I interrupt the current rain and heat warnings to bring you an F1 tomato warning. Conditions are favourable for disease and cracking. Also keep an eye out for flying f*cks.
You planted the tomatoes, they grew and have formed little tomatoes. You've entered the thrill stage of gardening, a time for twirling around your yard while lifting your gathering apron in anticipation.
Like this.
Slow your roll. It's gardening so that twirl could take a turn in an instant. This isn't some namby pamby bake off. We are dealing with natural elements here; mother nature, pests & disease.
I'd like to see a pastry chef make desserts every day in an oven that whimsically controlled its own temperature at all times.
Let me give you a few tomato tips to help get you through some of the upcoming challenges of the season.
Table of Contents
Tomato Ripening Schedule
From pollination to picking.
- Flower is pollinated through wind or insects.
- It takes 2-5 days for the tiny green tomato to become visible.
- It takes another 30 days for the tomato to reach full size.
- It takes another 20 days for the fruit to ripen.
Once you see your tiny tomato, it'll be another 50-60 days before you'll be picking it.
So to reiterate, calm the hell down. If fruit has just set, you have another 2 months before you'll be picking any tomatoes.
This schedule can be blown apart by the deviations in temperature explained later.
Keeping Tomato Plants Small
Tomato plants have the potential to become enormous. Left to their own devices they could easily develop lungs.
When I first grew indeterminate, heirloom tomatoes, which only stop growing when they're killed by frost, I just let them grow. The result was 9 feet of alarming.
Then I learned to prune heirloom tomatoes to keep them a little less Brothers Grimm.
If you don't know about determinate vs indeterminate tomatoes, or are generally confused at this point in the post you can quickly learn about how to prune suckers in this post, and all about leader stems, trellising and the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes here.
Keeping Cherry Tomatoes Small
Indeterminate cherry tomato plants have a reputation for becoming monsters, but they don't have to. You can tame the monster. Kind of.
1.
Only allow 1-3 stems (aka leaders)
This is a Candyland currant tomato plant that I let 3 leaders grow from and then espaliered them with string against the brick of my house.
Controlling the amount of leaders in a tomato plant is key to keeping it small.
For a tomato plant to have 1 leader (or stem) you have to remove all the suckers that form. To have 2 leaders you allow 1 sucker to grow out into a stem. To have 3 leaders you allow 2 suckers to grow out to stems. All other suckers are removed.
Removing all the leaves below the first set of fruit helps prevent disease and also makes the tomato plant look smaller.
2.
Regularly check for & remove suckers.
Regularly check for and remove suckers.
Plants get to be monsters because of the suckers. If you let them all grow you WILL get more tomatoes, but you'll also have a 9' high, 6' wide tomato plant.
Regularly removing the suckers throughout the season is the easiest way to keep your tomato plants small.
Again, if you don't know how to identify a sucker read this post.
Cherry tomatoes usually produce more tomatoes than anyone could ever eat so they're an excellent candidate for keeping small. Even with constant pruning a cherry tomato plant will still throw out hundreds of tomatoes.
3.
Bend it like Beckham
When the tomato made its way out of the top of its teepee this year I delicately bent the tip of the stem downwards and loosely tied it to one of the bamboo canes. Now instead of growing up, it will grow down (with constant tying and cajoling).
If you're using tomato cages, you can do the same thing, bending the tip of the leader/s down.
This will make the tomato plant fuller in the centre and bottom over time, but the height will stay the same. Remember to keep removing suckers the entire summer or all hell will break loose.
4.
Top it.
An accidental topping. Normally just the very tip would be taken off.
Topping a plant, any plant, means pinching out the growing tip. That's the fresh bit of green that's at the top of the main stem.
Once that's removed the tomato won't get any taller. You normally top tomatoes in August (around these parts) so the plant puts all of its energy into ripening the tomatoes it has already instead of trying to make new growth and new tomatoes.
Which means I topped one of my leader stems by accident when I was trying to simply Bend it like Beckham. It snapped right off and a tornado of flying f*cks flew around.
Tomato plants can be notoriously disagreeable.
However, this was a good accident since I've never topped a tomato plant this early - or this harshly, it'll be interesting to see how the 2 different leaders perform; one that was topped, and the other one bend towards the ground.
Optimal Temperature for Ripening:
- 70-75°F (21-24°C): This range is ideal for tomato ripening. The process occurs smoothly, resulting in evenly ripened tomatoes with good flavor and texture.
Effects of Higher Temperatures:
- Above 85°F (29°C): Ripening slows down, and tomatoes might develop poor color and texture. High temperatures can slow down the production of lycopene and carotene, the pigments responsible for the red and orange colours in tomatoes.
- Above 95°F (35°C): Ripening stops entirely, and the fruit get sunburned, damaged and generally angry.
Effects of Lower Temperatures:
- Below 50°F (10°C): Ripening slows considerably. Tomatoes may take much longer to ripen, and their flavor development might be negatively affected.
- Below 40°F (4°C): The ripening process can stop, and the fruit may develop chilling injury, leading to poor texture and flavor.
Practical Tips:
- If temperatures are too high, provide shade or move potted plants to a cooler area. To provide cooling, you can do something as simple as draping the tomatoes with row cover during heat waves, or something as dramatic as erecting walls of shade cloth.
- Planting lettuce, flowers or mulch around the base of your tomatoes to shade and cover the soil keeping moisture in and the tomato roots cooler. Tomato plants like heat, but they don't like to be HOT.
- Part of the beauty of growing tomatoes in pots is you can drag them around into cooler areas of your garden if you have to.
If you're new to growing tomatoes don't let this all scare you. Don't fret, don't worry, just grow. You'll soon become comfortable with all the appropriate twirling and swear words along the way.
Yup I get sunburned and angry too when the temperature is over 35C
I have 14 gorgeous tomato plants in two raised beds. Most of them are from seeds that originated in Italy and were brought here (to Connecticut) by my friend's grandfather. These "Morra plum tomatoes" are usually huge, juicy, and with low acidity. This year, the plants are huge and healthy, but are barely flowering. I didn't get the soil tested after I added topsoil and manure this spring (big mistake), and I gave them an extra dose of potassium a few weeks ago, but still very few flowers, and only ONE tomato on one plant. I hope the whole tomato crop isn't ruined, because I live for my tomatoes.
I have 2 tomatoes that are completely stunted, which I've never had or even seen before. But in my case I think it's because I kept them in their starting pots far too long. There's still time - it could be the weather has been unhelpful. ~ karen!
One year, all of mine were stunted; they grew to about a foot tall, then stopped. I had the soil analyzed at University of Connecticut, and learned that the high organic content--26%--was inhibiting nutrient absorption. It should have been no greater than 5%. And I, thinking there was not enough organic material, had been adding several inches of compost to the raised beds every year!
Interesting. I didn't realize potting soil could have inappropriate nutrient levels. Then again I sometimes try to mix my own (oops). I know not to even try growing in Georgia clay (it's only for weeds!). We actually moved down half a zone (8b to 8a), colder sporadically in "winter," but definitely so much hotter this year! Saw your mention of too much organics in the soil, perhaps I need to add more topsoil rather than (bagged) compost to the beds lol! What an interesting experiment we try every year, huh? 😆
your post is too late. All hell HAS broken loose in tomato land ( also known as the front planter) I really did intend to follow your instructions this year ( and last and ...) . I started well but then the hubs felt we needed to go away for 10 days...in June.. in the Fraser Valley in a very wet year so things are lush. We have waging a battle with the weeds ever since. I think the weeds are winning.
Although my heirloom mini yellow pear tomato plants are loaded with fruit, I have been steadily losing tomatoes to a large garden pest, the Stealthy Golden Retriever Tomato Snatcher. Known for its pale gold coloring, the Snatcher does its best to hide among the plants as it slowly inserts its long nose into the tomato cage when it believes no one is watching. Frequently signals its presence by the shaking of the tomato plants. When it hears the human yell “no, no! Bad dog!” it will snatch the closest tomato even if it’s not ripe, then go racing across the yard as it chomps on its prize. Very sneaky, impossible to get rid of.
Oh but what a beautiful pest--not only golden but with a heart of gold. Otherwise, such a good boi.
He is a lovely boy, even if he does steal more than his share of tomatoes.
Great information! One fun tip I've had success with in pollinating the flowers: I save an old head from my electric toothbrush. Put it back on the toothbrush when plants are blooming and gently touch each bloom (with brush turned on). The vibrations seem to scatter the pollen quite well (and my tomatoes never get cavities!). This might be useful in pollinating other veggies as well but I never thought to try it until now. Keep up the good work, Karen.
Thanks Barb! ~ karen
You are the best fount of information I know.
Just when I was about to ask you about topping, you read my mind! We’ve been eating ripe fruit for about a week, now that we’ve entered a new zone, 6A, (thanks global warming)! Good point about the base which I’ve been trying to keep clear, on the hunt for our nemesis, the tomato hornworm. Found 2 so far. I won’t go into their subsequent lifespan. I shall leave the flowers to tumble over the base now. Always something new. I also never heard about the bending tip, great information as always, thank you!
I appreciate all the gardening advice I find here, Karen. Thanks! I've been nipping out the tomato plant suckers since they began appearing. Maybe that's why my plants seem especially small this year. They're hardly producing flowers and I have only a handful of tomatoes. My cucumber plants, despite picking off the first cucumber, are tiny and not producing much either. This is the first year in six years of veggie gardening that everything seems to be small and struggling. Do you think it's my soil? The weather? Variety of plant? (I imagine you rolling your eyes right now, wondering how I expect you to diagnose the problem.) If you've had such an experience and you have a moment to share how you tackled it I would appreciate advice. Thanks again for all the info in your blog. And for always making me smile and laugh.
My plants are always tiny and slow. 😓
No idea why. (One fun example, last year I planted some zinnia seeds, supposed to be around 3 feet tall, the survivor made it to nearly 3 inches and I kept it alive through the winter somehow. This late spring I moved it into a bed and it has definitely reached at least a full 3 - 3 1/2 inches! It even finally had a nice flower bud. After weeks the bud dried up. Still has the leaves, but my towering grand 3-4 foot zinnia flower plant is a sad tiny little plop of nothingness. My radishes sprouted, put out a set of leaves, and stopped. I know they do that for a while but that was maybe a month ago? Radishes are supposed to be like 30 days! Nobody told them apparently. Good luck!
Maybe there was a misprint on the package, and the height was supposed to be in inches, not feet! Seriously, though, it might be helpful to get a soil analysis (by your local agricultural extension service, if you're in the US). Chances are you have too much or too little or one or more essential nutrients, and absorption is being blocked.
Been running into those leaf footed flying fck crap sucking bugs argh! Hate these! And nasty Japanese beetles yuck! (Ate my sorrel, lemon balm, eggplants, strawberries - of which I only have a few to begin with! )
Stink and squash bugs in multi colors, jeez I don't need a rainbow of you freaks! (Those bugs ^) Went to put up a sunshade that I'd Finally been able to get for some of the tomatoes and squish, and mom had thrown it away! Gah! She's like, I thought you didn't want it anymore. ARGH! And those nasty beetles keep fcking in my garden, yuck!
Ok, back to your regularly scheduled program. 😜
(I think I need some booze.. 😉 )
Lots of great tips here, thank you. I considered cutting suckers but thought the growth might provide some shade (we just had our second heatwave of the summer).