How To Plant and Grow Tomatoes

Plant 'em deep!  

Pinch off any side leaves or stems and just leave the ones at the very top.  Dig the hole deep and plant it all the way up to the top leaves.  Or if the plant has gotten pretty tall, you may need to dig a trench and lay it down, fill in with dirt, and then prop up the top of the plant with a rock or dirt clod.  In just a few days it will start growing upwards toward the sun. 
The reason for planting tomatoes deep is they will form roots all along the stems and be much stronger plants!   These are the only veggies you should do this with. 

When to plant?
Please wait until the last spring frost to plant.  When is that?  Who knows!?  In much of the Southeast where I have lived, the average last frost date is April 15th.  That's an average though.  Over about twenty years when I lived in Alabama,  the last frost came after that date.  Sometimes it could be a week or two weeks before.  Talk to gardeners in your area who have experience,  do a search using the words "average last frost date" for your county or city,  and check that 7-day weather forecast.  Remember that even though we know that water freezes at 32 degrees F, we can get a frost at about 37 degrees.  I don't know why.  I wish I did.  
I am having to learn about planting times in my new home of Fort Worth, Texas.  I have taken my own advice and have learned that  it's still a gamble to plant early.  Here folks are trying to beat the summer heat and dry wind that often dooms tomato plants.  We'll see what happens, but I'm just letting you know that I'm learning and no one ever knows these things for sure!

Give Them Support
Tomato plants will do better with a cage to support them.  If you have cattle fencing wire, you can make one easily.  I always read to use concrete reinforcing wire because the holes are bigger the whole way, but you can get cattle fencing easier.  Just put the small holes at the bottom and you won't have any problem reaching in.  You can also buy ready-made cages at Lowe’s or Home Depot.  They have  a fold-up kind that looks pretty sturdy, although I haven’t used them.  Don't buy the upside down cone ones for tomatoes.  They will not hold up to big tomato vines. They do work great for peppers though.  

Tomatoes with blossom-end rot

For tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants (same family) you need to add lime and Epsom salts to the soil if you live east of the Mississippi.  This will prevent blossom-end rot.  Blossom-end rot is where the fruit turns mushy on the bottom end before it gets ripe.  It is caused by not enough calcium and magnesium or from the plant not able to USE the calcium because the soil is a little too acidic.  The lime will make the soil less acidic and add calcium (calcium carbonate).  Epsom salts isn't salt; it's magnesium.  If you already have these on hand, add a handful of lime to the planting hole and another handful to the top after you fill it in.  Add 1 handful of Epsom salts to the top and then water it all in.  If you don't have any when you plant them, be sure to add it pretty soon to the top of the soil and water it in well.  Now, a  soil test will tell you exactly what you need, but most folks won’t do that, so east of the Mississippi is a rule of thumb for these needs.  (If you live west of the Mississippi, I don’t know what you need.)

Don't let anyone smoke around your garden or touch your plants with hands that have been on cigarettes or dip without washing first.  They can transmit tobacco mosaic virus to your tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.  TMV will cause your leaves to get curled up and not thrive. 

As your plants grows a bit, cover the soil around it thick with grass-clippings (that have not been sprayed with herbicide) or hay or chopped-up leaves or shredded or torn paper (only black and white newspaper, not colored ads).  Pile it up thick.  This deep mulch will serve a few purposes.  It will keep weeds from growing, which equals no hoeing!  It will hold moisture in and it will rot and enrich your soil.  The earthworms will eat it from the soil side and will speed up this process.  Earthworms will “till” your soil when you give them enough to eat, and you will actually be able to dig in it with your hand! 

Tomato hornworm with egg sacs of parasitic wasp

Do NOT spray with pesticides.  It is bad for you and your family, and it is totally unnecessary.  The only pests to watch for are tomato hornworms, and it is best to just pick them off. (I like to put them where some lucky bird will find them.) If you see a hornworm with white sacs along its back, just move it away but don't smash it.  Those white sacs are egg sacs from parasitic wasps.  They kill hornworms and hatch into more tomato hornworm killers!

Now go plant some 'maters and dream of summer days that are soon to come!