In this video, I share the top 5 mistakes you must never make when growing tomatoes. Tomato plants are finicky, and the internet has taught gardeners to do terrible things that harm them. Avoid these traps! This video will teach you how to work with your tomato plants and give them everything they need for success, while dispelling much of the bad tomato growing advice that has become so common.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Mistake #1: Disease Prevention
4:29 Mistake #2: Fertilizing Tomatoes Incorrectly
9:51 Mistake #3: Pruning Tomatoes Incorrectly
15:07 Mistake #4: Planting Tomatoes Too Late
18:30 Mistake #5: The ‘Full Sun’ Myth
24:07 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about avoiding these tomato growing mistakes, how to grow tomatoes in your backyard garden, growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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#gardening #garden #tomatoes #tomatoplants #vegetablegardening
49 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please LIKE it and share it with family and friends! Thanks for watching 🍅 TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Mistake #1: Disease Prevention
4:29 Mistake #2: Fertilizing Tomatoes Incorrectly
9:51 Mistake #3: Pruning Tomatoes Incorrectly
15:07 Mistake #4: Planting Tomatoes Too Late
18:30 Mistake #5: The 'Full Sun' Myth
24:07 Adventures With Dale
You mentioned single stemming indeterminates as something people do in a greenhouse when they have basically unlimited height to let the vine grow up a string. There's another use case. I have about two and a half months when I can be sure I can grow tomatoes. A late spring frost or an early fall frost can change that. So what's important for me is to get to tomato growing as quickly as possible. If I let an indeterminate grow as much greenery as it wants it won't get around to growing tomatoes until fairly late in my season. At that point when it finally starts producing tomatoes, it'll grow more tomatoes than if single or double stemmed but they'll be smaller. There's some value to that. Rodents and birds don't go after the smaller tomatoes like they do the big ones. But I double stem (meaning leaving the main stem plus letting the first sucker above the first flowers to grow into a second stem). Tomatoes grow on these two stems, and pretty quickly. If I let a lot of suckers grow that would greatly delay tomato production. What you describe is what I do with cherry tomatoes. I hardly prune anything. If I have a sucker that's grown 18 inches without showing any signs it's going to produce a flower, I cut it off to let the growing energy go into those that will produce flowers and fruit. There may be a way to predict which suckers will produce tomatoes quickly and which will not but I don't know that yet. As to height of vining tomatoes, single and double stemmed indeterminates, most years I don't exceed my 10-ft trellis. On the one occasion it did in the last 10 years, I topped the plant and it stopped growing upward.
Very informative video! Thank you.
Wow, a really wonderful
tutorial. . Thank you
This is my first time having a tomato plant and you're the first person I've heard. Say don't remove the suckers and I think today I removed all of my suckers. Hopefully some more will grow. Thanks for all the tips! 😊
I thought I knew everything I need on the topic but I learned a couple more things here, thank you!
As far as fertilizing…we have an animal farm as well. What about rabbit/goat/chicken poop as fertilizer? I stumbled on your video. I LOVE it!!!
Thank you!!!
Hey a Regal Beagle is better than a Fecal Beagle
Dude they are a fruit, wth
Love Espoma products, made right here in Millville NJ..!
What about ' volunteer tomatoes' that come from spreading compost? Do you have some tips to growing them? Thanks!!
Mistake in the first 3 seconds, tomatoes are a fruit NOT a vegetable
Thank you
I want to know more about cucumber ockro and sweet pepper and also lettuce
Anthony~~FIG question: April 14th, 2025, western WA state. I'm trying to figure out out to transition my figs in Spring from greenhouse to outdoors, without damaging the leaves. I have 12 varieties in 15 & 20 gallon pots~~all on wheels so I can easily roll then in & out. The outdoor sun is bright. especially in front of the glass greenhouse. They grow great in the greenhouse, but when I bring them out for a while in the day (no freeze) the leaves look ever so slightly shocked, a little shrivel, and a hint of yellowing. Last year, during the May strong solar storm event, the sun damaged the leaves irreparably, so I learned a lesson then–be careful with strong radiation.
How far apart should the tomato plants be planted using the vertical string trellises?
Tomato is a FRUIT!!
Just another garden tip video… until I realized I was on the mountain with the Almighty and this is beyond serious. On my knees 🙏🏼
Excellent video!!! Thank you ( from a gardener in hot hot hot Australia )
Here in western wa state, do not plant out too early, mid may at the very earliest. Better to keep them in the greenhouse and pot them up in gallon pots a second time from 4 inchers than have them hit by too cold nights.
Brother this is the best video I have seen to help us beginners!
I planted a bunch of air loom seeds but I did not label them. Is there a way to tell which are determine and non determine seedlings once they start growing?
Awesome video — thanks so much! Very glad to learn about potential harm of over-pruning and the benefits of shade cloth!
Im a potato growing kind of guy myself
Re inventing the wheel comes to mind
One of the best videos I have ever seen on growing tomatoes. Excellent. But I do mildly disagree on a few points. I have NEVER removed suckers, and don't understand where that nonsense ever originated. Prune ONLY the lateral leaves. I do prune laterals higher up and in the inner area of the plants to increase airflow and cut down on diseases. I used to rotate gardens but having half a dozen large gardens is just more work than I can keep up with. I do rotate within the beds I have, but my main crop is tomatoes, 30-40 plants, had years with over 100. Tomatoes get diseased every year, it is a fact of life, but best practices can keep them in check longer into the season. I use a granular non organic 10-10-10 at half strength to prepare the bed before planting, then "tomato tone" , also by Espoma, to each plant at planting. and every 2 weeks afterward. What a difference the tomato tone every 2 weeks has made!!!! Especially in the FLAVOR. The plant-tone plus bone meal will give close to the same NPK ratios. Not sure I agree with the fish emulsion, but maybe I will try that this year. I always believed enuff nitrogen was in everything else. I am NOT criticizing any thing in this video, just sharing what I do. Been growing heirlooms for 35 years, and it took me much longer to figure it out. Excellent job!!! I have liked and subscribed. My 3 faves are Brandywine Suddath, Brandywine Cowlicks, and Lucky Cross in beefsteaks. Kimberley for a small, and Sungold (hybrid) and Black Cherry for cherries. Michigan here.
Thank you so much for another awesome video. Our problem here in southern Virginia is keeping the deer away from our gardens. 1.60 acres that we just can’t fence in but we will put up lines with tin cans. It seemed to work last year.
Been following your channel for a couple years now. Thank you for the awesome information you always provide. This was a great video cut down on a lot of confusion 🙂
Couple things. One, you're pretty heavy on the nitrogen, I like to make it the smallest NPK number or they grow too large. And two, bone meal takes a while to become available to plants doesn't it? I garden in containers so I need something that works NOW, not after it's been washed out due to subsequent watering. I use Langbeinite for bone meal, and super phosphate and just a bit of nitrogen. Keeps the plants compact and full of fruit.
so glad I found this channel. Like yourself, I am a transplant from NJ. Nothing like a Jersey Tomato! I am now in Myrtle Beach and have a raised garden. Unfortunately I planted my tomatoes (by 4/1) with other veggies and flowers (to ward off some pests). If I use the shade cloth-will it keep my other vegetables from growing properly?
Thank you for educating me regarding the use of shade cloth for tomato plants. I’m a subscriber now! 😊
Tomatoes ARE NOT a vegetable!!! THEY ARE a fruit!!
I use my chicken litter
Very helpful information, for this unsuccessful tomato gardener from GA. I’m going to implement your tips, and keep my fingers crossed for success .
You are so right. I don't clip off suckers and get huge output. I have friends tell me I am a fool for not taking every one off.
Tomatoes are a fruit not a vegetable.
Tomatoes are a fruit. Not a vegetable.
Epsom salt also helps stimulate plant growth and buds.
I have learned so much from you–your experience is invaluable. What is that plant that you have growing next to the tomato in this video under "Mistake #1"–the tomato in the grey container? I can't quite read the label. Why do you plant it there. I had thought about planting a borage plant next to a tomato container plant.
Just wanted to add a word of caution in using fish fertilizer – a friend had a very bad anaphylactic reaction to eating tomatoes that had been fed fish fertilizer. Quite uncommon, but you should be aware of your guest’s allergies. As long as they know, they can avoid eating them.
I thought tomatoes were fruit?
Thank you. Live in Oklahoma & have had challenges with tomatoes. Grew up in upstate NY, where soil was SO different! Appreciated your video.
Great information! I’ve been following the too much pruning for a couple years and went back to my old ways last year. Good explanation why it wasn’t working for me! Thanks!
Any comments about bone meal attracting critters? When I use it my own dog (and perhaps foxes or raccoons at night) digs around the plants— definitely a net negative!
It's a fruit. Ancient people called it passion fruit and thought it was poisonous.
One can use kitchen scraps blended up, dried animal bones crushed up and or egg shells, and blended up fish liquid. For gardening on a budget..
Huh? I literally just watched a video where you said you shouldn't cut off those lower limbs, that disease doesn't spread, that cutting off anything causes more harm than good. Things changed since last year or did I miss something?
Great advice for tomatoes and shade if needed. We don't prune suckers.
What a great video! Thank you