in our climate include Sakura, Pink Boar, Mountain Merit, Granadero, Green Zebra, Plum Regal, Costoluto and Mai Tai. For more ideas, check out this Top 10 Heirloom Tomatoes Varieties article from Seed Savers Exchange, or this Top 20 List from Mother Earth News.

A huge cluster of dozens of red and green cherry tomatoes hanging from a plant — Sakura is our go-to large cherry tomato. It’s so prolific!

a hand holding a unique looking lobed or ridged red tomato above a basket of similar fruit in the background — Costoluto is another one of our current favorite varieties

Determinate vs Indeterminate Tomatoes

It’s important to know the difference between indeterminate and determinate tomatoes – which will influence how you support, prune, harvest, and even plant the tomato! Indeterminate tomatoes are most common, but I like to grow a few of both types.

Determinate Tomatoes

Determinate or “bush” tomato plants stay slightly shorter, usually around three to five feet in height. Their fruit matures all at once during a shorter period of time – over about a month or so on average. Since they “finish” more quickly, determinants can be a good choice for folks with a shorter growing season – either due to your climate, or if you want a quick harvest so you can plant something else in its place.

Due to their manageable and compact size, determinate tomatoes do very well in containers. They are generally lower-maintenance than indeterminate types. In fact, it is not recommended to prune determinate varieties at all, as it can significantly lessen the fruit yield. That also means they don’t need a lot of fancy training. A simple stake and tomato cage is perfect!

Indeterminate Tomatoes

On the other hand, indeterminate or “vining” tomatoes grow significantly larger – with the ability of reaching up to 12 feet tall! An average around 6 feet is more common though. Rather than busting out one main bumper crop, indeterminate tomatoes continually produce fruit over a longer period of time. If allowed, the plants will live on until frost or disease kills them.

Due to their vigorous vining nature, some gardeners choose to train indeterminate tomatoes up strings, tall stakes, or flat trellises rather than using traditional tomato cages. I’ve done all of the above! It’s also common for some gardeners to prune indeterminate tomatoes, depending on their training and support system of choice (discussed more below).

Several raised garden beds ones, two with tall wooden A-frame trellises supporting tall vining tomato plants and another with shorter tomato cages for bush determinate tomatoes — We grow our large indeterminate (vining) tomatoes on tall trellises (they grow past the top by the end of summer), and keep our smaller, bushy determinate tomatoes in DIY tomato cages.

Soil Prep

Tomatoes aren’t too picky about soil type. They grow best in deep, moderately rich soil where their roots have plenty of room to grow. Good drainage is also important since the plants do not like overly wet conditions.

If you have clay soil, amend it with sand, potting soil, and/or compost improve drainage and texture before planting. If you’re filling a new bed or container, use good quality potting soil mixed with aged compost.

Before planting tomatoes, we amend our soil with a mild, slow-release organic fertilizer spread evenly over the surface and lightly scratched into the top couple inches of soil. Ideally, apply the fertilizer a week or two before planting and water it in. Or, you can sprinkle a bit of fertilizer around the top of the soil after planting.

A young tomato seedling is growing in soil.

Growing Tomatoes in Containers

Determinate tomatoes grow exceptionally well in containers, but you can grow indeterminate varieties in pots too. We grow a few in containers every summer – even in our driveway!

That said, the container size and soil quality really matter. A big indeterminate tomato plant won’t stay happy in a small pot for long – it’ll run out of space, use up all the nutrients in the soil, and dry out quickly as it grows.

To avoid that, use a container that holds at least 10 to 15 gallons of high-quality potting soil. I like to use 15-gallon fabric grow bags or half wine barrel planters, though any large container with good drainage will work.

Also make sure you have a support system that fits inside, like a tomato cage or a few stakes with twine. After that, all the other tips in this article apply to container tomatoes too.

A raised garden bed and two 15 gallon grow bags are shown along a fence line, sitting atop a concrete driveway. The tomato plants are almost two feet tall, when one wants to grow tomatoes, there are many options depending on the space that is available for them. — Our driveway garden area. We’ve grown potatoes and tomatoes in grow bags out here for a couple of years, and recently added a raised bed in the driveway as well. See this article to learn more about the best practices for building and installing a raised bed on top of concrete, asphalt, or other hard surfaces.

How to Plant, Prune and Support Tomatoes

How to Plant Tomatoes

I have a complete step-by-step guide on how to plant tomatoes, but here are the cliff notes:

Location: Tomatoes usually do best in full sun, though in very hot climates (consistently over 90-95°F), a little afternoon shade can help.
Amendments: I like to add a sprinkle of worm castings, mycorrhizae, and crab or crustacean meal into the planting hole to give my tomatoes an extra boost of nutrients and beneficial microorganisms. However, I don’t recommend adding epsom salt or eggshells – it’s a myth that they help prevent blossom end rot!
Spacing: Space indeterminate tomatoes about 24 to 36 inches apart if you don’t plant to prune them much, such as in cages. However, tomatoes can be spaced as close as 16 to 18 inches apart if they’re regularly pruned and trained along a trellis, string, Florida weave, or similar other support system. (We’ll talk more about training methods below.)
Depth: Tomatoes like to be planted deep! Carefully remove the lowermost branches and bury the stem by at least 1/3 to 1/2. New roots will grow off the buried portion.

RELATED: Learn more about the best tomato companion plants here – including what NOT to plant with your tomatoes!

A two part image collage, the first image shows a young tomato seedling before it is transplanted outdoors. A hand is holding it by the root ball as if the plant was laying down, another hand is holding a teaspoon of mycorrhizae that will be sprinkled directly over the root ball. The second image shows two hands holding dark, rich, and fluffy compost directly over the root zone of a newly transplanted tomato. — Dusting the root ball with mycorrhizae on the left, and adding aged compost and worm castings around the root ball on the right.

A hand plucking the lower leaves off of small tomato plant, about to put in a deep hole of soil and partially bury the stem — I stripped off the lower branches and will bury this tomato seedling several inches deep.

Choose a Support System

All tomato plants need support as they grow. Their tall and relatively flexible stems cannot stand upright on their own, especially once they’re heavy and laden with fruit! Without the support from a tomato cage, trellis, stakes, or other support system, plants will sprawl on the ground and branches will break.

If possible, it’s best to choose a support method before planting – since this will influence how far they’re spaced or where they’re planted

Please visit this guide on how to prune and support tomato plants for more information. In it, I explore the pros, cons, and tips for 7 different ways to train tomatoes, including in cages, the Florida weave, our DIY tomato trellis and more.

Four tomato plants growing in two raised garden beds is shown. They are all being supported by tomato cages and each one is between two and three feet tall as they are not fully mature yet. — Our DIY tomato cages. We also sometimes make double-tall versions for really lanky indeterminate varieties.

A wooden A-frame tomato support structure sits atop a raised garden bed. Tomato plants are attached to green stakes that are spaced evenly across the bed, attaching to the top of the frame structure. Basil, marigolds, and bachelor buttons make up the rest of the bed. — Our new favorite tomato trellis system, which combines the single stake method with the Florida weave. See the full tutorial about how to make this **DIY tomato trellis** – video included!

A two part image collage of a U-shaped garden bed area that is butted up against the side of a blue green house. The first image shows the raised beds planted out with young tomato plants, along the backside of the garden beds are trellises that will be used to help the tomatoes climb as they grow. The surrounding area of the garden bed area has been fenced off with remesh and wood, creating a mini fence and gate. The second image shows the same area months later, the tomatoes have grown the the roof of the house and there are many green and ripe tomatoes that are contrasting against the green foliage of the tomatoes. There are two chairs visible directly outside of the garden area and a tiki torch is lit next to the chairs. — Here is an example of when we trained our tomatoes against a flat trellis, and also heavily pruned them to a main leader or two per plant (much like what you’d do with the single stake or string method). By the end of the summer, we had tomatoes laying on the roof! We also had to add another panel of remesh wire on top as they grew.

How to Prune Tomatoes

Pruning tomatoes is totally optional, and depends on the variety and what type of support or training system you’re using. For instance, determinate tomatoes don’t like to be pruned but indeterminate varieties are well-suited for it. It isn’t necessary to prune tomatoes growing in cages, while it can be helpful (or necessary) if you plant tomatoes closer together along a trellis.

Pruning tomato plants involves removing excess side branches – also known as “suckers”. Suckers always grow out from the main stem just above a leaf branch, as shown in the diagram below. (Don’t confuse it with a flower bract, which grows slightly higher on the stem!)
To remove tomato suckers, simply pinch and snap them off. Or, use a clean pair of pruning snips for larger suckers. It’s best to remove suckers when they’re still nice and small – before they start drawing energy from the rest of the plant. (They’re called suckers for a reason!)
Do NOT top the plant or cut the main stem (the terminal growing tip), and avoid removing flower or fruit bracts.
As the season goes on, I also like to cut off unproductive lower leaf branches as they begin to yellow and fade.

Diligently removing all the suckers will result in a single long tomato vine. Removing all but one sucker will leave you with two “leaders”. Or, you can remove just some of the suckers, resulting in several leaders but an overall more manageable plant.

A close up image of the top of a tomato plant. The sucker branches off of the leader are shown by two arrows pointing to each of the sucker branches which are forming at the crook of the main stem and leaf branching. The word "suckers" as been photo shopped onto the image to illustrate the point further. When young, suckers almost look like baby tomato plants growing off of the main tomato plant. — See how the suckers are growing immediately from a V or “crotch” in the branches? Note that the small branches with immature flowers growing above and below are not suckers.

Pros and Cons of Pruning Tomatoes

If you don’t prune tomatoes, each sucker will become a large secondary vine, producing more and more new branches, flower bracts, and suckers of their own. The result is a much bushier tomato plant, and yes, a greater number of fruit per plant! However, the plants quickly become unruly and the fruit may be smaller or inferior in quality compared to a tomato plant that was pruned.

On the other hand, pruned tomato plants can focus all their energy into growing fewer but higher-quality fruit instead. They may also ripen sooner! Pruning tomato plants takes more effort, yet the plants are generally more tidy, easy to manage, allows for closer plant spacing, and may reduce disease and pest pressure.

I prefer to do somewhere in between: I lightly prune by tomatoes but allow several suckers to grow too.

A tomato plant growing in a raised garden bed inside of a tomato cage is shown. The plant is heavily ladened with fruit as red and green tomatoes are visible from the bottom of the plant to the top. A bunch of basil plants are growing nearing the foreground. — Here is a Stupice tomato plant that we heavily pruned towards the end of the season, removing the old dying leaves and branches. It was also getting powdery mildew, so this helped increase air flow and slow the spread of the disease. Note that fully exposing fruit like this wouldn’t be ideal in very hot climates.

Ongoing Care: Fertilizer, Water, and Pest Control

Fertilizing Tomatoes

Plan to feed your tomato plants a few times throughout the growing season, especially if you’re growing long-lasting indeterminate varieties. If you recently amended your soil before planting, you shouldn’t need much fertilizer for the first month after transplanting.

For young plants, fertilizing with dilute seaweed extract is a gentle, low-risk way to give them a boost. I like it because it won’t burn them. Sometimes I’ll use blended aloe vera as a mild, natural fertilizer, especially for newly transplanted seedlings too.

Once the plants mature, you can feed them every few weeks with dilute liquid fish fertilizer. When our plants are producing a lot of fruit (late summer), I also add a light sprinkle of alfalfa meal around the base about once a month, spacing it out from other feedings. Instead, you could apply a balanced organic fertilizer mid-season – just follow the package directions but go a bit lighter than recommended.

I also like to use homemade compost tea at least once during the season. It’s super gentle but packed with nutrients and beneficial microbes!

A hand is shown holding a one cup glass liquid measuring cup full of worm compost tea along the soil line of a raised bed. Tomato plants are visible in the background which are the target plants of the worm compost tea application. — Feeding tomatoes their favorite drink: homemade compost tea

Watering Tips

Tomatoes thrive with deep but infrequent water (vs watering a little bit every day) – soaking down into their expansive root zone and beyond, and then back off for a few days to let them breathe but not dry out completely in between.|
If you only water shallowly, plant roots stay shallow too. Yet watering deeply encourages deeper roots, larger plants, and increased resistance to stress like drought, wind, and temperature swings.
The exact frequency and amount of water your tomatoes need will vary depending on your climate, weather, soil type, plant size, bed depth, and more. Try to develop a consistent watering schedule, such as every 3 to 4 days.
Add a couple inches of natural mulch (e.g. compost or straw) on top of your garden beds to prevent the top from drying out, reduce evaporation, and help the soil stay more consistently moist.
Near the end of the season, I stop watering altogether. That usually pushes the plant to ripen the remaining fruit faster instead of growing more. I only do this when I’m completely done with the plant, especially if frost is coming or I want everything to finish up quickly.

I currently water my garden with automatic DIY drip irrigation. But before that, I used these drinking water grade soaker hoses in our beds so I could offer similar long, deep water without having to stand there with a hose.

a healthy looking tomato plant full of ripening fruit, some green and some turning red

Tomato Pest Control

Common tomato pests include aphids, whitefly, root knot nematodes, and the dreaded tobacco or tomato hornworms. I like to use tomato companion plants to help naturally deter many of these pests – such as French marigolds for nematodes.

If something is eating your tomatoes and leaves, it may be hornworms. Once I spot the black or green caterpillar poop balls (a dead giveaway), I carefully check the leaves nearby to find and remove them by hand. Our chickens love to eat hornworms! If you can’t spot them, try using a blacklight at night – they glow in the dark.

If bigger critters like squirrels, birds, rodents, or deer start going after your tomatoes, focus on blocking access. I often use fencing, chicken wire, crop cages, or insect netting to protect plants in my garden.

LEARN MORE: Check out this excellent article about tomato pest and disease control from Johnny’s Seeds. It includes photos to help ID issues too! You can also visit my guide on organic aphid control for more tips.

A Tobacco Horn Worm is shown attached to a tomato branch. It is green with white and black stripes along its back. A hand is displayed next to the horn worm to show its size in comparison. It is longer than a middle finger and about twice as fat. If you grow tomatoes be aware of any pests that may be attracted to your plants. — Holy Horn Worm! We spotted this guys poop before we spotted him. They camouflage so well!

Common Tomato Plant Diseases

The most common diseases that inflict tomatoes include fungal diseases and mildews (e.g. powdery mildew and blight) as well as mosaic viruses, fusarium wilt, and bacterial wilt.

Mildews and blight are more common in crowded conditions with lack of good air circulation around plants. Therefore, follow good plant spacing practices. Pruning away excess branches can also increase airflow. Avoid wetting plant leaves when you’re watering. Learn more about how to prevent or treat powdery mildew here.

Many tomato varieties have natural resistance to particular diseases and pests. For example, some may have a strong resistance to early blight, powdery mildew, or root knot nematodes. Seek out resistant varieties to help combat common diseases in your garden.

Another way to prevent diseases is to support overall plant health by following the recommendations provided in this article – such as using organic compost and tea, mycorrhizae, aloe, and consistent watering. A healthy plant with a strong immune system will better fend off pests and diseases – naturally!

RELATED: Tomato blossom end rot is another condition that inflicts tomatoes, but it’s caused by nutrient deficiencies and watering issues – not a disease. Learn how to prevent and treat blossom end rot here.

A wicker basket is full of tomatoes that have been effected by tomato blossom end rot, the ends of the fruit have a brown scar.

Harvesting and Storage

Now for the best part. It’s time to reap the rewards of your hard work, and enjoy your bounty!

When and How to Harvest Tomatoes

Harvest tomatoes when they’re slightly soft but still firm, and showing their ripe color (red, orange, or yellow are easiest to spot). For unique color varieties like green or purple, I usually just give the fruit a gentle squeeze to check.
You can pick tomatoes early (when they’ve started to turn red but before they’re fully ripe) and leave them on the counter or in a brown paper bag to finish ripening. This can be helpful if pests are going after your ripe tomatoes! However, the flavor is best if they’re allowed to ripen on the vine.
When picking, try to gently snap and keep the small stem attached to the top of the tomato. If it won’t come easily, I use snips instead. I’ve learned not to pull too hard – otherwise the tomato can crack or leave an open hole on top, which makes it spoil faster. If that happens, I eat those ones first.
Too much water can cause ripe tomatoes to split, so if I see a lot ready at once, I harvest them before watering or ahead of heavy rain.

two harvest baskets full of oblong Roma tomatoes, just harvested and many still have the vine and stems attached on top

How to Store Fresh Tomatoes

It is best to store fresh tomatoes at room temperature, unless they’re cut or cracked (refrigerate once cut.) Did you know that fresh tomatoes lose a ton of flavor once they’re refrigerated? That is one (of the many) reasons that homegrown tomatoes are so much tastier than store-bought ones that have been picked early, ripened off the vine, and then surely refrigerated at some point in time.

Of course, if you harvest a large amount of tomatoes at once, they may begin to spoil on the counter if you don’t use or otherwise preserve them quickly enough! See my favorite ways to eat and preserve tomatoes below.

Rows of tomatoes are laid out on a table by their color. Bright red, yellow, dark red, to orange make up the array of tomato colors.

Eating Tomatoes Fresh

I imagine you probably already have plenty of ideas of how to consume your fresh tomatoes. But just in case you need nay ideas, here are some of my personal favorite ways to eat them!

Sliced on salads, tacos, veggie burgers, or sandwiches – including on top of crusty homemade sourdough bread.
I like to make caprese salad with fresh sliced garden tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We also often whip up a Greek salad with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, onion, feta cheese, olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Turn them into a simple salsa with peppers, onions, cilantro, and lime.
Add fresh tomatoes on top of homemade pizza, quiche, frittata, pasta, pesto zoodles, and more!

A mid summer dinner served on the outdoor patio table. There are two white ceramic dinner plates each one filled with fresh sliced yellow tomatoes, a green salad with Sungold tomatoes, cucumber, and strawberries, two slices of sourdough bread, slices of fresh mozzarella, and a grilled portabella mushroom with melted cheese. There is a carafe of red wine next to a stemless wine glass full of wine. — Nothing beats dining al fresco on the back patio in the summertime. On the menu: a grilled portobello mushroom with cheese, fresh sliced tomatoes with basil and balsamic vinegar, homemade sourdough bread, locally-made mozzarella, and a green garden salad with tomatoes, strawberries, and cucumber. Don’t forget the wine!

Ways to Preserve Tomatoes

Growing tomatoes and preserving tomatoes goes hand-in-hand. Unless you only grow one small plant or two, or realllllly love eating fresh tomatoes with every meal, you’ll likely need to preserve some excess fruit!

I like to preserve tomatoes a variety of ways, including making roasted tomato sauce (to freeze or can), creamy tomato basil soup (to freeze), or using our dehydrator to make sun-dried tomatoes or homemade tomato powder. We’ve also started making homemade ketchup the last few years… YUM. And if you don’t have time for anything fancy, you can simply freeze tomatoes whole and deal with them later!

See 13 Ways to Preserve Tomatoes here with step-by-step recipes for freezing, canning, drying and more.

Seven pint jars of roasted tomato sauce are shown, four jars along the bottom with three jars stacked on top of the bottom four. The sauce is dark red in color with specks of black from the roasting. When you grow tomatoes, preserving them is a must to make the most of your harvest.

A ziploc bag full of whole tomatoes, ready for the freezer

And that concludes this guide on how to grow organic tomatoes!

Are you ready to go grow some stellar tomatoes this season? I hope you found this article to be useful and interesting. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments below. Thank you for tuning in!

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22 Comments

Denise

June 27, 2024 at 1:24 pm Reply

Hello! I too live on the Central Coast and we love growing tomatoes. We have raised beds. I was thinking of planting sweet peas in the winter as a cover crop Because I love the flowers. What are your thoughts on this? Any other suggestions for rotating crops where the tomato beds are? Thank you!
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  June 27, 2024 at 3:49 pm Reply
  
  Hi Denise, sweet peas would be a great cover crop for your tomato beds as their roots house nitrogen fixing bacteria from the atmosphere similar to the way fava beans do, just be sure to leave their roots in place when it comes time to cut out the plants. We like to use fava beans as a cover crop for tomatoes in between seasons but you could also grow winter peas, oats, barley, or even winter rye. You can cut down the cover crop before it goes to seed and use the plant material as a green manure or mulch for your tomato bed as well. Hope that helps and have fun growing!
MJ Blanchette

March 17, 2024 at 6:09 am Reply

greetings! i recently moved from coastal Maine (where we grew an annual kick-ass, monster crop of heirloom tomatoes) to Puerto Rico … where i am struggling to bring even one, measly cherry tomato to the finish line.

my first thought is climate appropriate varieties, which admittedly, i paid little (or no 😬) attention to while salivating over my seed catalogs. that said, i have a multitude of varieties, drip line irrigation set up to make sure soil it not too dry; not too wet, pretty decent soil with plenty of compost, big, healthy green plants … and yet … few flowers, and almost no fruit developing. night time temps are about 77 on average (could be the problem?); day time temps around 85.

also trying to attract pollinators, but rarely see them on my plants. is this a losing battle? is growing a tomato crop in the tropics pure fantasy? is there a reason all the locals roll their eyes at me when i say i’m growing tomatoes? say it ain’t so!!

as always, you’re my first go-to. give it to me straight; i can handle it. i think. 😉
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 18, 2024 at 9:41 am Reply
  
  Hi MJ, congratulations on your move to Puerto Rico! We obviously don’t have the much experience growing in tropical climates but I think your tomato variety selection is likely the first place to start, growing the big, beautiful heirloom tomatoes like you did in Maine, likely isn’t an option now. Not sure if you know what type of tomatoes if any that people grow in your area, maybe there are some varieties that are specific to Puerto Rico? As far as growing conditions, I would think that early to late afternoon shade would be a must for your tomatoes so they have some reprieve from the sun. Not sure of the fall through spring temperatures that you get there but growing tomatoes during the “off season” may be a better option if the heat and sun aren’t as intense.
  
  Maybe this year, try varieties with smaller fruit along with some grape and or cherry tomatoes, search out varieties that can handle the higher temperatures and maybe even tropical/humid climates. Tomatillos while obviously not tomatoes, may be easier to grow for you as well so that may be another option to try. Hope that helps MJ and hopefully you have more success this summer in regards to growing tomatoes.

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