Tomatoes are a favourite crop for several home gardeners, and even beginner gardeners can have success when growing their very first tomato . But if you actually want to enhance your tomato-growing skills and see bigger and better yields than ever before, I’m getting to allow you to in on a couple of “trade secrets”. As a former organic market farmer, I’ve had many experience growing thousands of tomato plants over the years. As a result, I’ve put together an inventory of 12 tomato growing secrets to use in your home garden for healthier plants, bigger yields, and fewer work.

Growing great tomatoes is straightforward with these 12 tricks
Gardeners love growing ripe, juicy tomatoes. With these 12 growing tips, high yields are right around the corner.

12 Tomato Growing Secrets

While a number of these tomato growing secrets involve tomato planting tips and soil health, others are focused on the way to properly look after tomato plants throughout the season. However, each of those tomato-growing secrets is aimed toward helping you minimize work while maximizing the harvest.

Tomato growing secret #1: Phosphorous may be a big deal

Tomatoes love the sun. a minimum of 6 hours of full sun per day is right. But did you recognize they also need nutrient-dense soil with a specific specializes in ample phosphorous? Of the large three plant macro-nutrients [nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K)], phosphorous is that the one that encourages the event of sturdy roots and many flowers and fruits. Gardeners who over-feed their tomatoes with high-nitrogen fertilizers have big, leafy green tomato plants with few flowers and fruits.

Instead of employing a high-nitrogen fertilizer, one among the simplest tomato growing secrets to follow is to settle on an organic granular tomato fertilizer that’s slightly higher in phosphorous (the middle number on the bag). It provides a sort of slow-release phosphorous that’s available to the plant throughout the season without also piling on an more than nitrogen. Here’s more on the way to read a fertilizer label.

The best fertilizer for tomatoes
Tomato plants that are fed high-nitrogen fertilizers have tons of green leaves but only a few flowers and fruits.

Tomato tip #2: Soil pH matters

While most gardeners haven’t a clue what the pH of their soil is, this important number influences tomato production success . the perfect soil pH for max tomato nutrient absorption is between 6.2 and 6.5. meaning that when your soil pH is within that range, the plant’s roots can absorb the best diversity of nutrients. Invest during a high-quality do-at-home soil test kit and follow the instructions within the results for adjusting your existing pH to succeed in this optimum target. Here’s more on the way to adjust soil pH.

The best pH for growing tomatoes
Soil pH influences nutrient availability within the soil. So if you would like many tomatoes, aim for a pH between 6.2 and 6.5.

Tomato growing secret #3: Warm soil equals a faster start

Tomatoes are a warm-weather crop. They don’t tolerate frosts, and that they don’t like cold “feet”. Warming up the soil before planting improves early root growth and gets the plants off to a far better start. It’s a tomato-growing secret many gardeners don’t always consider. To warm the soil before planting your tomato crop, cover the soil in black plastic sheeting or black biodegradable sheet mulch for 2 weeks. The plastic absorbs the sun’s energy and warms the soil. Leave it in situ for a couple of weeks then take it off before planting, or cut holes within the sheeting and plant the tomatoes throughout it. If you select the latter option, the plastic also helps control weeds through the season.

Some gardeners don’t like using anything plastic around food plants, so if that’s the case for you, use the biodegradable sheet mulch or skip using this tomato growing secret. However, the utilization of plastic mulches is allowed under the US National Organic Standards Program, as long because the plastic is removed at the top of the season and not became the soil.

Use black plastic to warm the soil before planting tomatoes.
Even container gardeners can reap the advantages of using black plastic mulch to warm the soil before planting tomatoes.

Tomato planting tip #4: Protect plants for an earlier harvest

If you’d sort of a tomato growing secret you’ll use to urge a jump-start on tomato season, or if you’re getting to harvest ripe tomatoes a couple of weeks before your neighbors, think about using some sort of weather protection so you’ll plant earlier. Remember, tomatoes like weather, but surrounding newly planted transplants with some sort of insulation allows you to plant tomatoes a couple of weeks earlier. search for protective cone-shaped, dual-walled plastic insulators that you simply fill with water. The water holds the day’s heat, releasing it in the dark to stay the plants warm. Use one around each plant for the primary few weeks after planting. When the weather heats up, drain and take away it.

Another tomato growing secret is to use clay drainage pipes cut in half lengthwise. Prop a half a drain pipe against all sides of your tomato stake (see photo) and over the plant. The clay absorbs the sun’s heat all day then releases it through the night. The clay drainage pipes won’t protect tomato plants from heavy frosts, but they’re going to shield them from light frosts and provides them a jump start in cool spring weather.

Tomato growing secrets which will assist you harvest tomatoes faster.
Clay drainage pipes are often cut in half and placed over plants to soak up the sun’s heat during the day and release it throughout the night.

Tomato plant secret #5: go far or horizontal

Unlike other garden vegetables, tomato plants are ready to form roots right along their stems (called adventitious roots). Smart gardeners cash in on this by planting tomato transplants either very deeply or horizontally, burying the maximum amount of the stem as possible. Deep and horizontal tomato planting leads to an in-depth rootage that’s better ready to handle drought and access soil nutrients.

No matter how tall your tomato transplant is, at planting time, use your thumb and forefinger to pinch off all of the leaves except the highest 4. Then, either dig hole deep enough to bury the plant all the high to the bottom of rock bottom remaining leaf, or dig a horizontal trench and lay the plant’s stem down on its side within the trench. Then bury the plant, bending the tip up carefully so it’s protruding of the soil.

Tomato growing tips for fulfillment
Plant tomato plants horizontally and gently bend the tip-up. This practice increases the dimensions of the basic system.

Success secret #6: Loose roots are better than tight

When you take a tomato transplant out of its container or cell pack, take an honest check out the roots. They’re probably circling around the inside of the container to make a thick, tangled mass. before planting, use your fingers to pan the baseball and loosen it. Don’t worry; you don’t need to be gentle about this process. Dig in and pull the roots apart. once you plant, the basis mass shouldn’t be within the shape of the container. Loosening or tearing the roots before planting encourages the roots to open up into the prevailing soil, instead of continuing to revolve around within the shape of the pot. Spread the loosened roots call at the opening before covering them up with soil.

Always loosen the roots before planting a tomato.
Use your fingers to loosen the basic system of your tomato before putting it within the hole. It shouldn’t remain within the shape of the pot.

Tomato growing tip #7: Always interplant

Looking for tomato growing secret to assist reduce pests? Interplanting is that the answer! Never plant your tomatoes alone; always plant them with a couple of friends. Herbs within the Umbelliferae, like dill, fennel, and cilantro, make great companion plants for tomatoes. they supply nectar for the parasitic wasps that help gardeners control tomato hornworms. sweet alison is another great flower to interplant with tomatoes. It provides nectar for several species of syrphid and tachinid flies who feed on pests like aphids, whiteflies, leaf-footed bugs, and tomato fruit worms. For more on companion planting, inspect my book Plant Partners: Science-based Companion Planting Strategies for the kitchen garden.

Sweet alyssum may be a great companion plant for tomatoes.
Sweet alyssum may be a great companion plant for tomatoes because it’s an excellent nectar source for pest-eating syrphid flies.

Tomato growing secret #8: Welcome bumblebees

Along with the previous tomato growing tip, this one involves encouraging good bugs. Tomato flowers are self-fertile (meaning they’re capable of pollinating themselves), but they have a vibration to knock the pollen off the anthers to fertilize the flower and produce a tomato. Though strong winds are capable of vibrating tomato flowers, bumblebees do a much better job of it. Bumblebees perform what’s called “buzz pollination”. They vibrate their flight muscles (at an equivalent wavelength of a middle C) as they nectar on the tomato flowers, knocking the pollen loose as they are going. Encourage bumblebees in your tomato garden by planting many of their favorite flowers. The list includes baptisia, blueberries, sunflowers, coneflowers, phlox, and lupines. For more recommendations on encouraging bumblebees, visit this text.

Tomato growing secrets to encourage good pollination.
Bumblebees easily pollinate tomato blossoms through buzz pollination.

Grow tip #9: Mulch immediately after planting

Savvy gardeners cash in on this tomato-growing secret without fail. Mulch tomato transplants immediately after planting, using weedless straw, shredded leaves, or untreated grass clippings. Not only does mulch reduce weeding and watering needs throughout the season, but perhaps most significantly, it suppresses common soil-borne tomato diseases, like blight and leaf spot. Since the spores of those pathogens are found within the soil, the mulch keeps rainwater from splashing the spores up onto the plant foliage. The layer of mulch should be 2 to three inches thick, and it should be applied even before you water your newly planted tomato plants in.

Mulch may be a necessary tomato growing secret.
Mulch tomato plants immediately after planting them. I prefer to use a straw, shredded leaves, or untreated grass clippings for the work.

Tomato success secret #10: Get obviate rock bottom leaves

Another key practice for tomato disease suppression is to get rid of the rock bottom leaves of each tomato. Since rock bottom leaves are closest to the soil, removing them means a reduced chance of fungal spore splash-up. I typically remove the leaves on rock bottom 8 to 10 inches of the plant stem, but some gardeners remove much more than that.

To remove rock bottom leaves, use a pair of scissors or pruners to clip them off where they meet the most stem. If you have already got signs of disease on your tomato, disinfect the scissors with a sprig of Lysol or Clorox before moving on to a subsequent plant so you don’t spread the disease from one plant to a different one. you’ll also use your finger and thumb to pinch off the leaves, but you ought to wash your hands before moving from a diseased plant to at least one that’s freed from disease. Read this text for more on preventing and treating tomato diseases.