How to Grow Large Tomato Plants

Grow fresh tomatoes in your home garden.

Tomatoes or Lycopersicon esculentum, are the most popular home garden vegetable in the U.S., according to the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service. Their popularity is due, in part, to their low-maintenance cultivation requirements and bountiful crops; with proper care, each tomato plant yields 10 to 15 pounds of fruit in a single growing season. Growing large tomato plants is no more difficult than growing small tomato varieties; though stake large plants for best results.

Things You'll Need

• Tomato plants
• Peat moss
• Compost
• Perlite
• Shovel
• Poles (for staking)
• Strips of nylon pantyhose
• Garden hose
• Water-soluble fertilizer

Instructions

1. Select healthy-looking tomato plants from your local garden or nursery. Choose tomato cultivars known for producing large fruits, such as Brandywine, Jubilee, Top Sirloin, Big Rainbow, Better Boy, Supersteak or Beefmaster.

2. Transplant the nursery plants to a full sun site in your garden or home landscape; tomato plants require six or more hours of direct sunlight per day to produce healthy, flavorful tomatoes. Incorporate 6-inches of equal parts peat moss, compost and perlite into the soil to improve its drainage before planting, if necessary. Plant the tomato plants at the same height that they were growing in their nursery containers. Space multiple plants 3 to 4 feet apart.

3. Stake large tomato plants to prevent them from toppling over. Insert an 8-foot-tall pole with a 1-inch diameter into the ground next to your plants. Tie the plants to the poles loosely using strips of old, nylon pantyhose.

4. Provide your tomato plants with 1- to 2-inches of supplemental irrigation per week when rain fails to produce an equivalent amount of moisture. Keep the soil evenly moist, but don't let it become saturated or waterlogged.

5. Fertilize tomato plants every two weeks, once they start to bear fruit. Feed your plants with a balanced, water-soluble garden fertilizer, applied as directed on the packaging.

Tips & Warnings

• Top the soil around your tomato plants with a 4-inch layer of organic mulch to help the soil conserve moisture and suppress unwanted vegetation growth.

• Tomato plants may sustain damage from a number of common garden pests including aphids, spider mites and stink bugs. Rinse infested plants with a directed stream of water from a garden hose to wash away as many pests as possible. Spray heavily-infested plants with a garden insecticide specially formulated for fruit and vegetable plants.

References

• "The Essential Garden"; Liz Dobbs; 2002
• Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service; Tomatoes; B. Rosie Lerner; April 2001
• Virginia Cooperative Extension; Tomatoes; Diane Relf, et al.; May 2009
• University of Missouri Extension; Growing Home Garden Tomatoes; David H. Trinklein; April 2010
• University of Illinois Extension: Tomato

Resources

• Clemson University Cooperative Extension; Tomato; Marjan Kluepfel, et al.; June 1999