5 Tips For Growing Better Tomatoes

Whether you are just starting your first tomato garden or your an old pro at it there are always tips and tricks that can make your effort more successful. Following are 5 tomato growing tips that I found make the greatest difference in the health of your plants.

First, when buying your tomato plants, look for straight sturdy stems, dark leaves and plants that have not begun to flower or fruit. Also, give them time to harden off before you plant them. Hardening them off will keep from shocking the plants when you transplant them. Make sure the threat of frost is past before setting your tomatoes out.

When planting your tomatoes, it is important to bury them deeply. Since tomatoes will grow roots all along their stem, you can plant them in a trench horizontally, or bury them up to the top four leaves. The extra roots your tomato grows will make a much stronger plant.

Having a stake for your tomatoes to grow on is very important. Since tomatoes are a vine they will not grow upright on their own. Having the vines lay on the ground will make them more prone to insect attacks and disease problems. Do not skimp on the stakes, as your plants will get tall and heavy. Put the stakes in the ground at the same time you plant to avoid damaging the roots.

Maintenance of your tomato plants is critical. Watering your plants regularly will avoid splitting of the tomatoes, as well as blossom drop. As your tomato fruit begins to ripen you can reduce the amount you are watering. By reducing your watering at the fruiting stage your tomatoes will concentrate sugars in the fruit. Don’t hold back to much on the water though because the plant will stress and wilt. If the plant becomes stressed it can cause it to drop blossoms and possibly it’s fruit.

Prune off any suckers that grow between the branches. Suckers use energy that could be going into growing a bigger plant. You can also remove some of the leaves, this will help the fruit to ripen by allowing more sunshine to reach it. Just be sure you don’t remove so many leaves that the plant can’t sustain itself. If you remove to many leaves your tomato will suffer since the leaves provide sugars for the roots and fruit.

If you love tomatoes, caring and nurturing your plants will give you higher yields of fruit and make your tomato garden the envy of the neighborhood! These are just a few tomato growing tips I hope will help you have your best tomato crop ever.

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