Some gardeners have a love-hate relationship with growing tomatoes. They love the taste of a freshly picked homegrown tomato, but hate the problems — from diseases to pests — that stand between them and the ripe fruits. An award-winning tomato crop just needs warm weather, regular fertilizing, and the right amount of water. In other words, cultivate good gardening practices, and you will be rewarded.
Wild tomatoes started out somewhere in South America, perhaps along the warm coastal areas of Ecuador and Peru or in the Andes Mountains. The pre-Mayan people of Central America began domesticating and cultivating the fruit before the arrival of the conquistadors, who discovered xitomatl and carried specimens home to Spain. Tomatoes then traveled to Italy, southern France, and beyond. By the 1500s, botanists included images of deeply ribbed tomatoes in beautifully illustrated books about medicinal plants and herbs. Because they were unsure how to categorize these plants of the nightshade family, they grouped tomatoes in with poisonous jimsonweed, henbane, and deadly nightshade.
Instead of growing tomatoes to eat, gardeners valued them as ornamentals. Eventually brave souls tasted tomatoes and lived to tell others about it. In the mid-1800s a Harvard-trained physician by the name of Diocletian (“Dio”) Lewis lectured healthy people against consuming tomatoes as a food. Instead he advised folks to eat small quantities of cooked tomatoes for medicinal purposes only. After years of being misunderstood, the tomato finally realized its potential as an important food crop in the nineteenth century.
Tomatoes are now the most popular edible gardeners grow. They certainly deserve their Love Apple nickname, but not for their rumored qualities as an aphrodisiac. People are head-over-heels in love with the delectable taste of these garden-grown globes of goodness.
Tomatoes aren’t any more difficult to grow than other edibles, it just seems that way because so many folks try to grow them. Over the years I’ve answered more questions about growing tomatoes than about any other fruit or vegetable. People ask, “Why do tomatoes drop their blossoms?” or “Why do my tomatoes taste watery?” and “Do squirrels eat tomatoes?”
Tomatoes are tender, warm-season plants. All they need is a sunny space; a long growing season; fertile, well-drained soil; and enough water and nutrients to grow, flower, and produce fruit. And yes, squirrels love tomatoes too.
With several thousand tomato selections available, there’s sure to be at least one must-grow for everyone out there. If you ask gardeners about their favorites, be prepared to spend some time talking tomatoes. You’ll hear about pint-sized currant, grape, and cherry tomatoes; medium slicers; and beefsteaks that can grow as large as a softball. Some gardeners sing the praises of heirlooms while others extol the benefits of growing hybrids.
Varieties are available for short, medium, and long growing seasons. There are bush tomatoes perfect for growing on patios, and tomatoes that grow in hanging baskets. Tomatoes come in a rainbow of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, black, indigo, pink, white, and bicolored.
With so many tomato varieties on the market and more introduced every year, it can be difficult to decide which kind to plant. Read descriptions carefully, looking for irresistible varieties that sound like real winners. Choose tomatoes by matching varieties to the length of your growing season, the weather conditions typical for your area of the country, and the size and type of tomatoes you like to eat.
Before making your final choices, check the show book to make sure there are categories for your selections in the contests you want to enter. The fair may offer as many as a dozen tomato classes, which may include beefsteak, paste, cherry, grape, and pear-shaped tomatoes. There may be classes for colors other than red, too.
Some contests include a special division for heirlooms or open-pollinated and nonhybridvarieties. For the entry tag in such classes, you may need to know the variety or include some historical detail such as the family name of the originating seed contributor. Other specialty tomato contests include the tastiest tomatoes, vegetable trays that include tomatoes, and jumbo or giant tomato contests (judged only by weight).
When shopping for tomatoes, descriptions will include information on the size of the plant and disease resistance, as well as information on the fruits. Tomatoes are classified by their growth habit: determinate or indeterminate.
Determinate varieties are sometimes called bush tomatoes. Determinate plants are naturally limited to a certain size, usually shorter and more compact. These tomato plants set one good harvest of fruit over a short period of time, and then they call it quits. Some gardeners grow determinate varieties of paste tomatoes so they’ll have a large amount of tomatoes that ripen at the same time for canning, or enough to enter in several contests scheduled close together.
Indeterminate, or vining-type, tomatoes have no natural size restrictions, so plants grow taller and wider. Plants set fruit, vines continue to grow, and the plant keeps producing tomatoes through the season. If you’re planning on competing, indeterminate varieties will produce tomatoes over a longer period of time, so you can enter multiple fairs and contests. You may have fewer tomatoes at any one time, though.
To head off common tomato problems, look for cultivars described as disease resistant (or at least tolerant). Many modern hybrids are “VFN resistant.” Each letter refers to a specific disease:
Grafted tomatoes are gaining ground with tomato-lovers looking for ways to improve their tomato-growing efforts. You can get grafted plants for determinate and indeterminate varieties, and more options are becoming available all the time. Research shows you can double the number of tomatoes you grow thanks to superstrong plants that resist most soilborne diseases. Buying grafted plants can help you dodge troublesome soilborne diseases like Verticillium wilt and help your plants resist root-knot nematodes. Grafted plants can produce more fruit per plant through improved nutrient uptake. More vigorous root systems make them healthier and more productive.
Grafting fruits for commercial purposes started in Asia in the 1920s when horticulturists first tried the process to prevent Fusarium wilt of melons. Now nearly all tomatoes commercially grown in Korea, Japan, and Australia are grafted. Grafted tomatoes (also cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers) are the result of an old-fashioned propagation method similar to the technique used for grapes, fruit trees, and roses. The top part of one plant, called the scion, is attached to the root system of another plant, called the rootstock. The rootstock for many grafted tomatoes comes from wild, nearly bulletproof tomatoes known for thriving in difficult soil conditions.
There are special instructions for growing grafted tomatoes. You need to plant so the graft union is above the soil line, and you need to remove any side shoots (suckers) that form below the graft. Read and follow the pruning and staking instructions that come with your plants.
As a lifelong Colorado gardener, I’ve always planted my tomatoes as transplants, either buying plants or starting them indoors from seed. Yet I’ve heard people speak of wonderfully warm places where a person can plant a tomato seed in the ground and it actually grows into a plant and produces fruit. If you live in a cold, short-season climate like I do, you probably grow from transplants, too. If you’re one of those direct sowing folks, all I can say is lucky you.
Whether you have to (or prefer to) start your tomato seeds indoors, sowing and growing them yourself increases your variety choices. You can order any tomato seeds from catalogs or online retailers, buy them at your local garden center, or swap seeds with fellow growers.
Select the tomato varieties you want to grow, and check the information in the catalog or on the seed packet. Look for the number of days it takes for the seeds to germinate and the number of days it takes from transplanting in the garden until you can start harvesting ripe tomatoes. Plan to start seeds six to eight weeks before the average last frost date for your area. Keep in mind the date(s) of the contest(s) you want to enter.
Starting your own tomatoes from seed will give you a wider selection of varieties to choose from.
Even when you start your tomato garden with transplants, you need to check the number of days to maturity. Make sure there’s plenty of time for your crop to be ready in time for the contest.
When your tomatoes first go in the ground, you want to encourage formation of healthy roots instead of ripening existing fruit. So if you’re starting with transplants from a nursery or garden center, resist the temptation to buy large plants that are already flowering or fruiting. Instead, look for plants that are dark green, are 6 to 8 inches tall, and have stems about the diameter of a pencil.
Marty Schnicker’s giant tomatoes weighed 2.3 and 2.43 pounds each.
Here are the top 10 tomato recommendations, in three popular categories. They’re from tomato-loving gardeners, just like you.
Sometimes gardeners just want to stretch the boundaries of tomato growing and go big. Really big. Just imagine a tomato that weighs more than 8 pounds! That was the 8.41-pound ‘Big Zac’ record-setter grown by Dan MacCoy in Ely, Minnesota, in 2014. No doubt other growers will want a crack at that record.
If you want to try growing a jumbo, giant, or humongous tomato, here are a few expert recommendations to keep in mind:
Start with a cultivar that’s meant to grow big. The year I grew my nearly 2-pounder, I planted ‘Giant Belgium’ seeds, known for growing tomatoes that can weigh 5 pounds. ‘Old Colossus’ is another known heavyweight, and it’s an heirloom, too.
Give plants exactly what they want. Make sure your tomatoes are planted in well-drained soil amended with compost. They’ll also need plenty of sun, water, and weekly applications of fertilizer. Allow even more space between plants than usual, and build a heavy-duty trellising system for support.
Check plants for monster blooms. These fused flowers are the result of two or more blossoms growing together into one big flower, which will grow multiple conjoined fruits. The resulting bumpy and unattractive fruits are beautiful in a jumbo-tomato, prizewinning way. If there aren’t any mega-blooms, thin blossoms to leave just a few.
Tomatoes benefit from being staked for support.
Help the bees and pollinate the flowers yourself. Use another tomato blossom, a small brush, or your finger to spread pollen among the blooms.
Limit the number of tomatoes. Starting in midsummer, remove all the fruit except for the biggest one on each plant to direct the plant’s energy to growing it even bigger.
Prune the plant. Some experts prune to a single vine; others leave a stem plus a secondary branch. Most remove foliage from the bottom 12 inches of the stem to prevent foliar disease. (Spores of soilborne diseases can splash onto low-growing leaves in a heavy rain.) Another pruning method is to cut the top off the vines of tall, indeterminate varieties when they reach about 7 feet.
Support tomatoes so they don’t break from the vine. Use lengths of old nylon stockings, old socks, or other similar stretchy material. Creative gardeners have also used old brassieres to cup the fruit for support.
Pick tomatoes before they ripen completely. This keeps them from losing weight while still on the vine.
To grow the tastiest tomatoes, plants need about 8 hours of sun each day. They also grow best in a well-drained, rich loamy soil. To give plants a great start, amend the soil with organic matter and a balanced fertilizer before planting.
Before planting in the garden or containers, move tomato plants outdoors and gradually give them a few hours of sun each day to get them acclimated to the outdoors. If nighttime temperatures are chilly, move the plants into a shed, a garage, or the house at night. An alternative is to plant early and use water-filled plant protectors that collect the sun’s heat, help warm the soil, and provide warmth at night. Even if you don’t plant early, you can use a temporary cover to minimize transplant shock. (See Acclimate before Planting.)
When the danger of frost has passed and nighttime temperatures reach a reliable 50 to 55°F, plant the tomatoes. If possible, do this late in the afternoon or on a cloudy day to reduce transplant shock. Dig a small planting hole, remove some of the lower leaves from the tomato plant, and place each seedling deeper than it was growing in its pot to encourage growth of more roots.
Plant a minimum of 2 feet apart to give tomatoes plenty of room to grow. Build up the soil to create a small water basin around each plant to collect water and direct it to the roots. Water in with a diluted liquid (or water-soluble) plant food.
When nighttime temperatures remain high, tomato plants sometimes lose their flowers, which means you’ll have fewer tomatoes.
Tomato vines will sprawl along the ground unless staked or grown with a tomato cage or trellis. Staking prevents damage to the vines and keeps the fruit off the ground. Plant supports reduce problems with diseases and rotting fruit, plus they put ripe tomatoes in easy reach for harvest. You can make your own heavy-duty tomato cages using concrete-reinforcing wire mesh. Cut a length 6 to 7 feet long and form mesh into round cages. Use 2- to 4-foot lengths of concrete reinforcing rods (rebar) to anchor cages firmly into the ground. In addition to keeping the plants upright in windy weather, the cages make it easier to protect plants from wind by wrapping with plastic sheeting or to cover with insulating blankets and old sheets when cold weather threatens.
Every gardener has ideas for what works best for growing high-quality tomatoes. In general, tomatoes thrive with the same care you give other vegetables, but there are some exceptions. Check plants regularly for signs of insect pests or plant diseases.
Growing in raised beds with red plastic helps warm the soil for this heat-loving plant.
Mulch around the plant with an organic mulch such as thin layers of dry, untreated grass clippings or chopped leaves to conserve water, control weeds, and regulate soil temperature. The mulch shouldn’t touch the plant stem. Add mulch right after planting, as this helps to prevent disease spores from splashing onto leaves from the soil.
Keep tomato beds free of weeds; take care not to damage roots when weeding. Check soil moisture regularly, and don’t let plants dry out. When rainfall is lacking, water deeply; ideally water should penetrate 8 to 10 inches into the soil. Water at the roots of the plant, and avoid splashing water on the leaves.
While plants are growing, some experts recommend pruning to remove all but two growing stems from each plant. The goal is to help plants grow vertically and prevent plant disease by allowing for better air circulation. Some growers advise removing leaves from the lower foot of tomato stems as another way to prevent plant disease. Another pruning method is to remove suckers (the branches that grow in the joints of the stems between the leaf and main stalk) to direct energy to growing fewer, but larger fruit. Use your fingers to pinch suckers off while still small.
Use a balanced fertilizer to side-dress tomato plants while flowering and when the fruits are set and begin to grow. Continue to make fertilizer applications every two to four weeks. Keep fertilizing from midsummer to late summer to help plants resist the tomato disease called early blight and to improve the tomato yield. Discontinue fertilizing in mid-August so vine growth will slow and to promote ripening of fruit.
When tomatoes have reached their mature color and size, use pruners to carefully clip them from their vines. Check for fruit that’s slightly soft to the touch and in peak condition for slicing.
Harvest as close to the contest as you can. If necessary, store tomatoes in a cool basement, but don’t refrigerate. When tomatoes are refrigerated, their texture turns grainy and they tend to lose their flavor.
The best way to prevent insect and disease damage to your tomatoes is to cultivate good gardening practices. Refrain from overwatering or underwatering. Keep the tomato bed weed-free, and fertilize on schedule. Then, be observant. Watch for potential problems as tomatoes are growing, and take action as needed.
Weather plays a big part in how well your garden grows. Spring weather can be perfect for planting one day, and then a cold front blows through the next. Cool weather during blossom time may make tomato plants drop their flowers or cause malformed fruit. But cool temperatures aren’t the only weather-related worry. If morning temperatures quickly rise above 90°F, blossoms may drop or refuse to develop into tomatoes. Tomatoes are also sensitive to wind, drenching rains, and hailstorms. You can’t do much about the weather, but you can work to safeguard plants by using water-filled plant protectors, adding a layer of row cover or shade cloth, or building heavy-duty hail guards.
Poor maintenance practices, insects, or diseases can cause other problems in the tomato patch. Appearance is one of the most important aspects of judging tomatoes in a competition. Little nibbles from the plant’s foliage aren’t as serious as spots on the fruit. However, poor quality foliage while plants are growing can affect the quality of the fruit. Lack of the right nutrients, plant diseases, and insect pests can make for a frustrating tomato-growing experience. Here are the most common tomato troubles and how to protect your crop:
Tomato hornworms are large green caterpillars that sport white markings and a horn on their hind ends. Hornworms can strip a plant of its leaves in just one day, and they can also eat your tomatoes. Be vigilant; they’re hard to spot because they’re the same color as the leaves, so look for large portions of leaves suddenly disappearing. If you spot these pests, pick them off by hand and dispose of them in a bucket of soapy water or a paper bag headed for the trash.
Psyllids are tiny insects that like to feed on tomato plants. They cause leaves to turn yellow and curl. Severe infestations can cause plants to stop growing and producing fruit. Look for small insects on the underside of leaves; use insecticidal soap to control these pests.
Root-knot nematodes are microscopic soil pests that affect plant roots and stunt growth. Choose tomatoes that are resistant to nematodes (they’ll have an N after the name, as in VFN). Planting marigolds nearby will discourage these pests.
Blossom-end rot causes a tan or dark, soggy spot on the bottom, ruining tomatoes (and peppers and eggplants, too). It’s not a disease but the result of low calcium levels in the soil and inconsistent soil moisture. Prevent blossom-end rot by making sure the soil stays evenly moist to help with uptake of calcium, especially during dry weather. Mulch to help regulate soil moisture and temperature. Test soil pH; tomatoes grow best when pH is around 6.5.
Catfacing results from pollination problems during cold weather. Fruit becomes malformed, winning prizes only in an ugly tomato contest. When selecting varieties that grow larger fruit, choose those known to set fruit in cool temperatures.
Cracks in tomatoes appear as circles at the stem end of the tomato or as cracks that form along the side beginning at the stem. Rapid growth because of wet weather followed by dry weather causes this kind of cracking. Use a soaker hose and mulch to keep the soil evenly moist.
Sunscald is like a tomato sunburn that leaves perfect tomatoes with blotchy yellow skin. Protect fruit from intense sunlight by keeping leaves healthy, and use shade cloth to protect the fruit as it ripens.
Early blight is a disease caused by a fungus; look for brown, circular spots on older leaves before they yellow and die. The disease starts with the lower leaves and slowly progresses up the plant. To prevent early blight, rotate the tomato bed every year and give tomatoes plenty of planting space to allow air to circulate. Create a strong trellising system to keep tomatoes off the ground, water at soil level, and avoid splashing water on tomato plant leaves.
Late blight is also caused by a fungus, but one that typically infects plants in the middle or late part of summer when the weather is cool and moist. Look for irregularly shaped watery spots on the younger leaves growing on the upper part of the plant. The spots grow larger and cause leaves to shrivel and die. Space tomatoes as far apart as practical, and irrigate plants at soil level. Remove diseased plants from the garden immediately.
Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt are soilborne fungal diseases that cause problems in the plant’s vascular tissues, leading to plant decline and small, malformed fruit. Plants start to wilt in the middle of the day, even when the soil is moist. Eventually the stems turn brown, the roots may rot, and the plants will produce small, malformed fruit or die. Dispose of any diseased plant parts in the trash, not the compost pile, as there is no effective treatment for these wilt diseases. Your best bet is prevention. When purchasing tomato plants or seeds, buy those that are resistant. They’ll be labeled with a V and an F after the name, as in VFN. Avoid planting tomatoes in the same location every year.
Yellowing leaves can be caused by a number of different maladies, from late blight to various viruses.
Review the rules for the number of tomatoes required for the class you’re entering. Select tomatoes that are uniform in color, shape, and size; they should have a shiny and smooth skin and a pleasant tomato aroma. If the calyx is left on, make sure it’s fresh and green. The interior should be bright and meaty with no green around the seeds. However for green (under-ripe) tomato contests, select “mature green” specimens that have a slight pinkish tinge.
If you’ve grown a winning crop of open-pollinated or heirloom tomatoes, you might want to save the seeds to grow and enter in future contests. Open-pollinated tomatoes are non-hybrid varieties; they result from natural pollination by insects or wind. Seeds saved from open-pollinated plants will grow the same plant as its parent plant, year after year. (Seeds from hybrids will not produce plants identical to the parent plant.) Heirloom varieties of tomatoes and other vegetables are open-pollinated, which is what allows them to be handed down from generation to generation. Here’s how to save seeds from your winning heirloom tomatoes.
Scoop the seeds. Start with one of the best ripe tomatoes from your best plant. Slice the tomato in half across the middle (its “equator”). Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds with the gelatinous goo; place in a clean container. Add enough water to cover seeds. Cover the container with a piece of plastic wrap; poke a small hole in the plastic with a knife or toothpick to allow for air flow. Place the container in a warm location to ferment for several days.
Ferment. Once a day, stir the seed-and-water mixture and then replace the plastic wrap. Watch to see when the top of the liquid looks “scummy,” which shows that the fermentation process has separated the goo from the seeds.
Skim and rinse. Remove and discard the scummy surface material. Pour the tomato seeds into a sieve; rinse thoroughly with water. Let drain to remove as much water as possible.
Dry and store. Line a saucer with a piece of waxed paper or a large drip coffee filter. Spread seeds into a single layer on top of the paper. Let the seeds dry for a week or more; stir daily during drying to make sure seeds dry evenly. Seeds are dry when they move quickly and easily across the paper without sticking together. Store seeds in paper packets or envelopes; label with name of tomato or description. Keep cool and dry until it’s time to plant.
Perhaps it was the lure of a late-summer road trip to Cincinnati, or the possibility of a $2,500 cash prize, that caused Susan Linko and her family to enter their first vegetable contest in 2003. They had just heard about the NatureSweet Homegrown Tomato Challenge the day before and decided to enter some of their favorite tomatoes.
“We won and it was very exciting. It unleashed a monster,” Susan says. “Then we really started preparing for the next year’s contest and thinking what we’d need to do to repeat the win.”
Their attention to detail paid off: they took home the top prize again in 2004. Since those first two contests, they’ve cashed $15,000 worth of those oversized NatureSweet Homegrown Tomato Challenge checks.
NatureSweet held its first Homegrown Tomato Challenge in 2003 as a simple competition to find the best-tasting homegrown tomatoes. Judges test every tomato for sweetness using a refractometer that measures the approximate amount of a tomato’s total sugars. The measurement of sweetness is calculated in Brix units, and the tomatoes with the highest Brix scores are taste-tested by celebrity judges before the NatureSweet staff combines the scores and selects the winners.
Cultivar selection and crop maturity are two key factors that can affect a tomato’s Brix level. Environmental factors — moisture, fertility, sunlight, and temperature — also influence Brix levels.
The Linkos credit a base of rich garden soil for their winning ways. The family lives and gardens on a former dairy farm in Harrison, Ohio. Susan, her husband, Pete, and their four kids all contribute to the family’s gardening success, planting about 100 tomatoes in their 5,000-square-foot vegetable bed. They also grow green beans, carrots, radishes, lettuce, asparagus, and a horseradish plant that’s more than 110 years old.
They enrich the soil every year with homemade compost that includes manure from their horses and something Susan believes is their secret ingredient: Starbuck’s coffee grounds. Pete built a motorized composter that churns out mounds of their priceless compost.
The tomato-growing process starts each fall when Pete sends in soil samples for testing. He makes any needed adjustments over the winter so the garden is ready to plant in spring. “We amend the soil and grow a cover crop of winter rye that we turn over in spring,” Susan says.
Pete starts hundreds of tomato plants each year. Many are for their garden, and the rest he gives away to family and friends. “At first I was telling him not to let other people know about the contest,” Susan confesses. “But now we invite the competition. It’s just so much fun to be there with our family and friends. It’s really fun when someone we know wins.”
The Linkos plant their tomato crop after Mother’s Day in their Zone 6 garden, spacing plants 6 feet apart so they’ll grow tall and wide. They irrigate the plants until the tomatoes set fruit and then water only if plants start to wilt. Another secret to their tomato success is watering with harvested rainwater only, never with chlorinated water.
Pete may pick off some of the tomatoes to allow the sugar to go to fewer fruit. “But,” Susan says, “we don’t mess with the plants a whole lot once they’re in.”
The two varieties that have been most successful for them are ‘Cherokee Purple’ in the large category and ‘Sun Gold’ in the small. Before a contest they’ll test a few tomatoes with a refractometer, just like the NatureSweet judges. “We’ll check a few tomatoes from each plant to see which are Brixing the highest and then guess which plant to pick from, but that’s not always the best tomato,” Susan says. “One year we had a ‘Sun Gold’ Brixing at 14 or 15 and it was a runner-up. The judges voted it too sweet!”
'Sun Gold'
