How to Grow Tomatoes
Learn how to grow tomatoes from seedling to harvest. Covers choosing varieties, planting, watering, staking, and troubleshooting common problems.
We killed our first tomato plant within three weeks. Overwatered it, stuck it in a shady corner, and wondered why it turned yellow and flopped over like it had given up on life. It had.
The second attempt went better because we learned the two things that matter most with tomatoes. They want a lot of sun and consistent water. Get those two things right and the plant does most of the work for you.
Tomatoes are one of the most forgiving vegetables to grow once you understand the basics. They grow fast, produce a lot of fruit, and taste dramatically better than anything from the grocery store. An indeterminate plant keeps setting fruit all summer, so one healthy plant can keep a household in tomatoes for months.
This guide covers everything from choosing a variety to picking ripe fruit off the vine. You do not need a big yard. A single pot on a sunny balcony works perfectly fine.
Tomato seedlings from a garden center (starting from seed is doable but adds 6 to 8 weeks to the process). A pot 14 to 20 inches across for a compact variety, or a five-gallon bucket with drainage holes drilled in the bottom, or a garden bed with at least 6 hours of direct sun. Potting mix or garden soil amended with compost. A tomato cage, stake, or trellis for support. A watering can or hose. Optional but helpful: slow-release fertilizer or liquid tomato feed.
Choose the right variety for your setup
Tomato varieties fall into two growth habits, determinate and indeterminate. Determinate varieties grow to a fixed height, produce all their fruit in a short window, and then stop, which suits a container better than a plant that keeps climbing. Roma is the familiar example. Not every determinate plant is compact, though, so the height on the label is the thing to check. Indeterminate varieties keep growing and producing until frost kills them, so they need more room and taller support, and they give you tomatoes for months instead of weeks. Clemson's extension service lists Better Boy, Early Girl, Rutgers, Brandywine, and Cherokee Purple as indeterminate cultivars that keep climbing until frost, which is exactly what makes them awkward in a pot. Cherry describes the size of the fruit rather than the habit of the plant, so cherry tomatoes turn up in both camps. Clemson names compact ones worth knowing about, including Patio Choice Yellow Hybrid, which tops out around 18 inches, and Tumbler Hybrid, whose mounded habit suits a hanging basket. For a first season a cherry variety is still the most forgiving thing you can plant. Just read the tag for the habit and match the support to it rather than assuming cherry means small.
Good to know: Check the tag on the seedling for the number of days to harvest. Clemson's tomato factsheet puts the first harvest at 52 to 90 days, depending on the cultivar. If your growing season is short (northern climates), choose varieties with fewer days to maturity.
Pick a spot with maximum sun
Tomatoes need at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. More sun means more fruit. South-facing spots are ideal in the Northern Hemisphere. Watch your potential spot throughout the day to make sure buildings, fences, or trees do not shade it during key hours. If growing in pots on a balcony, choose the sunniest side. Morning sun is especially valuable because it dries dew off the leaves, which reduces fungal disease risk. Avoid spots that stay wet or have poor air circulation.
Plant deep for a strong root system
Dig a hole deep enough to bury the seedling up to its top two sets of leaves. Remove the lower leaves before planting. This sounds extreme, but tomatoes form roots along any buried stem, which gives the plant a much stronger root system and better stability. If planting in a container, fill the pot with potting mix, make a deep hole, and bury the seedling the same way. Water the hole before placing the plant, set the seedling in, fill around it with soil, and water again thoroughly. Space plants at least 24 inches apart if planting multiples.
Set up support right away
Install a tomato cage, stake, or trellis at planting time. Waiting until the plant is large risks damaging the roots when you push supports into the soil. Tomato cages (the cone-shaped wire structures) work well for determinate varieties. For indeterminate types that grow tall, a sturdy stake or a string trellis system gives better support. As the plant grows, tie the main stem loosely to the support with soft ties or strips of old t-shirt. Never use wire or thin string that can cut into the stem.
Water consistently and deeply
University of Minnesota Extension puts the ideal at about 1 inch of water a week, rain included. Water at the base of the plant, not overhead. Wet leaves promote fungal diseases like blight. Water deeply and less frequently rather than a little bit every day. Deep watering encourages roots to grow down, which makes the plant more drought-resistant and stable. In containers, water daily during hot weather because pots dry out faster than garden beds. Stick your finger an inch into the soil. If it is dry, water. If it is still moist, wait.
Heads up: Inconsistent watering (dry then soaked, dry then soaked) causes blossom end rot. That is the dark, leathery spot on the bottom of the tomato. It is not a disease. It is a calcium uptake problem caused by irregular watering. Keep the moisture level as consistent as possible.
Feed and maintain throughout the season
In the ground, feed once, when the first fruits start to enlarge, and skip even that if you worked plenty of compost into the bed, because Minnesota Extension warns that too much nitrogen gives you a bushy, leafy plant that is slow to fruit. In a container, use a timed-release fertilizer at planting or a water-soluble fertilizer once a week, as Clemson advises for potted tomatoes. Prune the suckers (small shoots that grow in the V between the main stem and a branch) on indeterminate varieties to direct energy toward fruit production. You do not need to prune every sucker, but removing the ones below the first fruit cluster improves air circulation and fruit size. Remove any yellowing lower leaves as the season progresses.
Harvest at the right time
Tomatoes are ready when they are fully colored and slightly soft when gently squeezed. They should come off the vine with a light twist or tug. Do not pull hard. If they resist, they are not ready. For the best flavor, let them ripen fully on the vine. If a frost is coming or you have a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season, pick them and ripen them indoors on a windowsill. Placing them in a paper bag with a banana speeds up the ripening process. Store ripe tomatoes at room temperature, not in the fridge. Clemson's factsheet warns that refrigeration can reduce the flavor and turn the texture mealy, which is a waste of a tomato you grew yourself.
Growing tomatoes is one of those rare activities where the effort-to-reward ratio is wildly in your favor. One seedling, some dirt, water, and sunshine turns into pounds of tomatoes that taste nothing like the ones from the store. The first time you eat a tomato still warm from the sun, you will understand why gardeners will not stop talking about it. Start with one or two plants your first season. Learn what works in your specific spot. Adjust next year based on what you observed. Gardening is a multi-season experiment, and every year teaches you something the books cannot.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Absolutely. Clemson considers a 14- to 20-inch container suitable for most compact cultivars, and says a five-gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom also works. Neither is a compromise. What matters more is that whatever you use has real drainage. Use good quality potting mix (not garden soil, which compacts in containers). Choose by plant size rather than fruit size. Clemson suggests looking for words like patio, balcony, or bush in the name and checking the mature height on the label. You will need to water more frequently than garden-planted tomatoes because containers dry out faster. A sunny balcony that gets 6 or more hours of direct sun is all you need.
Yellow leaves at the bottom of the plant are normal as the plant matures. The plant redirects energy to upper growth and fruit. Remove them to improve air circulation. Yellow leaves throughout the plant can indicate overwatering, nitrogen deficiency, or disease. Check your watering schedule first. If the soil is consistently soggy, cut back. If watering is fine, give it a dose of balanced fertilizer. Widespread yellowing with brown spots may be early blight, a common fungal disease. Remove affected leaves and improve air circulation around the plant.
Clemson's tomato factsheet gives 52 to 90 days to the first harvest, depending on the cultivar. Its own table shows how much that varies within a type. The cherry and grape tomatoes it lists run from 57 days (Sun Gold) to 70 (Super Sweet 100), and the larger slicers from 60 (Early Girl) to 82 (Rutgers). The number on the plant tag is the one to plan around. Once the plant starts producing, you will get a steady harvest for weeks or months depending on the variety and your growing season.
Likely culprits are hornworms (large green caterpillars that are hard to spot), squirrels, and birds. Hornworms can be picked off by hand. Look for dark droppings on leaves and stripped stems. Squirrels and birds take bites out of ripening fruit. Covering the plant with bird netting or picking tomatoes just before full ripeness (they will finish ripening inside) usually solves the problem. Slugs eat low-hanging fruit. Raise the lowest branches off the ground and remove any fallen fruit.
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How to Grow Tomatoes
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