First off, let me say that if you ask 100 successful tomato growers for their secrets, you'd get more than 100 answers to any one question. My methods are not perfect, they can't guarantee you a bumper crop, they've just worked for me after much trial and error over the past 10 years growing tomatoes. I learn something new every year. My other major initial tip is, "just plant it!" Some people may become overwhelmed by all these pointers. Don't let that feeling stop you from trying to grow tomatoes. Like one of my best friends, Sarah, told me as I fussed and fussed over preparing my first vegetable garden plot, "Cynthia, just plant them; they'll grow!"

1. Don’t plant too early! This is so important, I list it as number one. Whether you are planting hybrids or heirlooms, tomatoes DO NOT LIKE COLD WET SOIL. Even if you protect them from frost, they are extremely vulnerable to pathogens in cool, damp conditions. Resist the urge to set out your transplants on a warm sunny day in March or April. It’s bound to get cold again, and those babies will be shivering and soaking up all sorts of bad fungi, viruses and bacteria. I have learned this lesson the hard way. My ultimate advice: find what the last average frost date is in your area, then plant two weeks after that. If you cannot figure out the frost date, then I recommend planting no earlier than April 15 in coastal areas, and no earlier than May 1 in areas above 800 feet. My tomato patch is at about 1500 feet and I start planting on May 1.

2. Choose the sunniest location for your plants. Tomatoes need a minimum of about six to eight hours of sunlight each day to grow well. It’s also crucial that the morning dew is burned off by the sun as early as possible, in order to prevent foliage diseases taking hold. If you are very near the coast, and get a lot of fog, you’ll have a hard time getting a large tomato to ripen. Instead, try a variety that performs well in coastal climates such as Siletz, Glacier, or Sub-Arctic. The other thing you can do is grow cherry tomatoes, they do okay in foggier and shadier locations. If you have to have a larger tomato than a cherry, stick with ones that will be 4 to 6 ounces when ripe. These are small to medium size tomatoes, and they will perform more reliably for you.

3. Plant your seedlings deep. Don’t plant them at the same level they were in inside their little pot. Those little hairs sticking out all along the stem will turn into roots underground, and provide your plants with a greater capacity for moving nutrients from the soil to the plant. I recommend planting each seedling as deep as you can, and only allowing a couple sets of leaves poking up out of the soil. If you don’t want to plant a hole that deep, you can also make a trench in the soil, and plant the seedling horizontally, with only the top sticking up out of the ground.

4. Give them room to grow. I see so many gardeners planting their plants too close. I know it’s hard to imagine that tiny seedling growing into some gigantic monstrous leviathan, but it will (with proper care). So plant those babies about three feet apart. You could get away with two feet, but only if you are cramped on space.

5. Feed your plants. You can, in fact, feed your plants too much, particularly when you first set them out. I like to water them in after planting with a high-phosphorus fertilizer. I dig my planting hole, then throw in some rock phosphate before placing in my plant (or you can use a chemical fertilizer with a high middle number - pour in two cups per planting hole). Thereafter, I recommend using fish emulsion to feed your plants. Give them a shot of it (I give them a gallon a plant....diluted according to the label directions) in another three weeks. Also give them a shot when they first start to flower. You can, instead, feed your plants with any nicely-balanced organic or chemical fertilizer. This means that the label will have all three numbers relatively the same, for example 10-10-10. These three numbers indicate the nitrogen (first number), phosphorus (second number), and potassium (last number) level of the fertilizer. If you give your plants too much nitrogen, you’ll get a lot of beautiful leaf growth, but not very many tomatoes. Another good, organic fertilizer that I recommend is Orchard Supply Hardware's Organic Fertilizer in a bag, but make sure it's got a small Sunland logo on the bottom (Sunland makes this fertilizer for OSH).

6. Stake your tomatoes. It’s important to stake your plants because you don’t want your tomatoes sprawling all over the ground. In my garden, if a tomato fruit comes in contact with my soil, it quickly is invaded by a host of tiny unappetizing worms (I guess that’s in contrast to those appetizing worms!). Indeterminate plants (see FAQs page for an explanation of what that is) particularly need staking. There are various methods for staking, but whatever you do, stay away from those conical wire “tomato” cages you can buy at the nursery. These are never tall or strong enough to support a healthy vigorous indeterminate plant, and your plant will eventually grow way above and beyond the cage’s top, and likely topple it over, creating a real mess in your garden. If you choose to tie your tomato to a single stake as it grows, make sure the 8 foot stake you use is pounded 2 feet into the ground BEFORE you plant your seedling. Any pounding of stakes after the plant is in the ground will damage its root system, and inhibit its growth. My favorite method of staking is to create a two-foot diameter cage out of 4-inch square concrete reinforcing wire. This looks like fencing and is available at most good hardware stores in bundles. Get the 5 foot high kind. Then cut off a 6' length of it, circle it around, attach it back to itself by wire and voila! You have a two-foot by 5 foot beautiful cylindrical cage you can place over your tomato plant (one plant per cage). Make sure you then take a four or five foot long rebar stake and pound it into the ground next to your cage, with three feet sticking up out of the ground. Then attach the cage to the stake in a few places with wire or cable ties. Otherwise a nice wind will come along after your tomato is growing merrily up and through the cage, and the entire thing will fall over!

7. Water them carefully. You ask, how can this be that big of a deal. Well, it is. The basic rules are that you don’t want to get the leaves wet, you don’t want to splash any soil from the ground onto the leaves, you don’t want to water them too much (or they’ll be watery, tasteless tomatoes), and you don’t want to water them too little. I can generally tell if my plants are not getting enough water by whether the afternoon heat-induced droopiness is gone by the evening. If not, they need more water (but I always wait till morning to water them). You don’t want to be watering your tomato plants in the evening. The soil will become wet and maybe even cold overnight and can only serve to spread disease. Everyone’s soil is different, so I can’t tell you how often to water. My sandy loam soil requires that I water them every three or four days, depending on the heat and the maturity of the plant (young plants need more water than older, established plants). Those of you with clay soils, may only need to water them every two weeks or longer, particularly if you've mulched them.

8. Pests and Diseases. There are a huge number of both pests and diseases that can attack your tomatoes and/or your garden soil. Since they are too numerous to list, I have provided a link you can check out to do some troubleshooting, should you find your tomato patch infested with some varmint (of either the big kind, or microscopic kind) http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tomatoproblemsolver/index.htm. Another good link is http://axp.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/selectnewpest.tomatoes.html
I also recommend that within a week of putting in your tomato plants, that you start a regimen of copper spray. This is organic and effective for pro-actively helping control foliar deseases. Choose any type of copper spray (there are lots of such sprays in a good nursery), then follow directions on the label for dilution and frequency (typically everty 3 weeks). I also suggest spraying a time or two in early June with a sulphur-based spray to control the microscopic russett mite.

9. Container Planting. You can grow a tomato in a pot, but it's really tricky. I recommend at least a 15 gallon pot, with just one plant per pot. You can get away with two plants in a half wine barrel. You must have really good potting soil. You get what you pay for. Buying cheap stuff is a bit like the difference between eating a T.V. dinner and a fine steak. The plants do indeed suffer with cheap potting soil. You are doing yourself and your plant a disservice by scrimping on this. I recommend the potting soil that Sunland makes and bags for Orchard Supply Hardware. It's called Potting Soil in big bags, but just make sure you see the small Sunland logo on the bag. If you aren't near an Orchard Supply, then buy the most expensive potting soil you can. You do not want to mix it with your own garden soil, or mix it with manures. I just don't trust how composted some bagged manures are. It's too risky.
Tomatoes in containers need more water than those grown in the ground, particularly during hot weather. I like to water my container plants once a day, in the morning during the hottest times of the year, such as August and September.
If you use drip irrigation, make sure there is more than one emitter, as one emitter will only serve to drip straight down through the potting soil and out the bottom. You need to saturate the entire pot with water, getting the entire root ball wet.
Fertilizing also needs to be done more frequently with container plants, about once a week with fish emulsion should do the trick.
If you are growing in black plastic pots, you'll need to shield or shade the pot from direct sunlight after the weather begins to turn significantly warmer. I put a three foot high panel of shade cloth on stakes in front of my row of container plants. If you don't shade the black plastic pots, the sun will super-heat the rootball and your tomatoes will suffer for it.
Container grown plants still need to be staked, particularly if you are growing indeterminate varieties. I like to make 7 foot tall cages out of concrete reinforcing wire and put the entire cylinder over the pot, then stake the cage to the ground.