From silver mulch and DIY soil recipes to the perfect variety, 3 master tomato growers offer their best tomato growing tips.
Tomato Growing Pro Tip #1: Use This 8-1-1-1 Ratio to Grow Your Soil
Name: James Walley
Home Digging: Kansas City, Missouri
Business: KC Tomato Times
Blog: KCTomatoTimes.wordpress.com
Follow social media: KC Tomato Times (Facebook)
Quick Facts: I won the 2017 World Championship Squirrel Chef competition in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Claim to fame: I have been growing rare tomato varieties for over a decade and have grown nearly 800 so far. I pride myself on growing some of the most hearty, tough and ready-to-plant seedlings in the area. I also host a tomato tasting every first Saturday in August. Over the past few years, we have had up to 100 different types of ripe fruit, but there are always at least 40-50 for people to taste and experience the uniqueness of each variety.
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Top Tomato Production Tips: Soil construction is key. I make my own soil for my raised bed in an 8-1-1-1 ratio using locally produced compost and peat, perlite and vermiculite. I don’t use fertilizers as they tend to be too high in nitrogen.I fertilize tomato tint When I plant, then every 3 weeks throughout the season.
Under less than ideal growing conditions: Covering is your friend. Use some kind of mulch to keep soil moisture consistent. Also, I prefer silver reflective sheeting because it retains moisture and weeds, and it reflects light under the leaves to repel insect invaders like aphids and hornworms.This is Very Shiny, you need sunglasses to use it, but you can see your garden from outer space!
Favorite Tomato Varieties: Carbon is without a doubt the best I’ve ever grown. It has a deep, complex flavor and beautiful purple color, and is fairly disease resistant and very productive. I plant at least a dozen chars in my garden every year.
Share the love: I am an educator at heart and professionally. I make sure that anyone who buys my plants knows the best ways to grow, care for and eat them. I’m available year-round to help gardeners with any problems they may have by email. As for ripe tomatoes, we eat them at home in a variety of ways; however, I like to bring a box of ripe tomatoes and other vegetables from my garden to a local restaurant and exchange them for a delicious meal, or have the chef start with Their own special way of preparing them for me.
Tomato Growing Pro Tip #2: Minerals Make a Difference
Nominee: wild robin
Home Digging: Woodinville, Washington
Business: Robin’s Gourmet Garden (Nursery)
website: GrowTomatoSauce.com
Follow social media: Robin’s Gourmet Garden (Facebook)
Quick Facts: Well, aside from gardening, my other hobbies are theatre and politics, so, of course, I could rap the opening song for the entire musical Hamilton!
Claim to fame: I grow tomato paste – 125-200 pounds of tomatoes from 36 plants! I bake, puree and freeze about 2-3 gallons of them a year for winter meals. People came to me for help, so I created a website to help inspire others. People also asked me for cuttings, so I started growing about 1,800 heirloom tomato plants (nine varieties) and selling directly to customers and supplying five stores. Clients say my variety is unique in the local market and stronger than industry grown varieties.
Top Tomato Production Tips: Test your soil for all trace elements, then mineralize accordingly.I started this five years ago after reading Steve Solomon’s book Smart Gardener: Growing Nutritious Foods, it makes all the difference in my tomato production. Also, to maximize the flavor of tomatoes, do not water the plants for 24 hours before picking the fruit. Watering only dilutes the sugar in the tomatoes, which dilutes the flavor.
Under less than ideal growing conditions: In the Pacific Northwest, the biggest challenge is wildly fluctuating weather conditions. Sometimes the temperature drops by 20-30 degrees overnight and we tend to have frequent rains throughout the summer. My solution is twofold. I choose varieties that mature in 85 days and plant them in a protective shade that can be opened in good weather for air circulation and pollination. The goal is to keep the leaves from getting rained on, which can lead to fungal problems, and to keep the heat as high as possible. This method allows me to grow tomatoes in April when it is still cool and wet and extend the harvest into November.
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Favorite Tomato Varieties: My favorite variety of tomato is the speckled roma, because my goal is to freeze as much tomato puree as possible – and speckled roma is thick and fleshy with few seeds and has a great flavor and richness. Some fruit will grow to over a pound each – and it’s so dense that you can bake it into slices. My favorite salsa is the Black Sea, a Russian variety that produces plenty of steak-type tomatoes in beautiful mottled dark greens and reds with a delicious sweet tomato flavor.
Share the love: I share my 15 years of tomato growing experience, failures and successes through my website; I answer questions and share information related to my plant business on my Facebook page; I do this through speaking to local garden clubs and of course There are casual conversations to share my expertise. It appears that successfully growing tomatoes is a subject of great interest in my area. Plus, my ketchup is everywhere – many went to college with my daughter, and I share it with neighbors and friends in hopes of inspiring more people to try growing ketchup.
Tomato Growing Expert Tip #3: Choose the Right Plants for Your Climate
Nominee: Leslie Doyle
Home Digging: Las Vegas, Nevada
Business: Sweet Tomato Test Garden
website: SweetTomatoTestGarden.com
Follow social media: Leslie R. Doyle (Facebook)
Books: Growing tomatoes in the terrible dirt and desert heat of Las Vegasself-published (1996); Growing tomatoes in the terrible dirt and desert heat of Las Vegas (2nd edition), self-published (2002); Slam Dunk Easy Desert Gardeningself-published (2009)
Quick Facts: Actually, I usually don’t eat vegetables. I prefer berries; tree fruit; nuts; grilled steak, fish or chicken; and chocolate (yum!).
Claim to fame: I’ve written about new directions for growing tomatoes and vegetables in the desert – including new ways to irrigate and fertilize your farm or garden, ways to increase your plants’ light, and ways to repel insects and avoid disease. I also developed a soil/compost that is very popular and widely used in deserts.
Top Tomato Production Tips: Help them be everything they can be. You’ll get more reliable results when you plant varieties that are known to be prolific, then provide them with plenty of water, nutrients, and sunlight, and grow them in the right climate.
Under less than ideal growing conditions: Gardening in Las Vegas is very, very different for new residents – they wouldn’t be possible without the guidance of a successful gardener. Growing up here is actually easy, but there are rules for growth. No matter where you live, pay attention to your plants and learn how to meet their needs and diagnose their diseases.
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Favorite Tomato Varieties: My favorite variety of tomato is the Hawaiian Tropical Tomato, and here’s why: It’s an average size of 8 to 10 ounces, it’s delicious, and it’s very prolific. It grows very well in our hot desert climate and is disease resistant. Hawaiian Tropical Tomatoes are currently only available through me. I also love Juliet, a smaller Roma tomato. It’s easy to grow, delicious, and a national pick winner.
Share the love: We sell our harvest at the Sweet Tomato Test Garden and donate extra fruit to Lutheran Social Services Food Briefs. Some are also shared with friends.Over the years, I have written articles and tips for a variety of publications, including organic gardening magazine, where I worked for almost 10 years. I publish a subscription-based e-newsletter for desert gardeners, and I have decades of teaching and speaking experience at desert gardening schools, libraries, local colleges, civics and nurseries. All are welcome to visit my garden and I am happy to answer questions!
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This is an updated version of an article originally published on May 28, 2018.
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