Our Growing Tomatoes Guide takes you from planting to harvesting! Find out when to plant America’s favorite garden crop, the best way to grow tomatoes, how long it takes a tomato to bear fruit, and what tomatoes need to thrive. We’ll touch on how to transplant, stakes and cages, the best tomato varieties, and more tomato tips!
There’s a reason why tomatoes are the #1 home garden vegetable. The taste of a tomato right off the vine is incomparable to a typical grocery store type.
Tomatoes are warm-weather vegetables and sun worshippers!
- In northern regions, tomato plants will need at least 6 hours of sunlight daily; 8 to 10 hours are preferred.
- In southern regions, light afternoon shade (natural or applied, e.g., row covers) will help tomatoes to survive and thrive.
How Long Does It Take to Grow a Tomato?
This is one of our most common questions. The exact “days to harvest” depends on the cultivar and it can range from 60 days to more than 100 days.
In addition, tomatoes can not be started too early in the ground as they are a tender warm-season crop that can not bear frost. In most regions, the soil is not warm enough to plant tomatoes outdoors until late spring and early summer except in zone 10, where they are a fall and winter crop. See when to start tomatoes for your location.
Due to their relatively long growing season requirements (and late planting date), plant small “starter plants” or transplants instead of seeds. Choose young tomato plants from a reputable nursery. Good starter plants are short and stocky with dark green color and straight, sturdy stems about the size of a pencil or thicker. They should not have yellowing leaves, spots, or stress damage nor have flowers or fruits already in progress.
Types of Tomatoes
- Determinate tomatoes, better known as “bush” varieties grow 2 to 3 feet tall. These varieties tend to provide numerous ripe tomatoes at one time, do not put on much leaf growth after setting fruit, and tend to fruit for a (relatively) brief period of time. They are generally productive earlier than the vining varieties, and not in the latter part of the growing season. Determinate tomatoes do not require staking or caging. These plants are idea for containers and small spaces. Most paste tomatoes are determine (which works well for making sauce and canning).
- Indeterminate tomatoes, better known as “vining” varieties produce the largest types of mid- to late-season slicing tomatoes all summer and until the first frost. Because indeterminates experience more leaf growth, their production tends to be spread more evenly throughout the season. Indeterminate tomatoes need staking. They are ideal in large gardeners. Most beefsteak and cherry tomatoes are indeterminate.
Tomatoes come in a wide range of flavors as well as colors and sizes, from tiny grape-sized types to giant beefsteaks. The choice also depends on how you will use this versatile fruit in the kitchen. For example, Roma tomatoes are not usually eaten fresh out of hand, but are perfect for sauces and ketchups. Tomatoes do need vigilant care, as the crop is susceptible to pests and diseases. To avoid problems, choose disease-resistant cultivars whenever possible.
Image: Tomatoes aren’t only red! Featured here is the flavorful heirloom ‘Green Zebra,’ a high-yielding indeterminate plant. Credit: VZaitsev/GettyImages
Check out this video to learn more about how to choose tomatoes.
Reader Comments
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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
tomato spots
It is possible, if these are not entrance holes for insects, that they are symptoms of a disease. There are several that can cause spotting on the fruit, but one that comes to mind in particular is bacterial speck, which can appear as small raised spots on the fruit (sometimes with a yellow halo around them), which can sort of look like freckles. In the early stages, this disease only affects the skin, so you can peel it off before eating. More advanced stages will travel deeper into the tomato, so you might want to cut any discolored parts out, although a tomato affected with bacterial speck is still safe to eat. This disease likes moisture to grow, so make sure to store you fruit in a dry location. Bacterial spot and bacterial canker may be similar on fruit, but the halo is white rather than yellow (bacterial spot halos disappear in later stages). Green fruit are most susceptible to the introduction of these diseases (which also affect the leaves). Hope this helps!
Keeping plants.
This is a true beginner's question, but is it possible to cut a plant down to the stemm and regrow it again next year? I have a cherry tomato plant in a container by my window, and it has a pretty good root system going. However it's slowly dying as it gets less and less sun, so I was wondering if I could cut it to the stem (like a raspberry plant) and have it grow back, or do I have to plant new seeds come spring?
Tomatoes as Perennials
Don’t worry, it’s a good question! In their native tropical habitat, tomatoes are perennial plants, meaning that they live and produce for more than one season. In North America, tomatoes are treated as annuals because it’s hard to keep them alive through the cold part of the year (unless you have a greenhouse). If you were to cut the plant back to the roots, it’s unlikely that the roots would survive to spring, as tomatoes aren’t designed to go into that kind of dormancy.
If you have your heart set on keeping this plant, you could try bringing it inside your home, though you’ll need to keep it above 65°F at all times (the warmer, the better) and it will need as much light as you can give it. A strong grow light will most likely be needed to keep it from withering away if you can’t give it full sun.
Harvesting Tomato in Green Color
Is it possible to ripen the tomato when it is harvested in green color?
Asking for help from well wishers especially tomatto growers
Am writing from southern part of Africa Zambia in particular. I developed interest in tomato growing but our area does not really support this type of farming it is sandy and very hot. please am asking from well wishers to help me with a green house. Thanks in advance
about tomatoes
you have written very well I appreciate your blog about a tomato. Its very helpful.
damaged tomato plants
I have removed the hornworms from my plants but they have munched away. Just wondered if I should trim the branches off? Or will the plants recover.
Damaged by Hornworms
Leave the branches; they could still put out flowers and fruit.
Broken Tomato Plants
I was given a tomato plant when school closed. It was about 5ft tall with a few leaves at the top, in the middle and at the bottom of the stem.
I broke it into 3 pieces, making breaks at joints. I was told, that because I broke the plant, it will grow but not produce tomatoes.
Is this true? There are plenty of blooms...
Thank you for your thoughts on this!
Gail
Tomato Plants
Why is my tomato plant not producing blossoms?
no tomato blossoms
If no flowers form at all, then it could be that the plant received too much nitrogen, which encourages leafy growth at the expense of flowering. Also check whether the plants are getting enough sun; they should receive about 8 to 10 hours of direct sunlight. Be sure that the plant is getting enough water–too little can deter flowering. If flowers form but soon drop off, that could be due to high daytime temperatures. Hope this helps!
Harvesting tomatoes
Hi,
I read your article but still have no idea how to harvest the tomatoes. Maybe a novice question, but should I cut the stem/individual vine with the tomatoes on it or should I pull each tomato off the vine? When I buy tomatoes from the store, the package sometimes has the vine and the tomatoes still attached; other times the tomatoes are just loose. Any advice on how I should remove the tomatoes from my plant?
Thanks,
Andy
Harvesting Tomatoes
When tomatoes are fully matured and ready to be harvested, they will fall right off the vine without much effort at all. Simply give them a little tug and twist and they’ll let go if they’re ready.
If they’re not quite ripe, but you’d still like to harvest (because of impending bad weather, pests, etc.), then you should leave a bit of the stem on the fruit in order to encourage them to finish ripening. The tomatoes on the vine that you see at the store are likely harvested before they’re fully ripe so that they don’t go bad in transit.
Growing tomatoes
Hi, you mention water well and water for a few days. No one really explains the correct way to plant. The tomatoes or other vegetable plants should be watered well by watering the hole before the plant is put in and covered up. Once the plant is covered and watered most of the water runs off. If you fill the hole with water and cover the plant will establish well and not need any for at least two weeks.
Watering tomatoes
Your article says water tomatoes with 2 inches of water consistantly. How often should I water, once a week, 2x a week, more? What do you mean by 2 inches of water? I am trying to grow one plant in a pot in Northern California. It gets plenty of sun, but doesn't rain in the summer, so am concerned about the amount of water it gets.
watering tomatoes
Hi there! When we say 2 inches of water per week, that is the total amount that the ground receives during that time. An easy way to measure this, and monitor how much you are giving your plants, is to place an empty (clean) tuna can near your plants. The water from rain, hose, watering can, or irrigation system will collect there, and you can take a ruler and measure the depth of the water over time (taking into consideration evaporation on a hot day). Especially while tomatoes establish, water deeply about three times per week unless it rains. Fluctuations in water can lead to blossom end-rot and cracks in fruit. On the other hand, cutting back on water a little when the fruit is close to ripe can enhance flavor. Self-watering containers help keep moisture consistent, as does mulch.
For more information, you might like the following article:
https://www.almanac.com/content/when-water-your-vegetable-garden-watering-chart
watering tomatos
Any fool that says tomatos or any other plant takes water into their system at a certain time of day is a total moron! Has anyone ever seen it rain exactly at a particular time of day and repeat it over and over? The answer is no ,, it rains when it rains and all plants take water as they get it ,, which has been going on for millions of years ,,, watering any time of day or night is correct and keep it up when there is no rain for extended periods of time. Let your plants tell you if they need water ,,, they will not look right when dehydrated even a little! Never use city water since it has clorine in it ,, this is very bad for lawns and gardens.
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