any advice for a big healthy tomato plant? only one of my three are fruiting and none of them seem as big as i would hope :/
1. Plenty of space for roots. A tomato’s root system is almost as big as the plant is above ground, so they tend to not do well in pots. I’m astounded mine are doing as well as they are. Tomato also needs Full sun (6-8 hours direct sunlight in most of the country, 4-6 hours at high altitude or in the Hot & Dry parts of the country) and kind of a lot of water.
2. Prior to planting, fertilize soil with tomato food and a couple eggshells, crunched up fine. Tomato needs a shitload of calcium for healthy development and firm fruits.
3. If Possible, Plant carrots in the same bed as your Tomatoes. Carrots and tomatoes mutually put compounds in the soil that the other one needs and help eachother grow. Don’t be impatient for the carrots to come up and plant over them like I was.
Also plant a few larger, colorful pollinator flowers in the bed/nearby area becuase tomato flowers aren’t large and the bees might require additional signage. I reccomend marigolds becuase they discourage rabbits, deer, mosquitoes and raccoons.
4. When you transplant your tomato, break off the two lowest leaves, then bury the plant in dirt up to an inch below the now-lowest leaves. Burying the stem like this encourages them to build a healthy root system.
4. After transplanting your tomatoes, be very nice and spoil them. Water attentively. Stake and support thier growth. Weed aggressively around them.
Once they start putting out thier first flowers? Get Mean. Let them wilt in the heat a bit before watering them. Don’t weed unless it’s something really aggressive. Don’t cover from hail. if the tomato thinks it’s going to die soon, it will devote more of it’s energy into making viable offspring than it will into it’s own survival, so you get more and better-tasting tomatoes!
It may be a bit late in the season for your plants (unless they went in really late, then the others might just be running late) but this should help for Next Year.
