Growing tomatoes can be a fun and rewarding experience.

However, if you are looking for the kind of tomatoes you see in the grocery store you’re going to have to work a little harder. Growing great tomatoes can be fraught with difficulties and many gardeners become discouraged when their crops don’t turn out the way they had hoped.

In the following pages we will discuss in more detail a number of issues regarding the production of excellent tomatoes. In the meantime here are a few tips to help you get started with your prize tomato crop.

Home Grown Tomatoes

To begin with it’s a good idea to lay down either black or red plastic

over the area you intend to plant your tomatoes. Since tomatoes like warm climates this will help to speed up the growth of your tomato crop by heating the ground prior to planting. This is especially useful in northern climates. If you have the luxury, you may even use a portable greenhouse or even use heating wire in the ground.

When you plant your tomato seedlings

it’s best to plant tomato stems very deep in the ground. You can do this by digging either a deep hole or placing them in a trench covering up the stems to the lower leaves. Roots will develop from the stems underground and provide a strong root system to supply the plant with nutrients.

Wait until the plants are growing well

before adding organic mulch. Adding mulch too early may cool the soil and that is something tomatoes don’t like.

When growing tomatoes it is important to remove bottom leaves from the plants

leaving several inches of bare stem. This will help to reduce fungal infections from water splashing spores up on the leaves from the ground.

Be sure to remove the sucker stems

from the plant. The suckers do not produce fruit and only draw away energy from the fruit producing stems.

Water your tomato plants regularly and deeply.

This will help to sustain healthy plants and reduce the probability of a number of diseases, especially blossom end rot.

If you’re careful to do these things you will have a head start on a stellar tomato crop. Be sure to check out the links to find out more about growing tomatoes that you can be proud of.