Sow seeds or plant seedlings?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people grow their tomatoes by buying plants to transplant into their garden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sowing tomato seeds gives you some advantages though, including access to more varieties and control of timing and stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When to plant tomatoes in Southern California<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you grow your tomatoes from seed, then you can sow them in containers 1-2 months before you intend to plant them. Or, you can sow the seeds directly in the garden ground around the same time that you would put in transplants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When is that? In Southern California, after mid-March is usually a good time to put in your first tomato transplants. And July 4th is about as late as you should plant tomatoes if you want to get a full crop before the weather cools in late fall. (Late May is the latest I\u2019d sow tomato seeds.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is what happened to my tomato plants one year when I planted them before the weather was right: \u201cI planted tomatoes too early.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Technically, you can grow tomatoes year-round in most parts of Southern California since the weather rarely gets cold enough to kill plants. I often let one or two of my cherry tomatoes go through the winter since such small-fruited types ripen better in the cool weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re close to the beach, then in some years you get a lot of May Gray and June Gloom such that it might be smartest for you to wait until May or June to plant varieties with big fruit so that they are ripening that fruit when the summer heat finally arrives starting in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two rounds of tomatoes in Southern California<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our warm season lasts so long in Southern California, that we have time for multiple tomato plantings. I\u2019ve settled on two main rounds: an early and a late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I plant a group in March or April, which I\u2019ll start eating from in late May or early June. And then I plant a group around June that gives me fruit through the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One reason to do this is that tomato plants started in April are unlikely to still be growing well and producing lots of tomatoes in the fall. It happens, but most of those early tomatoes decline starting around August \u2013 due to powdery mildew, mites, some soil-borne fungus, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find more nuances about when to plant tomatoes in Southern California in my post on the topic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Planting tomatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When you plant tomatoes you can bury part of the stem because tomatoes make adventitious roots. In other words, when you bury a tomato stem it grows roots along the stem. Some people even think that burying the stem of a tomato plant is the best way. I\u2019ve never noticed that it makes a difference. That being said, if a plant is tall and wobbly then you can bury it deep in order to help it stand erect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spacing tomatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most farmers space their tomato plants 18 inches apart down a row, except for cherry types, which are planted more like two feet apart since those plants are bigger. I also use this spacing when I support them into an upright shape. If you\u2019re letting your tomato plants sprawl, then you need to space them out more \u2013 up to four feet between plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supporting tomatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomatoes do not need to be supported. You can let them grow naturally, like bushes that sprawl on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The advantage of this is not having to put in the time and effort of supporting the plants. The disadvantages are that the plants take up more ground space, some of the fruit lies on the ground and is sometimes munched by bugs, and harvesting is harder because you must step into the bush to get fruit in the middle. One year I grew a Sungold cherry tomato plant without support, and that single plant became a jungle. Every time I entered the jungle to pick fruit near the middle, I came out smelling like tomato vine for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So these days I usually stake-and-string my tomatoes or put large cages around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have a look at this post for pros and cons of these two methods of supporting tomatoes: \u201cComparing tomato supports: cage versus stake-and-string.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pruning tomatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The only time I prune tomatoes is to get the plants and fruit up off the ground. So I\u2019ll cut off some lower stems so that the plant branches out higher up and therefore keeps its fruit higher up. This makes supporting and harvesting easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harvesting tomatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t need to wait to harvest a tomato until it has full color on the vine in order for it to have full flavor. You can pick it a bit earlier than that and let it finish ripening on the kitchen counter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How early can you pick a tomato? In order for it to turn full color \u2013 red, usually \u2013 it must have some of that color in the skin when you pick it. In other words, if a regular red tomato has some red blush on the skin, you can pick it and it will fully color to red off the vine. You cannot, however, pick the tomato green and get it to turn red off the vine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no need to pick a tomato before it has reached full color on the vine, but there are a couple of advantages to doing so. One is that it makes it more likely that you will eat the fruit before a critter does. A second is that it makes it more likely that you will harvest the fruit before the skin cracks or it gets sunburned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I used to wait to pick my tomatoes much longer than I do now. These days I find myself harvesting earlier due to the reasons above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which tomato varieties do best in Southern California?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone who has been growing tomatoes for a while has settled on favorite varieties that they grow every year \u2013 because they like the taste and because the plants produce well for them \u2013 but everyone\u2019s favorites are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some varieties that are the favorites of local, seasoned tomato growers whom I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cherries<\/em>: Sweet 100, Nova, Valentine, Sungold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plums<\/em>: Blush, San Marzano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slicers<\/em>: Big Beef, Early Girl, Champion, San Diego, Mountain Fresh, BHN 1021, Momotaro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heirlooms<\/em>: Cherokee Purple, Pineapple, Striped German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See details on a handful of varieties that grew well in my garden a few summers ago: \u201cTomato varieties for Southern California, 2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n See details on a handful of varieties that I’ve found do well in soil infested with root-knot nematodes: “Tomato varieties with disease resistance for Southern California.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n (What\u2019s an heirloom tomato? See this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protecting tomatoes from sunburn, pests, and diseases<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Every year, the weather, pests, and disease pressures are slightly different in a garden, and you shouldn\u2019t expect perfect tomato plants like you might see in a blog or vlog. Those are faked. Not even the best farmer grows perfect tomatoes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some of the many ways that my tomatoes and those of others in Southern California go wrong: \u201cFailing at tomatoes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n And here is a post I wrote about solutions for some of the most common issues that we deal with on tomato plants in Southern California, including mid-summer decline, blossom end rot, skin cracking, sunscald, root knot nematodes, powdery mildew, mites, critters eating tomato fruit, and plants that don\u2019t produce fruit. The post is called, \u201cSucceeding at tomatoes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you live inland, you’re likely to get sunburn on some tomato fruit during heat waves. Here’s a video of how I protect my tomatoes from heat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tomato-plants-ready-for-transplanting.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
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