by Mark Levisay
Now that you’ve got your tomato plants in the ground, how do you care for them to ensure maximum fruit production? I have found there are several things you can do throughout the growing season to help your plants thrive.
Tomato plants tied to support poles as they grow.
Provide great support
The first thing is to give the plants good support to keep them off the ground and growing vertically. I use 8’ 2x2” poles to support my plants, though cages can work as well. Using strips of old sheets or pillowcases I tie the growing leaders to the poles at least every week. An interval of 4-8” is probably good-more supports will help hold up heavy sets of fruit. I usually tie just under a node, which is where a leaf comes off the plant’s stem. Don’t tie them too tight, as the stems will get bigger over the summer and you don’t want to prevent the flow of nutrients up the stems to the leaves and fruit.
Continue tying all summer long, at least until the plant gets to the top of the poles! The goal here is to keep the plants away from soil splash during heavy rains, as that can infect the plant with fungal spores present in the soil. The ties and supports also prevent damage from summer storms.
Prune regularly
Secondly we want to prune the plant and train it to grow with two or three main “leaders,” which get tied up to the support. Tomatoes want to produce many growing shoots and will produce “suckers” at almost every node. These shoots will produce flowers and fruit if allowed to grow, but the root system will have trouble supporting all of these stems and the plant will be very thick with foliage.
We also want to encourage air movement within the tomato patch and help more sunlight reach the fruit so it can ripen. When the plant is 12-18” tall you will notice one or two of the suckers will be really big and robust. I let one or two grow in addition to the main leader and remove all other suckers that emerge.
A good rule of thumb is to pinch off any suckers on the plant each time you tie the new growth up or roughly once a week. You’ll even notice suckers that appear where you’ve already pinched one off but remove it again if it appears. This pruning actually stimulates the plant’s vertical growth which will aid with air movement and sun exposure.
Fertilize strategically
Fertilizing your plants is really important as tomatoes are classed as heavy feeders. I use Plant Tone organic fertilizer when I plant the seedlings. Once the first fruit has set, about 2 weeks before your first ripe fruit is expected, fertilize each plant with a fertilizer relatively high in nitrogen (N). After that, at one month intervals, feed the plant a fertilizer that is higher in Phosphorus (P) as that will help support the flowering and fruit production. Remember, if you are growing indeterminate plants they will continue to grow, flower and produce fruit until killed by frost or disease.
Keep it clean
To prevent the spread of disease it’s also important to practice good hygiene in your tomato patch. I generally consider any yellow or brown leaves I see to be diseased and remove them as soon as I can. Not only remove them from the plant, but from the garden as well. I don’t even put them in my compost pile, as the fungal spores can survive for up to 5 years in compost or soil, unless your compost pile is really achieving the high temperature needed to kill them (131F for 3 days).
When in doubt, throw them out! Your plants will start to look bare at the bottom, but that won’t affect the fruit production if they’re actively growing at the top. At the end of the season, when your tomato plants are dead, remove all of the old leaves and stems from the garden, and try to plan for having your tomatoes in a different area next year. Most farmers practice crop rotation, and you should too.
Good luck!
Have a garden question? Send me an email at marklevisay@gmail.com.