Instructions on How to Grow Better Tomatoes

              2008 How to Grow Better Backyard Tomatoes
                             by Cynthia Sandberg

Tomatoes are the number one edible plant people grow in their yards. Unfortunately, many people think you just plop a plant in the ground and with water it will grow. If you’re really lucky, and the planets and stars are in alignment, then this may be true. That unusual occurrence doesn’t duplicate itself, because tomatoes will deplete the soil of nutrients pretty quickly. I wouldn’t risk just winging it if this is your first year growing, however, as you can do a lot to ensure you get a fabulous and healthy tomato garden. If you weren’t born with a green thumb, however, don’t despair. With just a bit of knowledge and perseverance, you can have loads of wonderful tomatoes.

1. Choose the right type of tomato for your growing conditions.

Every garden, even if right next door to each other, may have differing needs. Your tomato might get less hours of sunlight than your neighbor across the street because of a tree shading part of your garden. You may not be able to grow a large tomato if you are too close to the ocean and get a lot of coastal fog. You might have to wait later to plant your tomatoes if you are at a higher elevation (even a slight elevation can make a difference). You may only be able to grow a tomato in a container on your deck because you don't have any ground to grow in or because the gophers in your yard eat everything you plant.

The good news, however, is that there are varieties of tomatoes for all growing conditions. Tomatoes, particularly heirlooms, come in all sizes: cherry, small, medium, and large. One of the things I was surprised to find out when I started talking to a lot of customers about tomatoes, is that many people think that tomatoes are either cherry-sized or big, no in-betweens or different shapes.

If you are lucky enough to be able to plant your tomatoes where they will get 6 or more hours of direct sunlight, then you should be able to grow a big tomato. With less than 6 hours (or in coastal areas) choose medium to smaller-fruited tomato varieties. Some good medium ones are Black Prince, Stupice, Bloody Butcher, Green Zebra, Northern Lights, Siletz, Purple Calabash Costoluto Genovese, and Mandarin Cross. The colors of these run the gamut from red, yellow, orange, bi-color, purple, pink, and black. Some good small and cherry-sized tomatoes are Sungold, Rosalita, Black Cherry, Blondkopfchen, Black Plum, Yellow Pear, White Cherry, Black Ethiopian, Matina, and Jaune Flammee. Cherries also come in all shapes as well: pear, plum, grape, and round.

Large tomato varieties include Coustralee, Kentucky Beefsteak, Chuck's Yellow, Hugh's, Cherokee Purple, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Hawaiian Pineapple, German Red Strawberry, Green Giant, and Texas Star. There are many more examples of fine tomato varieties than those above, but these are some of my personal favorites.

Although many of you yearn to grow a gigantic tomato, you just may have to admit that your growing conditions cannot handle it. Learn to love smaller fruited varieties. Some of my customers swear that they are the tastiest, anyway!

For those who only have space for one small plant on an apartment balcony in a pot, try a dwarf variety, like Super Bush, or a determinate variety (these stay short).

2. Choose the sunniest spot.

Tomatoes thrive on sun. It will be almost impossible to grow your tomatoes in the shade, or with less than 3 hours of direct sunlight. Even with up to 5 hours of sunlight, it may only be worthwhile to grow small or cherry tomatoes. If you have 5 or more hours of sunlight, you should be able to grow a large tomato. If you are in a foggy area, though, stick with small to medium sized tomatoes.

Unwittingly, some people plant their tomatoes up against a solid fence, which serves the nefarious purpose of blocking out several hours of precious sunlight in the morning or afternoon. If you’re serious about growing tomatoes, you might need to trim some trees, take out that pesky eucalyptus or acacia, or even cut out a space right smack dab in the middle of your lawn to get the maximum amount of sunlight. Make your edible garden the spotlight of your backyard!

3. Soil health is key.

Soil is the most important thing you can do to help your tomatoes thrive. Tomatoes are very hungry feeders. Amend your soil beds with compost, either your own or purchased, soil conditioner (I like Fox Farms), humic acid, bagged chicken compost, and the best amendment of all: worm castings. For every 50 square foot garden space, add a 3 cubic foot bag of compost (or a full wheelbarrow full of your own sifted compost), a 2 cubic foot bag of Fox Farms soil conditioner, a cup of humic acid, a 1 cubic foot bag of composted chicken manure (not fresh), and a quart of 100% pure worm castings. I also add about 10 pounds of crab meal to my beds, as I have a problem with wireworms burrowing into the taproots of some of my veggies.

Most of these amendments can be purchased at Mt. Feed in Ben Lomond. You can also find them on line at www.groworganic.com

Once all your amendments are on top, turn them over into the soil below with a spade fork (looks like a broad-tined short pitchfork). Go as deep as you can. The soil should be very fluffy. Once you have loosened the soil, added your amendments, and raked the surface smooth, do not walk on the bed any more. We never walk on our garden beds here at Love Apple Farm. Roots need air in the soil just as much as they need water and nutrients.

4. Plant them at the proper time.

It seems to me that the more inexperienced the gardener, the sooner they want to put in their summer crops. Tomatoes need warm soil and warm weather to thrive and ward off diseases. In the California Bay Area, there are many microclimates, and the closer you get to sea level, the earlier you can get away with planting. I used to tell people to take the temperature of the soil, and not plant until it reaches at least 60 degrees. This is still valid, but let’s talk dates.

If you are within a mile or two of the ocean, you are probably safe putting in your plants on April 1. If you are more inland than that, you may have to wait until April 15 or May 1. If you can, check to see when your last average frost date is for your area. Plant after that date.

Yes, sometimes it works to plant early, and the downside (buying another plant to replace an ailing one) isn't too onerous, but why spend good money and your precious time tending a plant that is unhappy in cold, damp soil and pounding rain? Just because you see tomato plants in the local nursery or your gung-ho neighbor has his plants in the ground, doesn't mean you are procrastinating. More experienced gardeners (we've all learned this the hard way) wait to plant tomatoes until the soil has sufficiently warmed up. Many times you can put in a tomato plant a good month after your too-early one, and find the later-planted seedling quickly catching up and surpassing the other deprived, stunted one you nursed along during a too-cold spring.

You can speed up the season by using raised beds (which warm up faster than ground-level beds) or you can place clear (not black) plastic on top of your growing area for about three weeks before your wished-for planting date. Be sure to fasten down the plastic with soil around the edges, or landscape staples. Once the soil is sufficiently warmed up, you can cut a foot wide hole in the plastic, and plant your tomato (using my planting method outlined above). You can keep the plastic on top of the soil the entire season, however, at some point, when the weather turns hot (like in mid June), you MUST cover the plastic with a mulch, otherwise it will overheat your soil and your plants will suffer. I like to use a straw mulch on top of the plastic, because it's attractive, cheap, and effective. You can buy a bale of straw (make sure it's not hay, there is a difference) from a local feed store (look in the yellow pages under "Feed").

If you are going to plant before May 1, no matter where you are located, I recommend covering them up during the night with something like an inverted bucket, tub, or an extra-sturdy cardboard box (just make sure it can withstand the rain). Go out at dusk, cover the plant (try not to let the plant make contact with the inside of the container), and uncover it in the morning before the sunlight hits it. Do this until the low nighttime temps are consistently above 50 degrees.

5. Planting technique.

Tomato plants want to be planted with only a few sets of leaves sticking up out of the ground. If you can get a good deal of that stem under the soil, you will find your tomatoes to eventually be healthier and happier. If you look closely at a tomato stem, there are tiny fuzzy hairs sticking out. Once contacted with soil, these “hairs” turn into roots, making the plant stronger and able to uptake more nutrients.

A couple of key things to do at the time of planting are to add some more important nutrients especially helpful for tomatoes. First, dig a two-foot deep hole. At the bottom of my planting hole, I like to put a raw fish head. I get all of mine from Manresa restaurant, but you can save yours over time in your freezer for your planting date, or you can go to a butcher or fishmonger and get fish heads or tails for super cheap or free.

Two or three crushed chicken eggshells also get thrown in the hole. The value of eggshells is that it's a cheap, organic method of adding calcium to your soil. There is a nasty and fairly common ailment that bothers tomato fruits called "blossom end rot" or BER. If your tomato fruits have ever had their bottoms turn black, this is what you've got. It is caused by both calcium deficiency and inconsistent watering (water is the way that calcium is taken from the soil up into the tomato plant. If watering is withheld during a time when your plant needs it, then calcium is unable to get up into the plant).

The other amendment that should go into the planting hole is a handful of bone meal. Bone meal is a high-phosphorous fertilizer and is essential to getting a lot of tomatoes on your plant later. If you cannot find any bone meal, or are a vegetarian with issues about using animal products, then you can use super-phosphate.

I also recommend putting two handfuls of Sustane brand fertilizer (4-6-4 type). It’s a great all-purpose timed-release organic fertilizer. If you cannot find Sustane, use a different all purpose timed release fertilizer. “All purpose” means that the three nutrient numbers are close together, such as 5-5-5, or 4-6-4. I like to stay away from such fertilizers that have a higher first number. The first number is nitrogen, and if you give your tomato plants too much of that, you get a lot of nice green growth, but not a lot of tomatoes.

Also in the planting hole should go a heaping tablespoon of pure worm castings. We manufacture and sell 100% pure organic worm castings here at Love Apple Farm. Pure worm castings are expensive. If you are able to get a large quantity of them for less than $20, then you are without a doubt getting something NOT 100 % pure. We also hold compost and vermiculture (worm) classes here each year, where people learn to make their own compost and “black gold” worm castings.

Another good thing to put in the planting hole are two plain aspirin tablets. Aspirin has been shown to increase disease resistant of tomatoes, in addition to increasing blossom production. More blossoms, more fruit. We’ll talk more about this later.

Also extremely helpful and an aid to upping disease resistance is to sprinkle a teaspoon of a product called Power Organics Mycorrhizal Root Booster on the root ball of the tomato plant just before popping it into the planting hole.  The addition of this beneficial fungi attaches to the roots, growing along with them, and serves to protect your plants from disease, harmful microorganisms, drought and transplant stress.

Most of these additives can be purchased at Mt. Feed in Ben Lomond, or on line at www.groworganic.com

6. Spacing.

As far as spacing is concerned, at the time of planting, I see a lot of people crowding their tomato plants too close together, or too close to other plants. They see this tiny seedling, and don’t realize it will grow to six feet or taller, and just as wide if happy and well cared for. Crowding your tomato plants will backfire and give you less fruit, not more. Tomato plants also need a free flow of air around them to keep down foliar diseases, and crowding them will inhibit airflow.

You will also find it much easier to harvest the tomatoes if they are not locked together in an impenetrable thicket. I like to plant my tomatoes three feet apart, but if you just don’t have that much space, and you can’t control yourself, you might be able to get away with putting them two feet apart, but that is the bare minimum.

7. Stake them.

We like to call tomato plants “vines,” although technically they are not. They don’t cling naturally to a stake or other structure. It’s important, however, to keep the branches and fruit up off the ground. If you allow the tomato plants to sprawl all over willy nilly, then they are more susceptible to soil-borne diseases, and the fruits that are touching the ground will often end up ruined by either crawling insects or rot. Believe me on this one, it's important!

There are as many methods of staking as there are gardeners, it seems. The conical cages found at most nurseries simply do not do the trick for most types of tomatoes. If you are growing what are called “indeterminate” varieties (and most heirlooms are indeterminate), then that plant is going to get really big. You can use a single-pole method, which involves driving an eight-foot wooden or metal stake (such as bamboo or rebar) into the ground at the same time you are planting your seedling, then tying the plant to the stake as it grows. I don't really like this method, as it requires that you smush the branches together around the pole, thereby encouraging foliar diseases by lack of airflow. And if you prune off branches, my theory is that with less foliage, less photosynthesis takes place, and that is what is needed to sweeten the fruit.

A preferred method of staking among many experienced gardeners is to build your own cages out of concrete reinforcing wire. It’s available at most big lumberyards and home improvement stores in rolls of 5 feet tall by 50 feet long. Simply cut six foot lengths, attach them into a cylinder using either narrow gauge wire, or bend back and twist the cut ends together to secure. These cylindrical cages can then be placed over your plant (one per cage). Drive a six-foot length of rebar or bamboo two feet into the ground next to the cage, then tie the cage to the rebar at several intervals. As the tomato plant starts to grow out of the cage, gently push back inside the cylinder, any branches that are poking out, training the plant to grow up inside the cage.

We usually have a tomato cage making class here at Love Apple Farm in May. People learn how to make the cages and how to use them properly. We all then make a bunch of cages for people to take home for $8 a cage on that day only. These cages are usually sold here at the farm for $12 a cage at other times.

8. Feed them and protect them.

Despite all of the amendments in the garden bed and in the planting hole, your tomatoes would benefit greatly from a weekly foliar feed alternating between worm casting tea and a disease preventative called Serenade. Using a two-gallon garden sprayer, the fertilizer is made by steeping a cup of worm casting in two gallons of water for at least 48 hours before use (can be made in advance up to a couple of weeks). Strain the mixture into the sprayer, and then add one and a half regular aspirin in the 2 gallons of water. Small amounts of aspirin sprayed on plants improve their growth, sometimes remarkably. Aspirin triggers the plants’ natural defenses against harmful bacteria, fungi and viruses.

Every other week spray the tomatoes with a solution of Serenade, a new organic product proven to prevent a myriad of tomato diseases. Follow the instructions on the label for dilution rates.

I know that later in this document, I tell you not to get the leaves of the tomato plant wet when watering. The foliar sprays are an exception, and it’s ok to get the leaves wet in this instance, particularly since I want you to only spray them in the morning. Also, do not spray them mid-day, when they have had a chance to heat up in the sun.

9. Disease-control.

Tomato plants are susceptible to a host of different blights, wilts, and other aggravating diseases. It’s best to start off pro-actively, rather than waiting for your plant to show signs of disease. Starting off with healthy, fertile soil is the best disease control. Staking them is essential. Not watering the foliage (except when spraying in the morning), using the Root Zone produce, and spraying with the above mentioned aspirin spray and Serenade will also help keep down the diseases.

If your tomatoes have suffered diseases in the past, and you are at your wit’s end, try growing hybrids with the initials V, F, N, T or A after the name on the label. These initials mean that that variety is less likely to get a particular disease (V for verticillium wilt, F is for fusarium wilt, N is for nematodes, T is for tobacco mosaic virus (T) and A is for alternaria).

If you notice a gray or blackened patch at the bottom of your tomato fruits, this is called blossom end rot, and usually indicates a calcium deficiency. See the section 5 above for how to correct this. If you didn't do anything at the beginning of the season to add calcium to the soil, then you can add a liquid calcium product at the first sign of blossom end rot. I recommend Folical as the quickest way to correct low-calcium soils and prevent the rest of your season's crop from this quite common malady. If Folical is not available at your local nursery, they should have another liquid calcium product. If they do not, then they are not a very good nursery.

If all else fails, and every year you are experiencing dying plants, then I recommend growing in pots. There is a lot of info on growing tomatoes in pots later in this document.

10. Protect them from varmints.

If you have pesky gophers, you MUST reduce their numbers, simply using a gopher cage around your root ball is not enough. A female gopher can have three or four litters each year, with 7 or 8 young per litter. The best gopher traps are called cinch traps, and can be found on line or at really good nurseries. Buy the cinch trap for moles (it’s the smaller version). The ones that say “for gophers” are for the larger gophers they have in other parts of the country, rather than here in California. If you cannot trap them, consider using a professional gopher trapper, such as Thomas Wittman of www.gopherslimited.com

Deer can be another problem. They love tomato plants. You really must get a fence up around your tomato patch. I have used the motion-activated sprinklers to scare them away, but the deer simply get used to it and break through eventually. If you cannot afford a real fence, try a temporary one of t-posts and deer netting. The higher the better. A catalog company called Farmtek (find them on line at www.farmtek.com) has some good cheap deer fencing materials and information. Internet bulletin boards which specialize in tomato growing such as www.gardenweb.com have loads of tips on controlling deer, from using soap bars to animal urine deer netting.

Opossums, raccoons, birds, and mice can also eat your tomatoes. Cats do a decent job of scaring them away, also try plenty of bird feeders, which will satiate their appetite and leave you to your tomatoes. Covering your vines with bird netting is a last resort, because then you will have to deal with the plant growing through the netting, making it difficult for you to harvest the fruit. I've heard of using an owl statue on top of a post to scare away birds. There is also a product on the market called "Terror Eyes," sold by an on line company called ww.safehomeproducts.com It's an inflatable orange ball with owl eyes on it, which has proven to scare away birds when dangling in your tomato patch. It costs about $50, but if you look at that website, you can probably figure out how to make your own out of a beach ball or yoga ball. I've seen vineyards use these types of owl eyeballs to deter birds from eating their grapes.

Some of the worst varmints are bugs. I fight fire with fire. Since I grow organically, I use parasitic bugs (also called "beneficials" to get rid of the bag bugs). In my garden, the worst offenders are tomato fruit worms. These are not tomato hornworms, which can also be a problem. Tomato fruit worms can decimate your tomato crop. If you find tiny black specks on the top of your tomato fruit, then the worms aren't far behind. Once they hatch, they bore into the fruit surrounding the stem, causing the unripe tomato to fall to the ground. If you see small green worms, around one inch long and skinny, these are probably tomato fruit worms (also called cabbage loopers or corn silk worms).

The best organic method for controlling tomato fruit worms is to buy some parasitic wasps, called trichogramma wasps. Don't worry, all you receive are the eggs on a card, and when they hatch, they are too small to see. They're not like the big buzzing wasps you're used to. A website called www.planetnatural.com carries these as well as other beneficials.

If your tomato problem is white flies (tiny flies that become airborne when the plant is disturbed), then a nice beneficial insect to order through the mail is called whitefly parasite (Encarsia Formosa), also available through www.planetnatural.com. They also carry aphid predators and house fly predators.

I had an awful problem with house flies last year due to a fresh manure delivery I had received. Once my order of fly parasites arrives, my house fly problem was eliminated within three weeks. The other nice thing about the house fly predator, called Muscidifurax zaraptor, Spanglia spp., is that I've heard some people swear that their apple crops no longer had bugs in them.

Mites are another problem that can attack tomato plants. Invisible to the naked eye, russet and spider mites can cause spotting and wilting of tomato leaves, often resulting in yellowed leaves and stunted plants. I like to have a 10x hand magnifier in my bag of tricks (my garden apron). Once I see these tiny spider-like creatures hanging out in the underside of my tomato leaves, I order a supply of predatory mites, called Phytoseiulus persimilis. Again, ww.planetnatural.com is a good source for these.  You'll be amazed at how easy, cheap, and effective using beneficial insects are. You get the peace of mind in knowing that you're not infecting your precious tomato fruits (not to mention your precious children and pets) with harmful chemical pesticides. Once I started using beneficial insects, I quickly became a convert.

If you need to address an insect issue quickly, and cannot wait for the beneficial to kick in, I recommend an organic spray called Monterey Insect Spray. It’s made from chrysanthemum leaves, the active ingredient is pyrethrum, and using that can quickly help aphid, white fly, mite, and fruit worm problems.11. Watering.

Most people water their tomatoes too much. It makes for watery tasting tomatoes, more diseases, and less fruit. The only time that a tomato needs to be watered every day if it's in a pot, the weather is consistently warm. One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how often to water. There is never a set schedule. It depends on whether you have sandy or clay soil (more water with sandy soil), what the weather is like (cloudy days and mild temperatures mean you should back off on watering, maybe altogether), and how old your plants are (just-planted seedlings need more often watering). You should observe your plants every day and see how they are doing with moisture. If the ground is wet, they don't need watering again for a while. If you cannot tell, dig down a few inches. If the soil is moist, don’t water. If the plant is wilting, it may not be water deprived, it just may be hot for a few hours in high heat and will perk back up in the cool of the evening. Also some diseases cause the plant to wilt, and no amount of watering will cure that. I hear tales of people watering everyday for four hours on a drip system at night. This makes me cringe.

Tomato plants prefer to be watered in the morning (but not every morning unless they are in pots), and watered for a good long slow time, like a hose placed on the ground (please no splashing or sprinklers!) on a slow trickle for half hour or an hour. If this isn't practical, create a large round wall of soil around your tomato plant, and fill that up with water several times each watering. It takes a lot of water to reach down three or four feet into the ground.

You can also use a drip irrigation system (although I don't recommend soaker hoses because they get clogged with soil too quickly). If you do you a drip system, put it down under your plastic sheeting (if you choose to use this method) and try to have several emitters per plant. Tomato plant roots spread out quite a ways from their stem, they don't have much of a tap root, and so using only one emitter at the base isn't a good idea.

We have a drip irrigation class here at Love Apple Farm every year, typically in the early summer. I show you how to install a simple, yet efficient, drip system for vegetable gardens. Anyone can do it.

12. Growing tomatoes in pots.

Growing tomatoes in pots is harder than growing them in the ground. You’ll be working more to make them happy, but it’s definitely possible when you know what you’re doing. Tomatoes in pots rely completely on you. They can’t go anywhere trying to seek water or food. They are easily overheated and overstressed. For many of you, if you’ve tried growing them in pots, you’ve been unsuccessful. But you CAN do it, it you follow my instructions. Here is what I’ve learned after systematically trying to figure it out over a four-year period. If you deviate from my suggestions at all, realize that I’ve probably already tried to do what you’re thinking (in order to save money and time). There are no short cuts, and I’m convinced that these instructions are imperative to doing it properly.

Use at least a 15-gallon pot. Don’t try it in a 5 or 10-gallon pot. Put only one plant per pot. You can use a half wine barrel, which means you can put two tomatoes in a half wine barrel. If you are using an old pot (meaning one not brand-new), disinfect it first by spraying it with a solution of one part bleach and 10 parts water. Rinse the pot with clean water.

Use Orchard Supply Brand Potting Soil. That’s exactly what it says on the bag. The type of potting soil you use is absolutely crucial. You get what you pay for. Don’t scrimp. And don’t re-use the potting soil year after year. Jorah at Mt. Feed in Ben Lomond can also recommend a good organic potting soil (do not use Green-All).

Fill the pot halfway with soil and water it well. Then place on the watered half-pot of soil the additives I’ve recommended above in number 5 (Planting Technique). I also recommend increasing your eggshell count to five or six and adding two handfuls of bone meal instead of one. Do your weekly foliar sprays as specified above.

Immediately after planting, water the pot once, twice, then three times within the space of a half hour. You will then probably not need to water it again for four or five days, depending on the weather. Later in the season, you will be watering every day once the plants get to be over three feet tall and the weather gets warmer – along about June 1 or so. Do not get the leaves of the tomato wet when watering (in other words, no sprinklers on them). Try to water only in the morning, as they will be healthier going into the cool nighttime temps with a warm root zone. If you want to install drip irrigation, you will need at least four emitters per pot. Less than that won’t cut it – believe me I’ve tried. I use a coil of emitter line inside each pot. Come to my drip irrigation class in the summer if you are interested in learning a simple yet effective veggie garden drip system.

Your tomato will still need staking in a pot. See umber 7 above for how to make a proper tomato cage. The cage I recommend will go completely over a 15-gallon pot. It will sit inside a wine barrel. Either way, it will still need to be staked to the ground with a 5 foot long piece of rebar. You can get away with using less than one rebar per cage by stringing all the cages together with twine, and then around the piece of rebar. If you are confused, consider coming to my tomato cage making class at the farm. We talk about how to make and use the cages properly. As the tomato tries to grow out of the cage, simply poke it back inside the cylinder so that it grows straight up.

Most nursery containers are black plastic. In the early part of the year, April and May, the tomatoes love the extra heat absorbed by the black. But starting in June or so, the sun will start to bake the root ball as it gets bigger in the container. It is absolutely imperative that you begin to shade the black plastic by using a shade cloth, sheets, or shorter plants put on the south side of the pots. I simply attach a long shade cloth to the cage; it goes from the ground up to about three feet high. Shade cloths can be purchased, cut to order, at Orchard Supply Hardware or at the Home Depot.

13. Saving seeds.

If one or more of your tomato plants turn out extra fabulous, try saving the seed from one of your most luscious fruits. This only works, though, with heirloom varieties. Hybrids have two genetic parents; when you save the seed from a hybrid tomato, you are most likely to get a plant showing the characteristics of one of its two parents, not necessarily bearing any resemblance to the fruit you loved the season before. Seeds saved from heirloom varieties, however, usually grow true to type the next season.

If you continually save seeds from varieties that grow well in your garden, you may eventually, by localized adaptation to your specific environment, create your own strain of a particular variety. Different strains of probably the most popular heirloom variety, Brandywine, have been developed by astute gardeners who have identified extra productive, extra tasty or extra disease resistant offspring. Over the years, when these special offspring continued to produce the same unique traits, these savvy gardeners were able to claim and name their own strain, such as Sudduth's, OTV and Croatia. With this type of seed selection and saving, you can become that Auntie or Grandpa who hands down your own wonderful family heirloom variety of tomato to future generations. You might even be able to name it something completely different, like Grandma Josie or Purple DogCreek.

Save seeds from only your best fruit. Cut the tomato in half around the “equator,” not through the stem end. Squeeze or scoop out the seeds and the surrounding gel sac into a disposable cup upon which you can write the name of the variety and the word “Save” (to prevent someone from coming along and throwing out the muck).

Add about an inch of water to the cup and place it on a warm windowsill. It doesn’t need light, just warmth (not excess heat, though). Wait for a nice mold to form on the surface of the muck, which takes about a week. You can then peel off the mold layer and rinse the seeds under cold water through a very fine sieve. I use a small three-inch diameter sieve I found at a kitchen supply store. Pick out any remaining bits of pulp.

Slap the sieve upside down on a piece of waxed paper or a Styrofoam plate. You can then write the variety name on this surface. Avoid using paper towels or a regular paper plate. The seeds will stick to those surfaces and be difficult to separate later. Put the wax paper or plate in a safe area and allow the seeds to dry for at least a week. They will dry in a mass (unless you have separated them a bit while wet). No worries, as they will separate quite easily when dry.

Store your seeds in an envelope with the variety name and year saved on it. You need not refrigerate or freeze them to preserve them, as long as you keep them from extreme heat and from mice. Mice absolutely love tomato seeds and will find them if you choose to store them in a garage or perhaps even in your house. Consider putting your tomato seed envelopes in a glass jar or plastic tub to keep the mice away.

I learn something new about tomatoes all the time.  Look for some revised tips each year.  Consider signing up for Love Apple Farm's email newsletter, to get new tips and techniques for how to grow better tomatoes.  We also hold several gardening classes at the farm each year, many centering around growing better tomatoes, especially our Tomato Master's Class held in mid summer each year.  To subscribe to our newsletter, click here.