Grow Lots of Tomatoes... Not Leaves // Complete Growing Guide

According to a random survey I found online, tomatoes are the most popular vegetable grown in the garden. But a lot of times you end up with huge plants, lots of leaves, and not a lot of tomatoes. In this video, I'm going to show you how to plant, prune, stake, water, and fertilize, as well as go over some common pests and diseases that really are out to get your tomato plants. Plus, if you stick around to the end, I've got a bonus tip for you, something that is going to increase the fruit on your plants, increase the quality of fruit, increase the disease resistance of the plant, and actually raise the nutrient value of the fruit. But only if you stick around to the end. That's all coming up. What's going on guys? Welcome back to another video. I'm Brian, and if this is your first time here and you are looking to learn how to grow your own organic fruits and vegetables easily and inexpensively, then start now by clicking the subscribe button and the bell icon so you get future notifications of all my videos. Let's get right to the first topic, and that is planting out our transplants. Now, I already did a video on planting tomatoes from seed. I'll link that down below. So once we have our seedlings up and hardened off, if they were grown outdoors, then what's next to get them off to a really great start? The first thing you have to figure out is where you're going to plant them. Number one, they need a location that is in full sun. The more, the better. We're shooting for eight hours per day. Now, they don't have to be consecutive eight hours. Mine get a break in the middle of the day and the sun comes back in the afternoon. The soil should be well-drained, slightly acidic, but they're not really temperamental about that, and amended with lots of organic material. So once you've got the place picked out, the next step is to plant the tomato, and this is one of the transplants that I have that I grew from seed. Now, one thing about tomatoes, and they're one of the only vegetables you can get away with this, is to plant them deep, really deep, as deep as you possibly can. So once they're at this size, and the reason for that is if you take a look at this tomato, you'll see little hairs all the way up and down the stem. Each one of those hairs is just waiting to come in contact with the soil, and when it does, it's going to put down roots. And so, the more of the stem that we can have underground, the more of a root system we're going to get on the tomato plant, which in turn is going to make a better, healthier plant with more fruit. So what we would do is take off all the bottom leaves as far up as we can. I'm just going to leave maybe that much, could probably do more than that, but that's going to give us an extra six inches of root system. Now, early on, I had seedlings that were a lot smaller than this, but I had to leave on my trip, and so I wanted to get them in the ground before I left. So I buried them, or I planted them in trenches, so that as the plant grew, I would be able to fill in to cover up more of the stem. So I just, I kind of did it backwards, but I ended up with the same results, a larger root system planted deeply. Now, no matter what time or when you plant them, you want to use rock phosphate. Rock phosphate is going to help create a better root system, almost like magic. This stuff works really well. So by planting deep, you do not mix this into the soil. You actually want to take a handful of it in the bottom of the hole and set the plant, roots and all, right on top of it. So as soon as the plants start to grow their roots, they get in contact with that rock phosphate, pull it into their system, and really start to take off. The next thing we want to talk about is spacing. Now, if you're not going to be pruning your plants, they need a good two to three feet of space between them. If you're going to be pruning your plants into cordons, like I do, they need about 12 to 18 inches of spacing. So you can get away with a lot more plants in a smaller space by doing the cordon method, which I'm going to show you, because that's how I grow all of mine. That brings us to pruning. And in order to understand why we prune, we need to understand how a tomato grows naturally, or how it wants to grow anyway. Tomatoes are not plants like peppers that pretty much are, you know, established, when they're established, they're tall, upright plant, might need staking if there's a lot of fruit hanging from it, or if it's windy. But for the most part, it kind of does well on its own, standing up, keeping the fruit off the ground. That is the exact opposite of a tomato. A tomato's main goal is to spread its seeds as far out as it can. And so what it does, and that kind of goes back to the rooting along the stem, because what it does is it just kind of flops and grows along the ground like a vine. And every time that the stem touches the ground, it's going to put down roots, so it can grow further. And if it's left to grow, you know, naturally, and it's maybe an indeterminate type, you can get a 10 foot wide plant. And that's maybe now is a good time to talk about indeterminate versus determinate. A determinate plant is actually like a Roma, where it is genetically set to grow to a specific size, produce all of its fruit, and then it's done an indeterminate plant. And if you're growing most tomatoes, especially heirlooms, they're going to be indeterminate. That means it continues to grow and grow and grow until the cold weather comes and kills it. So if you have a long growing season like I do, that plant could grow and produce fruit well into fall and maybe through the winter, depending on how warm your winters are. And so obviously they're going to need a lot more support. Now, an indeterminate tomato has lateral branches that grow out from the side that will produce fruit, but not as much as the main stem. So we prone those off typically, at least that's how I do it. Beefsteak tomatoes, on the other hand, are kind of a mix between the two. They keep growing like an indeterminate, but their side shoots are shorter and they generally have a good amount of flowers on them. So you really only want to prune a beefsteak tomato just to keep it in check. Now, if you live in a wet summer climate, pruning is essential because the more leaves that are around that plant, the more insulated it is and the more chance for diseases to start because there's less airflow. So you want to keep it very well pruned. So how do we do that? What do we take off? What do we leave? It's actually pretty easy. If you take a look at this plant right here, you can see the main stem goes straight from the ground all the way up to the top. And then as the leaves come out, it creates these little intersections or armpits where you will start to see growth. Now, if those little side shoots are left unchecked, they're going to continue to grow and grow and take energy from the rest of the plant, where you really want the energy to go into fruit production, not leaves. And so what you want to do is as soon as you see them, pinch them out. Now, the flowers are going to start to grow in a different spot. They're not going to grow from the armpits. So you don't have to worry about possibly taking off flowers when you're pinching out the armpits. The flowers actually grow on their own stem directly off of the main stem, and they start to produce little buds immediately. So you'll see the flowers versus the leaves. They look different. Now, while we're talking about pruning and while we're talking about flowers, this is optional, but I like to give my plant the best start possible and really have it focus on its roots. And so that first bunch of flowers that come out, I pinch those off as well, just again, to keep that energy going into the roots rather than to already start making fruit. The rest of the flowers then I will leave, and it's already going to have a good root system to support those. Now, no matter what type of tomato you're growing, indeterminate, determinate, or beefsteak, they are going to need to be supported. Now, the determinates, they only grow maybe three, four feet tall. And so they're not going to need as much support as one that might grow 10 feet tall. In fact, the basic tomato cages that you can get at the garden center are going to be okay for a determinate plant. Now, for an indeterminate plant, like I said, one that can grow 10 feet or more, depending on the length of your growing season, it's going to need a good amount of support. Now, they sell towers that you can get that are actually kind of like a tomato cage, but really tall. You can also use, you know, sticks or poles, bamboo poles work well. You can even, if you have a strong enough pole, you can grow that main stem right up one cane or one pole and just tie it on as it grows. Now that's okay if you're growing a few tomatoes, but I'm growing about 40. And so I needed to come up with a way that wasn't going to be super expensive, that could support a lot of tomatoes. And so several years ago, I came up with an overhead wooden structure with twine coming down to each plant. So I have a structure here that I built, and it's basically two by three posts supporting an arbor-like top that is going to use, that's going to serve as a place to tie the twine on, that these are going to grow up. From the ground up to the top, it's going to be growing along its own twine, string, whatever you have that's strong enough, that's going to, you know, work throughout the season. But to anchor that to the top, obviously that's easy, you tie it to the bottom. If you plant the tomatoes and do the string at the same time, you can actually plant the tomato on top of the string, and that will anchor that string into the ground. Now I didn't do that, my plants weren't big enough at the time, so I had to make a secondary system. And so basically what I use are landscape staples, and actually I don't use landscape staples because I found a way to make my own that is actually half the price. And all you have to do is find a roll of wire at Home Depot that is the same thickness as the landscape staple, cut an 8 to 12 inch piece, fold it in half, and straighten it out. I use those for my drip lines also, and like I said, they're half the price of the landscape staple. You're going to actually push that landscape staple into the ground on either side of the stem at an angle, and you're going to leave a little loop there to anchor the twine coming down from above. Tie the twine on, and then push that wire all the way down into the soil. You're going to twist that twine a couple of loops around the main stem just to kind of strengthen it, and then take it right up to whatever support you're using at the top, cut that to length, and then tie it off. Then complete this process until you have them all finished. And you can support a lot of tomatoes this way for about $20. Now up until this year, I didn't use anything to actually tie the stems onto the string. I actually just twisted the stem as it grew around the twine, which is okay, but you have to be really careful because inevitably every year two or three of them would get snapped off accidentally, and that pretty much stunts or ruins your plant. And so my wife was actually searching online, and she found these little guys on Amazon. They're just rings that have little teeth in the bend that grab onto the twine, and when they're then they snap closed around the the stem, allowing for the room to grow and holding them securely in place. Plus they're reusable. So so far I'm really happy with them, and hopefully throughout the season they're going to do what I need them to do, and I'll let you know on that because they were really inexpensive for like $200. Now that brings us to number four, which is watering. Now tomatoes like a constantly evenly moist soil. Not waterlogged, but evenly moist. You also want to water tomatoes from the ground. Again, tomato leaves are really weak when it comes to pests and disease, and so any water that gets on the leaves and stays there is going to be a breeding ground for disease. And so if you can use a drip system, which I now use, that's the best way to do it. It keeps the ground evenly moist, keeps the water off the leaves, that's exactly what you need. If your tomato plant goes from desert dry to flood, cracking of the fruit is most likely going to happen. Now tomato fruit expands and grows by pulling water in from the rest of the plant. If they've gone without water for a while, the fruit might have become a bit dehydrated and it's going to suck in as much water as it can at the next watering time, more than its skin can take. And it's kind of like if you gain a lot of weight really fast, or if you're an adolescent and you grow two inches really quickly, you're going to get stretch marks. So it's pretty much the same thing except on tomatoes, those stretch marks crack open and it doesn't mean the tomato is inedible, but you do want to remove all those cracks before eating because they can harbor mold and that type of thing. So if you don't have a drip system, you want to water every few days very deeply to encourage the roots to go down deep where they can get a consistent supply of water. And also mulch your plants, that will help them stay moist and it will keep any kind of water. If you get rain in the summer, which we don't, but most likely you do, it's going to splash back on the plant and pathogens are living in your soil. And if they splash from the ground to the leaves, it's going to start that disease process. So if you mulch it, it keeps the moisture in and it keeps the soil pathogens covered up. Number five is fertilizing. Now tomatoes need a lot of nitrogen to grow in the beginning to start that plant process. I don't really fertilize with nitrogen on my tomatoes. I find that any kind of organic compost I put into the soil at planting time is going to be more than enough nitrogen to get the plant off to a healthy start. The rock phosphate is a good source of phosphate for the roots and the blooms and the fruit. And so that's going to start it off well. After about the first month, I use a tomato food. Most tomato fertilizers have a high middle number, which is the phosphorus for roots, flowers, and fruit. And they also have minerals like calcium, which is very important to prevent blossom and rot, which brings us to disease. Have you ever had tomatoes starting to mature and then all of a sudden you notice the bottoms of the fruit look like this? That's blossom and rot. And it's caused by a couple of things. The first thing, which is actually more rare, is a lack of calcium in the soil. Usually what the problem is, is the inability of the plant to get the calcium from the soil up into the plant. And that's typically caused by a lack of water or inconsistent watering. So a basic tomato fertilizer will make sure that the calcium is in the ground and consistent watering will make sure that the calcium can get from the ground into the plant. On the other hand, blight is caused because of too much moisture on the leaves, which we already talked about. Keep the leaves dry and you shouldn't have a problem. Now blight and blossom and rot are pretty much irreversible once you have them. And so you need to prevent those by using the steps we've talked about. Now there's two more diseases that they can be prevented, but they can also be taken care of once the plant has them. And that is rust and mildew. Now rust and mildew start the same way with wet leaves. And usually the leaves that are going to be affected first are the lower leaves on the plant. It's really easy to take care of because all you have to do is just pinch those leaves off. There's plenty more green growth on top to help make food for the plant. In fact, by mid-June in my garden, most of the tomato plants have the bottom two feet of leaves missing. That's just how it works. It's not a big deal. I think it looks totally fine, and it doesn't really matter about the looks as long as you have a healthy plant that's going to give you what you want in the end. Now, if a majority of the plant is affected and it's not just the bottom few leaves, then you're going to need to take some further action. And for me, that is neem oil. It's organic, and it's one of the two sprays that I use in the garden. And that brings us to the next spray that I use, which also brings us to the next point, which is pests. Specifically, tomato hornworms. I'm sure you've all seen these scary-looking things. They can decimate an entire plant in a day or two. So you really have to be vigilant. The first signs you will see are stripped leaves and black tiny droppings. The first step to getting rid of them is pretty easy. You just go out and pick them off. There's rarely a horde of tomato worms. It's usually a few fat, greedy ones. The only problem with picking them off is they're really hard to find. They blend in really well with the tomato leaves themselves. However, there's a really cool piece of tech for that. At night, they are sitting ducks if you have a blacklight flashlight. Easy. If birds are a problem, there's a couple things you can try. Typically, the bird is not there because they like the taste of tomatoes. They're there to get the water out of the tomatoes. So if you can put a birdbath or a pond or a fountain nearby, that's generally going to take them away from the tomatoes. If that doesn't work, you can use bird netting to drape over the plant once the fruits are starting to ripen. My biggest pest problem has been rats. They are the bane of my vegetable garden existence. I've tried everything. Last year was the first year that I was able to fend them off successfully, and that is basically because I had traps out at the base of all my plants. Well, not each plant, but each bed had a couple of traps ready and set all the time. And I caught a lot. And I don't know if I had any tomatoes taken last year. I might have had one. And that's when we were gone on vacation and I just couldn't change the traps out. So the traps worked really well for me. One thing you don't want to use is poison for a lot of reasons. But basically, you know, rats are at the bottom of the food chain and there's a lot of things that eat rats. And they will become sick and die just by eating that poisoned rat. Another thing about rats is you don't know when they're going to die. And if they make their way, you know, into your garage or somewhere you can't get to them, you're going to have a smelly problem for quite a while until you're able to find them. One thing about poisons, though, especially if you have pets, our pets can find those rats without us even knowing. And then it's too late. So stay away from the poisons. There's plenty of other options to use. So now it's time for the bonus. But in order to get that bonus, you need to subscribe and hit the bell icon. Just kidding. It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. But subscribe anyway. You probably have one thing in your medicine cabinet right now that is going to do four amazing things for your tomato plants. Check this out. This one thing will help your plants become more disease resistant, produce more fruit, make the fruit taste better, and actually increase the nutrient content in the fruit that it produces. That one ingredient is aspirin. When tomatoes are under attack from pests and disease, they produce a hormone that is similar to the salicylic acid in aspirin. This hormone triggers the plant's immune system to go into high gear. So by spraying a solution of 600 milligrams of uncoated aspirin to one gallon of water, you're tricking the plant into thinking it's under attack, which makes its immune system kick into high gear before there's any disease present. This makes it much more difficult for disease to take hold in the first place. So that's it. Eight tips to produce a huge bumper crop of tomatoes for you this year. If you have any tips you'd like to share or any questions you'd like to ask, leave them in the comments below. And remember, subscribe, hit the bell icon and give us a thumbs up. I'd really appreciate it. And I will see you guys on the next video.