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Growing Tomatoes
Growing Tomatoes: Planting to Harvest
Growing Tomatoes: Planting to Harvest
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Our Growing Tomatoes Guide covers everything from planting through harvesting! Tomatoes are not hard to grow; they’re incredibly productive, versatile in the kitchen, and so delicious off the vine. Our guide covers all the information you need to grow tomatoes successfully—including selecting tomato varieties, starting seeds, transplanting tomatoes outside, using tomato stakes and cages, and tomato plant care.
Tomatoes are long-growing, heat-seeking, sun lovers! These warm-season plants do not tolerate frost. In most regions, the soil is not warm enough until April or May, but it depends on where you live. See your frost dates.
How Long Does It Take to Grow a Tomato?
This is one of our most common questions. The days to harvest depends on the cultivar, but the days to maturity ranges from 60 days to more than 80 days. See your tomato planting dates based on your zip code or postal code.
Due to a relatively long growing season, tomatoes are most commonly transplanted rather than direct-seeded into the garden. Transplants can be purchased in garden nurseries. Look for short, stocky plants with dark green color and straight, sturdy stems about the size of a pencil or thicker. Avoid plants with yellowing leaves, spots, or stress damage; avoid plants with flowers or fruits already in progress.
Types of Tomatoes
Tomatoes are available in a wide variety of sizes, from tiny grape-size types to giant beefstakes. The choice also depends on how you will use this verstaile fruit in the kitchen. For example, Roma tomatoes are not very good eaten fresh, but are well suited for sauces and ketchups. Tomato cultivars can be classified according to their growth habit:
- Determinate tomatoes are plants that grow to pre-determined height. They are good choices for canning and sauce-making.
- Indeterminate tomatoes increase in height throughout the growing season because the terminal of the stem continues to produce foliar growth rather than set flowers. The fruits on these plants are produced continually through the season along the side shoots of the plant. Indeterminate tomatoes are the choice if you want to spread out the harvest over a longer period of time.
Tomatoes do need vigilant care, as the crop is susceptible to pests and diseases. To avoid problems, choose disease-resistant cultivars whenever possible. Also, note that tomato plants will be more susceptible to soil-borne disease and rot if not kept off the ground with a stake or other support system. We’ll cover all these essentials in the tomato guide below.
Check out this video to learn more about how to choose tomoatoes.
Planting
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun. For northern regions, it is VERY important that your site receives at least 6 hours of daily sunlight. For southern regions, light afternoon shade will keep tomatoes protected from the harsh midday sun and help them thrive.
Tomatoes will grow in many different soil types, but it needs to drain well and never pool water. They prefer a slightly acid soil with a pH of 6.2 to 6.8.
When to Plant Tomatoes
- Many gardeners start tomatoes from small plants or transplants that you purchase in the nursery as they are not the easiest for beginners to start by seed.
- However, if you grow tomatos from seed, start indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the average last spring frost date. See our Planting Calendar for seed-starting dates specific to your area and our article on “Tomatoes From Seed the Easy Way” for more tips.
- Transplant seedlings after the last spring frost when the soil has warmed. See our Planting Calendar for suggested transplanting dates.
Before Transplanting
- Two weeks before planting your tomato plants outdoors, dig into soil about 1 foot deep and mix in aged manure or compost. Learn more about preparing soil for planting.
- Harden off seedlings or transplants for a week before planting in the garden. Set young plants outdoors in the shade for a couple of hours the first day, gradually increasing the amount of time the plants are outside each day to include some direct sunlight. Learn more about hardening off seedlings.
- Place tomato stakes or cages in the soil at the time of planting to avoid damaging roots later on. Staking keeps developing tomato fruit off the ground, while caging lets the plant hold itself upright. For stakes, use a sturdy pole at least 8 feet tall and 1 inch in diameter. Set the pole 1 to 2 feet deep and about 4 inches out from the plant. See our video and instructions on how to build stakes, cages, and tomato supports.
Planting the Transplants
- Apply 2 to 3 pounds of a complete fertilizer such as 5-10-5, 10-10-10, or 6-10-4 per 100 square feet of garden area. Do not apply high nitrogen fertilizers such as those recommended for lawns.
- Excessive nitrogen will promote luxurious foliage but will delay flowering and fruiting.
- Space tomato transplants 2 feet apart for small bush-type plants or larger plants that will be staked. Space larger plants 3 to 4 feet apart if unstaked. Allow 4 feet between the rows.
- Pinch off a few of the lower branches on transplants, and plant the root ball deep enough so that the remaining lowest leaves are just above the surface of the soil.
- If your transplants are leggy, you can remedy this by burying up to ⅔ of the plant, including the lower sets of leaves. Tomato stems have the ability to grow roots from the buried stems.
- Be sure to water the transplant thoroughly to establish good root/soil contact and prevent wilting.
- Newly set transplants may need to be shaded for the first week or so to prevent excessive drying of the leaves.
Growing Tomatoes in Containers
- Use a large pot or container with drainage holes in the bottom.
- Use loose, well-draining soil. We recommend a good potting mix with added organic matter.
- Plant one tomato plant per pot. Choose from bush or dwarf varieties; many cherry tomatoes grow well in pots.
- Taller varieties may need to be staked.
- Place the pot in a sunny spot with 6 to 8 hours of full sun a day.
- Keep soil moist. Containers will dry out more quickly than the garden soil, so check daily and provide extra water during a heat wave.
Care
Tomato Plant Care
Watering
- Water generously the first few days that the tomato seedlings or transplants are in the ground.
- Water well throughout the growing season, about 2 inches per week during the summer. Water deeply for a strong root system.
- Water in the early morning. This gives plant the moisture it needs to make it through a hot day. Avoid watering late afternoon or evening.
- Mulch five weeks after transplanting to retain moisture and to control weeds. Mulch also keeps soil from splashing the lower tomato leaves. Apply 2 to 4 inches of organic mulch such as straw, hay, or bark chips after the soil has had a chance to warm up.
- To help tomatoes through periods of drought, find some flat rocks and place one next to each plant. The rocks prevent water from evaporating from the soil.
Fertilizing
- Watering in with a starter fertilizer solution will help get the roots off to a good start.
- Side dress plants with fertilizer or compost every two weeks starting when the tomato fruits are about 1 inch in diameter.
- A sidedressing of nitrogen fertilizer will help see the plants through the growing season. Apply 1 pound of ammonium nitrate (33-0-0) per 100 foot row at each of the following times:
- 1 to 2 weeks after first fruits are set
- 2 weeks after picking first ripe fruit, and
- 6 weeks after picking first ripe fruit.
- If staking, use soft string or old nylon stocking to secure the tomato stem to the stake. It’s essential to remove the suckers (side stems) by pinching them off just beyond the first two leaves.
- If supporting tomatoes with a wire cage, suckers do not need to be removed. (This allows the plant to be more productive.)
- Practice crop rotation from year to year to prevent diseases that may have overwintered.
- Check out this post for even more tomato tips.
Weeding
- Where no mulch is used, cultivate shallowly to remove weeds while they are still small. Herbicides can be used in large tomato plantings but are not practical in the small garden with only a few plants of many different crops.
Photo by ozgurdonmaz/Getty Images
Pests/Diseases
Tomatoes are susceptible to insect pests, especially tomato hornworms and whiteflies. Click on links below to go to respective pest pages.
- Aphids
- Flea Beetles
- Tomato Hornworm
- Whiteflies
- Blossom-End Rot
- Late Blight is a fungal disease that can strike during any part of the growing season. It will cause grey, moldy spots on leaves and fruit which later turn brown. The disease is spread and supported by persistent damp weather. This disease will overwinter, so all infected plants should be destroyed. See our blog on “Avoid Blight With the Right Tomato.”
- Mosaic Virus creates distorted leaves and causes young growth to be narrow and twisted, and the leaves become mottled with yellow. Unfortunately, infected plants should be destroyed (but don’t put them in your compost pile).
- Cracking: When fruit growth is too rapid, the skin will crack. This usually occurs due to uneven watering or uneven moisture from weather conditions (very rainy periods mixed with dry periods). Keep moisture levels constant with consistent watering and mulching.
See our gardening page focused specifically on Tomato Pests and Diseases.
Watch our helpful video to see tomato problems and how to troubleshoot!
Harvest/Storage
How to Harvest Tomatoes
- Leave your tomatoes on the vine as long as possible. If any fall off before they appear ripe, place them in a paper bag with the stem up and store them in a cool, dark place.
- Never place tomatoes on a sunny windowsill to ripen; they may rot before they are ripe!
- The perfect tomato for picking will be firm and very red in color, regardless of size, with perhaps some yellow remaining around the stem. If you grow orange, yellow or any other color tomato, wait for the tomato to turn the correct color.
- If your tomato plant still has fruit when the first hard frost threatens, pull up the entire plant and hang it upside down in the basement or garage. Pick tomatoes as they ripen.
- If temperatures start to drop and your tomatoes aren’t ripening, watch this video for tips.
- You can harvest seeds from some tomato varieties. Learn how here.
How to Store Tomatoes
- Never refrigerate fresh tomatoes. Doing so spoils the flavor and texture that make up that garden tomato taste.
- To freeze, core fresh unblemished tomatoes and place them whole in freezer bags or containers. Seal, label, and freeze. The skins will slip off when they defrost.
See more on properly storing tomatoes and other vegetables.
Recommended Varieties
Tomatoes grow in many sizes, from tiny “currant” to “cherry” to large “beefsteak.” What’s most important is to look for disease-resistant cultivars whenever possible. Many modern cultivars have resistance to Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, and root knot nematodes. Cultivars with such resistance are denoted as such by the letters V, F, and N following the cultivar name
Here are a few of our favorite varieties of tomatoes:
Early Varieties (60 or fewer days to harvest)
Early-maturing cultivars such as Early Girl may be slightly less flavorful but will produce fruit 2 to 3 weeks earlier than midor late-season cultivars.
- ‘Early Cascade’: trailing plant, large fruit clusters
- ‘Early Girl’: one of the earliest tomatoes, produces through the summer
Mid-season Varieties (70 to 80 days to harvest)
- ‘Floramerica’: firm, deep red flesh, strong plant
- ‘Fantastic’: meaty rich flavor, heavy yields, crack resistant
Late-season Varieties (80 days or more to harvest)
- ‘Amish Paste’: Large paste tomatoes, good slicers, heavy yields
- ‘Brandywine’: A beefsteak with perfect acid-sweet combination, many variants are available
Cherry Tomatoes
- ‘Matt’s Wild Cherry’: bright red tomatoes, foolproof in any climate, bears abundant fruit in high or low temps and in rain or drought
- ‘Sun Gold’: golden orange tomatoes, very sweet yet tart flavor, huge clusters
Large Tomatoes
- Beefsteak, Beefmaster, Ponderosa, and Oxheart are noted for their large fruit. However, these larger fruited types often are more susceptible to diseases and skin cracking.
Check out this video how to choose tomato varieties.
See full script to this video on how to choose tomato varieties.
Wit & Wisdom
- In 1781, there is record of Thomas Jefferson—an experimental farmer—raising tomatoes for his guests.
- The tomato plant is native to South America but it was not commonly cultivated in the United States until 1835. In 1522, Spanish explorers returned home from the New World with tomatoes. Many people believed that the fruits were poisonous.
- In the 19th century, the tomato was called “The Apple of Paradise” in Germany and “The Apple of Love” in France.
- Tomatoes are nutritious and low in calories. One medium-sized tomato provides 57% of the recommended daily allotment (RDA) of vitamin C, 25% RDA vitamin A, and 8% RDA iron, yet it has only 35 calories.
- Ease a headache by drinking tomato juice blended with fresh basil.
- People have argued for quite a long time about whether tomatoes are fruits or vegetables!
Recipes
Cooking Notes
Capture the garden-fresh taste of tomatoes all year long! See this helpful post on how to can tomatoes.
Many people also love dried tomatoes, so learn how to dry your own tomatoes here.
See our Best Tomato Recipes Ever!
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Reader Comments
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planting tomatoes
I plant mine in a horizontal trench, leaving only the top 5 inches of a 2 foot plant above soil. This has produced huge root systems and enormous productions compared to other ways that Iv'e planted. I done shallow, and deep vertical planting. Last year 10 plants produced 450+ lbs of tomatoes. mmmm tasty. We planted cherokee purple, black krim, moneymaker, supersteak and big rainbow.
Planting Tomatoes
I've been looking for a tomato page like this with more information! This is perfect. I really want to plant tomatoes this year.
Floramerica Seeds
I have performed an exhaustive search on the internet for these seeds but cannot find them. Does anyone know where I could purchase these? Thanks in advance!
tomato seeds
It seems that this hybrid tomato was featured in catalogs back in 2012 and 2013 but mostly discontinued for some reason.
We see that a UC Davis cooperative extension adviser recommended this tomato variety for CA zones: https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7018
Here’s the author’s contact info if you wish to ask her about the variety: http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/?facultyid=767
Sorry we couldn’t be of more help. Hope this points you in the right direction.
Very good post. I am going
Very good post. I am going through some of these issues as well..
Tomato die fro the bottom up
We live in coastal SC and our soil is very fine sandy soil. Our tomatoes grow to full size and have tomatoes on them when they start turning yellow at the bottom and start dying from the bottom up. cannot figure out what the problem is.
yellow at the bottom
Hi, there. It sounds like it could be blossom end rot. See pics here and advice (basically, your soil needs to be amended, but read on): https://www.almanac.com/pest/blossom-end-rot
Hope this helps. Let us know if it seems like your problem. Thanks!
Not blossom end rot
Definitely not blossom end rot. Tomatoes are fine, the plants turn yellow from the bottom up, wilt and die.
yellowing...
Well, that’s the good news. Because a picture is worth — well, you know —I am going to suggest you look here to see if these plant pics look like yours: https://ucanr.edu/sites/UrbanAg/files/263164.pdf
If that yields no clue, try this: http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomLeaf/TomLea...
and that’s all we’ve got at this time. You might inquire at your local cooperative extension, found here https://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services
We hope something helps. Let us know what it is, please.
tomatoes
My plants are growing like crazy,But they getting so tall.6foot plus. if I don't tied them to the
stake they fan out.4 ft across. It don't matter if I grow by the stakes the still get 6 ft.If I grow
in a cage and they still grow 6ft and try to fan out over the cage.I have put stakes in the cage
and they grow even taller.And have seen tomatoes all long the stem and they are still growing with new blooms on top of these long stems.Doing great here in Kansas
Tomatoe Questions
The sun is scorching my tomatoes also I'm getting bad spots on the outside, because of this I have decided to go ahead & pick before the tops turn, the base of the tomatoes is orange to red they have been dusted with 7 dust once. Is it best to wash now or wait till I'm ready to eat & the tops have turned red, no bad spots on these they are beautiful & I don't want to loose them. Thanks for your help Brenda
early harvest
Hi there. There are two schools of thought on whether to wash or not. Some gardeners wash their just-picked tomatoes in water, rub the skin gently to remove dirt etc., rinse, and then dry them carefully with a paper towel. This helps to remove pathogens on the surface of the tomato. Other gardeners prefer not to wash until just before eating the tomatoes, because the water may encourage disease if it is left on the tomato or gets inside via the stem scar or any wound or crack. There is also the slight risk of causing injury to the fruit when washing it. Whichever method you choose, avoid ripening tomatoes in direct sunlight, which can also encourage disease. Refrigeration, on the other hand, can ruin flavor. Room temperature (above 55 F) is best; stored in a single layer (no stacking).
Fully grown plant and tomatoes
tomatoes are still green. When I cut tomatoes in half they are green throughout. Very hard
Green Tomatoes
Make sure the plant is getting enough sun and water. Other than that, more time is what’s needed!
Young struggling plant with green tomaotes
Hello,
I bought a young New Girl tomato plant at a farmers' market. I kept it in its little pot for a few days, and it began to grow tomatoes. I then transplanted it to my garden. It hasn't seemed to grow much and is very dry by the end of the day. Should I pluck the tomatoes off to let the plant grow more instead of putting its energy into growing the tomatoes?
Reply to your question regarding your tomato plant
I am fairly new to gardening but what I have learned through my own experience and research is that before transplanting a tomato plant pick off the all the tomatos, flowers and the bottom leaves. This has helped my plants tremendously! I left a tomato on one plant just to see what happened and it stunted the growth of the whole entire plant. My plant nor my tomato would grow, so after a few weeks I plucked the tomato off and it's finally growing now. On 22 of my plants that I have on my porch I had to pluck off leaves due to leaf spot and and the new leaves are growing back bigger and brighter. My garden plants have grown so tall and bushy and need plucked again. When you pluck them they do look a little sad and I was very worried that what I was told would be the end of my plants, but it wasn't! It just took time for them to grow better. Also, anytime your leaves start to discolor or get holes im them then pluck them off. The plant will spend way too much time trying to correct bad leaves that it takes away from the rest of the plant which in turn does not allow it to grow properly. I hope this helps you and that your plant starts growing good! Good luck!
Tomatoes plant shock
I planted my flowering plant in a garden box. It was cool the first couple of nights so I covered it with a sheet but this morning when I removed the sheet all the leaves were wilted. Will it come back or have I lost it.
lost it?
You do not provide many details—where you are, how cool, even more about the sheet (a bed sheet? cotton or something else? these can be heavy on a plant of any size)—but if the plant is still standing and the leaves have some natural green color (not black), you might be ok. Black leaves are a sign of frost bite and almost always certain death of a tomato plant. Give it a couple of (warm) days and see if it appears to have growth. If there is no change in a week or so it is probably time to start again…when the weather warms up consistently.
tomato plants
top leaves curled and wilted on some plants and some plants the tomatoes will be curled in at the top and cracked some others will be rotted on the bottom in a circle
Tomato plants
Top leaves are wilted on some of my tomato plants. ????
fusarium wilt tomatoes
It sounds like a case of fusarium wilt. You will need to pull up and discard (but do not compost!) your tomato plants ASAP. It will be a good idea to sterilize any garden equipment you used in the area and with the plants. The disease can survive in the soil so do not plant potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, or peppers in that area of your garden. You can try disease resistant varieties of tomatoes if this is your only space for growing. Both ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Big Beef’ are resistant to fusarium wilt.
Maters
Make sure you are planting Heirlooms. Forget the hybrids.
My plants grow, but arent producing fruit.
My tomato plants seem to do well. they grow tall, but dont produce any fruit. Been in ground since March and no blooms. They get really tall, taller than me and I'm 5'7.
no fruit
Are there pollinators around? Are the plants in a breezy environment? Sometimes a bit of wind, even shaking, will help. Did you fertilize? Potassium (or potash) will encourage flowering and then fruiting. Nitrogen, on the other hand, encourages foliage. Also, too high temps and even high humidity will slow or stop fruit production. Does anything here sound like something that might be the solution?
Tomatoes
More plants very little tomatoes.
Pee on your Tomato Plants
Human urine works remarkably well as a fertilizer for tomatoes. Plants fertilized with a mixture of stored human urine and wood ash produces 4.2 times more fruit than plants without pee. Healthy human urine is rich in nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate, all key ingredients for healthy plants.
New to Gardening
What a wealth of information, guides and how-to’s. Thank you!!
appreciation
i just want to give a word of thanks because the site was so useful to me and it has helped me in my research
Best tomato seed
Hi.
I looking for the best tomato seed for my farm. I loking for Comodoro tomato seed.whats your opinion about my selection?
We have cool spring and hot , dry summer.
Thanks.
tiny brown things that pop up from tomato on window sill
We have noticed these tiny brown things that kinda pop out of tomato as it sits on window sill. Does anyone know what they are? They are not bugs. Definitely not alive. Thanks
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