Ten Tips for Growing Terrific Tomatoes

A luscious tomato eaten straight from your home garden is one of summer's tastiest treats. Sweet and flavorful, home-grown tomatoes will spoil your taste buds permanently for those bland, boring fruits from the grocery produce section. Tomato plants need lots of sunlight, well-drained soil, and consistent watering to produce excellent fruit. Follow these ten tips for growing the finest tomatoes possible in your home garden:

1. You can grow tomatoes from seed or buy seedlings. Growing from seed is more economical, but you must start them indoors six to eight weeks before the last hard frost of the season. Buying seedlings can be more convenient when you have limited space indoors. Choose young, healthy plants that don't have brown or yellow spots on the leaves.

2. Don't plant your seedlings in the hot afternoon sun. Seedlings grown indoors must be gradually adjusted to the outdoor climate. Set the pots or flats in a lightly shaded spot for a couple hours every day, for several days. Choose a calm, cloudy day to plant the seedlings in your garden, or plant them in the evening. Plant the seedlings up to the level of the first set of branches, hilling the dirt around them a bit. The buried stems will sprout new roots which will help the plants thrive.

3. Tomatoes need plenty of bright sunlight, at least six hours a day. More is better. When you choose the spot for your tomato garden, pay attention to where shadows from nearby trees, hedges, and buildings fall in the mid- morning and early evening. Pick a spot where bright sunlight hits most of the day.

4. Plant your tomatoes in soil that drains well and is rich in organic matter. Inferior garden soil should have three inches of compost worked into the top six inches of soil. Leave two to three feet between plants, or plant them a foot apart in rows three feet apart.

5. Healthy soil won't need much amending, perhaps a bit of starter fertilizer high in phosphorous. Don't add nitrogen until after the fruit sets. Too much nitrogen, too early, will cause the vines to grow more than necessary. The extra energy spent growing vines may keep them from producing healthy, abundant tomatoes.

6. Tomato varieties may be determinate or indeterminate. Determinate varieties (best for small gardens or container gardening) remain bushier than indeterminate tomatoes, which grow vines. They usually don't need to be staked. Indeterminate tomato varieties will need to be staked to keep the fruit and foliage from lying on the ground, inviting pest problems and disease.

7. Support indeterminate varieties with metal tomato cages, tripods made of bamboo poles, or posts staked at each end of the row with a string tied between them a few feet off the ground. Fasten branches gently, with pieces of old nylon stocking or other soft material.

8. Watering must be consistent to produce the best tomatoes. Your crop will need an inch of water per week, and maybe a bit more in hot weather. Place a water gauge (or a small, empty container) in the garden to tell how much rain has fallen, and water until the gauge measures one inch. Over watering will cause the skins to crack and split, and your tomato crop may be invaded by fungal diseases and rot. Tomatoes that survive may be larger but lacking in flavor.

9. Once the plants are three feet tall, remove the bottom sets of leaves, and pick the suckers off as they appear. Suckers are the little branches that sprout in the crotch of two main branches. They do not produce tomatoes, and they drain the plant of energy needed to grow desirable produce. Removing the bottom sets of leaves will keep them from touching the soil and reduce the plants' risk of soil-borne diseases.

10. Avoid using chemical pesticides which pollute the environment and put your family at risk. Watch for signs of infestation, and pick off insects and their larvae as they appear. Organic insect control methods, used consistently, can reduce the odds of a full-blown infestation. Plant an insect garden near or around your tomato crop to attract beneficial insects which will eat the pest insects or kill them by parasitizing them.