Growing Perfect Tomatoes

(Best to read this in July and August)

Now that our nation’s birthday has come and gone, it’s too late to be planting anything else in your gardens. So what’s an avid gardener to do? How about harvesting and enjoying the fruits of your labor?

This spring has been one of the worst I can remember for the vegetable garden. Starting with the mid-May cool-down the night I planted the seedlings, the endless days without sun, and the last few days with massive sun/humidity, it’s a wonder anything is growing at all. The good news is that the tomatoes and squash plants look alive and will be producing soon if they don't get moldy first.

Now’s the time to start taking care of your tomatoes the correct way.

Let’s start with the basics … tomatoes are a vine, not a tree or a bush, and contrary to what know-it-all gardeners will tell you, nobody cares whether they are fruits or vegetables. Because they are a vine they have two needs that you must meet to get exceptional tomatoes. First, they need to be staked to keep the tomatoes off the ground and away from the critters. And second, they need to be severely pruned to keep them from producing leaves and stems and concentrating on making delicious tomatoes.

You must have stakes. For most tomato plants the stake needs to be a minimum of 48” above the soil level after you’ve hammered it into place ( I start with 66” long ones) and it needs to be sturdy enough to support approx. 30 lbs. of plant. Because of that, don’t use bamboo plant stakes (sold by the package and usually stained green), they are not sturdy enough to support a full-grown plant. Best to stick with pine stakes (you can rip from 1x and cut points on the end or purchase at garden stores.

Several years ago I purchased some plastic stakes that have a steel core and are wrapped with a ½” diameter surround of green plastic. They are very strong and easy to store and I’d highly recommend them. You'll break a few every year (usually vines get too heavy). I've also got a few mega-stakes ripped from 2x4's and about 8' long for the cherry tomatoes and the asparagus feathers.

Some gardeners prefer tomato “cages”, with great results. There are many variations and styles in the garden store. I’ve tried them but wasn’t able to prune well enough and while the plants looked great the harvest was disappointing.

One safety note – don’t ever lean on or over a stake to push it into the ground. Use a hammer.

Next comes the “ties”. There are many recommendations for what to use to tie the tomatoes to the stakes. I prefer to use acrylic yarn or cut up nylon stockings (yes they still make them). Both of these materials have some “give” to them which is the secret – to allow the plant to grow and expand in size without cutting off the nutrient flow.

If using nylons, use the legs only, and cut into lengths about 12” long. Tie around the plant with a double knot or square knot (right over left and then left over right) and leave a little slack. At the end of the season toss the ties, don't be Yankee thrifty and try to get another season out of them. After a few months they are collectors of weed seeds and bugs.

If using yarn, double-up and tie the same way. Yarn doesn’t have as much “give” so you need to leave a little extra slack. You can use twine or string but never use wire or wire ties - they will cut off the nutrient flow once the plant begins to grow.

Pruning your tomatoes is part art form & part science but mostly just stick-to-it-iveness. I usually prune at one time and tie the plants to the stakes at another, but ideally you have to do the two together.

Beginning at the bottom, the plant has a natural tendency to send off shoots right near the soil line.
You need to keep your main plant and remove all others and be consistent about it.

Moving up the plant, wherever there are branches the plant will want to start a new shoot in the “armpit” between the horizontals and the main stem. You need to pinch or cut these off whenever you see one.

At the top of the plant you will have one true leader called the “apical meristem” that is figuratively the “head” of the plant. Next to it and competing with it will be several similar looking leaders. The reason for these is that if the true leader is damaged by insects or something else, one of the others will takeover as the leader and keep the plant growing. For our purposes, you want to remove all these as they are competition to the true leader and they do not produce tomatoes, only greens.

Should you go on vacation and come back to monster plants that grew out of everywhere you have to be careful not to damage the plant while pruning back. What I have done is remove half of the large growth, let them heal, and then remove the other half. Depending on the ripening of your tomatoes, you might just want to leave them be and pick the tomatoes with a machete.

As the season progresses and the tomatoes grow bigger I pick off any leaves that are shading the tomatoes and depending on the type of tomato pick off the new flowers that will develop into tomatoes next to existing ones (keeping the competition down) This is not scientific, but a truly productive tomato plant is usually not very pretty to look at. In fact the best ones usually look like half-dead vines with just enough green to support the ripening tomatoes until they are picked.

Once the hot weather passes your tomatoes will have a tendency to split along the top. When this happens you are not watering enough. Should you have tomatoes with insect damage, immediately pick them (red or green) and get rid of them preferably far from you garden.

And last, should you find large green caterpillars near your plants (they look very much like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland) they are Tomato Hornworms and you should immediately squash them as they’re going to kill your plants.

To a real vegetable fanatic, picking a tomato fresh from the vine in the hot sun and eating it immediately while still warm (with a little salt or thousand island dressing) is about a close to heaven on earth you can get. Sharing it with a friend or loved one is even better. And best of all is knowing that you grew it yourself.


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