Top Tips for Huge Tomato Harvest!

Tomatoes are probably the most commonly grown backyard vegetable (or are they a fruit?).  There is nothing better than a sun-warmed, fresh-from-the-vine tomato. The taste and texture blows away anything that comes from the grocery store!  

Growing your own opens up SO MANY varieties of tomatoes that you simply can not find in stores.  Tomatoes are fairly easy to grow – put them in a sunny spot, give them room to breathe, water deeply every couple of days, and away they go.   Want to really kick your tomato harvest into high gear this year?  Read on for our 8 simple tips for a huge tomato harvest and then start researching canning recipes for your delicious bumper tomato harvest!

Get your tomato seeds started early

Aim to start tomato seeds indoors 7-8 weeks before your area’s last frost date.  This is especially true if you live in the north where the growing season is short and every week counts!  I recommend growing tomatoes from seed (click here to learn about starting seeds). They are easy to grow and you get a huge variety when growing from seed. You also know harmful chemicals have not been added during the growing process.  

Explore the colorful purple or black heirlooms. Grow some cherry tomatoes for snacking. Get some thick walled paste tomatoes for making sauce. Add some big slicing tomatoes for your burgers & sandwiches.  The varieties are almost endless!  

If you are going to buy your tomato plants, carefully inspect them before buying.  It’s tempting to buy the huge bushy plants. Those ones are often root-bound and will take longer to acclimate to planting.  You are better off with smaller plants (about a foot tall) with healthy green leaves with no flowers or fruit yet.

Choose the right location

Tomatoes ideally need 6-7 hours of sunlight and prefer not to be crowded.  Leave plenty of room around the plants so air can circulate to prevent fungal & bacterial diseases.  Tomatoes prefer rich soil.  A week or so before transplant, till some aged manure or compost into the soil.

When transplanting, dig a long, deep trench

Lay the plant in the trench horizontally. Position it so only the top part (where the first true leaves are) is sticking out of the ground.  The tomato plant will grow roots all along the buried stem.  The bigger and healthier the root structure, the bigger & healthier your plant can grow!  It might seem disheartening to see your foot-long plant reduced to just a couple of inches, but believe me it won’t be long before your plant takes off!

Put a whole egg in the trench with the plant

“Planting” an egg (or crushed eggshells) with your plant provides an excellent source of calcium & sulfur. These are essential nutrients to prevent blossom end rot & for growing large tomatoes.

Add a fish

Many gardeners swear by adding a whole fish or fish heads just underneath your tomato trench. If you do this, bury them deep enough so they won’t be dug up by local wildlife!  Fish have been used for centuries as a natural fertilizer.  Folklore holds this is a tip the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims when they first arrived in America.  

As the fish decays, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other minerals are leeched into the soil, feeding the plant.  A call to your local fish market will likely yield you a bag full of fish heads for free.  I am a bit squeamish about the fish eyes staring up at me, so I opt for liquid fish fertilizer.  Not as cheap or as good as the real thing, but easier!  Simply follow the instructions for dilution on the bottle and water after planting.  Not just for tomatoes, your entire vegetable garden will love this natural fertilizer!

Water deeply a few times per week

It is better to have a deep watering a few times per week rather than a light watering daily.  In the heat of summer, a deep soaking 3-4 times per week is perfect.  If possible, water directly to the roots, avoiding getting the leaves wet. Wet leaves can encourage bacterial growth.  Soaker hoses are ideal for tomatoes because they deliver water directly to the roots without throwing water around.  

Be consistent with your watering.  Most tomato issues can be stemmed back to watering habits.  Blossom end rot (black rotting marks on the bottom of fruit), cracks/splits in the skin, stunted fruit size, and root rot can all be traced back to over, under, or inconsistent watering.

Provide the right fertilizer at the right times

Tomato plants are fast growers so they can benefit from the added nutrients of fertilizer.   Once a week when they are young, I give my tomatoes nitrogen-rich homemade chicken manure compost tea (click here to learn how to make it).  Any nitrogen-rich fertilizer will do though.  This will encourage a healthy root system, large stable stems, and healthy foliage.  

Once the plant starts to put out flower blossoms, you know it is time to stop the nitrogen fertilizer.  At this point, you want the plant to focus more on producing fruit rather than growing leaves.  Now it is time to provide an extra calcium boost.  Take the shells of several eggs and grind them up in a food processor.  Scratch them into the dirt at the base of your tomato plant.  

Prune the suckers

A “sucker”, or side shoot, is a shoot that grows out of the joint where a branch meets the main stem.  I don’t go crazy pruning these off, but if I notice them I do pinch them off.  It’s easiest to do this when they are only an inch or two long.  If they get bigger than that I just leave them.  

If left on its own, a sucker will develop into a new branch with its own leaves & fruit.  What is wrong with that you might ask?  This new branch will be competing for nutrients as it grows larger and puts out leaves & blossoms. This takes away from fruit that is already developing.  In the end you might end up with more tomatoes, but they will be smaller and of lesser quality.  

If you are growing determinate tomatoes pruning suckers is not needed. A determinate tomato is a variety that will only grow to a certain size. They are ideal for patio planters. The plant will only put out the amount of branches it can support.

Provide support

There are numerous types of support systems for tomatoes from cages to whole row supports.  Pick one that works for you and set it up when you plant to avoid disturbing the roots once the plant is larger.  Tomato plants need support or else they will bend and break under the weight of the maturing fruit.  If left to their own devices, they will grow along the ground like a vine (as they would in the wild). Keeping them upright off the damp soil will decrease the likelihood of diseases and pests.

Pick when ripe

For the best flavor, allow your tomatoes to fully ripen on the vine.  A ripe tomato will be firm and very red in color.  Ripe tomatoes should not be stored in the refrigerator, it causes their flavor & texture to deteriorate rapidly.  If they fall off the vine before they are fully ripened, you can place them in a paper bag and store them in a cool, dry location until ripened.