Complete Guide to Growing Tomatoes: From Seed to Harvest

Pick Your Variety

Sweet 100 (salads), Roma (sauce/salsa), Early Girl/Boy, Beefsteak, heirlooms (Brandywine, Cherokee Purple), cherry/grape types. Choose for your cooking style.

Start from Seed

6–8 weeks before transplant. Use individual cells, sterile mix, label with variety/date. Cover with plastic for humidity. Remove cover at germination. Thin to strongest. Harden off: day outdoors, night indoors for a week.

Or Buy Transplants

Select stocky, dark green plants without fruit. Plant deeper than pot level—tomatoes root along buried stems.

Soil Prep

Deep, loamy, well-drained. pH 6.2–6.8. Test with kit. Lime raises pH; sulfur lowers. Compost improves structure.

Planting

Full sun (6–8 hrs). Rotate crops yearly. Companion plant with chives, parsley, marigold, nasturtium, garlic, carrots. Avoid potatoes, cabbage family. Space 24 in. each way. Protect from cutworms (nail, newspaper collar, paper cup). Set cage/stake at planting. Water base only, morning. Mulch 2 in. straw.

Maintain & Harvest

Fertilize with compost/organic matter. Scout for blight/insects. Remove infected leaves, treat with fungicide. Clean all debris in fall. ~100 days to fruit. Enjoy that first BLT!

Supplies Checklist

Seeds/plants, containers, greenhouse kit/bags, starter mix, labels, marker, rake, spade/shovel, water, sun, patience.