12 Sweet & Juicy Tomato Growing Tips

A beginner-friendly guide to growing delicious tomatoes from seed to harvest. Discover everything you need to grow healthy plants and sweet, juicy fruit.

If you want to grow tomatoes from seed, Seed Starting For Beginners shares my indoor seed starting method to get a jump start on the growing season.

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What to Know Before You Grow

This is the guide I needed when I first started growing tomatoes—simple, clear advice plus a reality check on some popular but misleading tips.

Whether you’re starting from seed or picking up plants at the garden center, these tips walk you through choosing the right varieties based on their needs and creating the best conditions to grow plenty of delicious fruits.

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1Know What You’re Growing

With thousands (and thousands) of varieties of tomatoes to choose from, it’s helpful to know these key details first:

1. Growth habit
2. Seed type
3. Days to maturity (the time it will take the plant to produce mature fruit).

The seed packet or plant tag should list this information along with spacing recommendations.

Growth Habit: Determinate vs. Indeterminate

You want to know the growth habit prior to planting so you can provide adequate space and supports.

• Determinate (Bush): Determinate, or bush types, bear a full crop all at once and reach a specific height (like a bush). Determinate tomato plants start to die back after fruiting.
• Indeterminate (Vine): Continue growing and fruiting until frost. They can grow over 6 feet tall and need strong cages or stakes. As long-living tender perennials, you can also grow them indoors for much longer periods of time.
• Semi-Determinate: Compact like determinates but may produce a second crop.

I’ve listed examples from each category in the Resources section.

Seed Type: Heirloom vs. Hybrid

This is relevant if you want to save seeds (from this year’s fruits) for next year. 

If your seed packet or plant tag doesn’t specify whether it’s heirloom or hybrid, a quick online search of the variety name should tell you.

• Heirloom: The definition of heirloom varies, but, in general, it’s a tomato seed that has bred true for several decades or more. You can save these seeds and expect similar results.
• Hybrid: Bred for specific traits like disease resistance, size, flavor, or yield. Seeds from newer hybrids may not grow true to the parent plant. Seeds from older hybrids that have been around for several decades, may have stabilized and grow true to type.

Days to Maturity: Will There Be Enough Time?

Tomatoes plants need a certain number of days to mature and ripen. This number, which is an estimate based on typical growing conditions, is listed on seed packets and plant tags. Depending on the variety, this could be anywhere from 50 to 180 days so you can see why it’s worth knowing in advance.

• If a plant was started from seed indoors, we start counting days from the outdoor transplant date.
• If a plant is started from seed outdoors, we start counting when the first true leaves appear.

Make sure your growing season is long enough to accommodate the variety you choose.

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2Start With Healthy Plants

Just like any plant selection from a nursery, you want to start with healthy plants.

A good starter tomato plant typically has a nice, thick main stem, plenty of side stems and leaves, no sign of yellowing, curled stems, or pests or diseases.

Depending on how far along it is, it may already have little yellow flowers (those become tomato fruits) or actual fruits. 

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3Wait Until It’s Warm

Tomatoes need warm soil to thrive. Plant outdoors only after all risk of frost has passed and the soil has warmed (60°F / 15°C or warmer is a good guide)—usually about two weeks after your last frost date.

If transitioning from indoors, harden off seedlings gradually so they can adjust to sun, temperatures, and wind.

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4Pick a Sunny, Sheltered Spot

Tomatoes need at least 6 hours of direct sun daily—8 hours is better. The direct sun exposure does not have to happen in one go. It’s fine if it’s a few hours at a time so long as it adds up to enough for the plant to flower and fruit.

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5Provide Good Soil

Tomatoes like fertile, well-draining soil. You can grow them in the ground or containers. 

• In the ground: Keep you soil fertile. I replenish mine with compost each year.
• In containers: Use an organic vegetable potting mix. Bigger is better—aim for pots at least 12″ deep and wide per plant. I amend my pots with compost as well.

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6Install Supports Early

Tomato stems can break fairly easily from wind or jostling which is why supports are recommended—especially for vining, indeterminate varieties.

Some indeterminates (vining) tomatoes reach 6 to 8 feet tall. My longest to date was nearly 18 feet long.

Determinates may not need support if it’s a variety that grows strong and stout. There’s no harm adding a cage (at planting time) if you’re uncertain.

Each gardener has their own preferences for supports and they can all work. It could be cages made from plastic, wood, or metal, trellis, or twine suspended from poles (parallel to the ground).

The important part is to get the support in place early. Adding it later may cause damage to the plant.

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7Water Consistently

It’s often not within our control but the ideal is to keep tomato plants evenly watered throughout the growing in season.

In reality, heavy rains and hot days will come and go and the soil may alternate between soggy and dry. 

One tell-tale sign of uneven water conditions is split or cracked fruit.

An ideal growing location would be protected from wind and rain, yet provide full sun, where we could hand-water or use drip irrigation for even watering. Not realistic for most of us, but great if you can.

At minimum, stay on top of watering during dry spells.

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8Skip the Gimmicks

Seriously, don’t be tempted by tips that sound too good to be true—because they are!

Advice claiming stellar growth using things like Epsom salt, coffee grounds, eggshells, or filling the planting hole with who-knows-what are nonsense.

Promises that sugar or baking soda will produce sweeter fruit are just silly.

Stick with the basics including good soil, adequate sun, and consistent watering and you’ll do fine.

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9Know What Issues to Watch For

As with any plant growing, there’s always a list of things that can go wrong—or different than hoped. 

A few examples:

• Blight: Fungal disease causing withered leaves. Catch it early to contain it (if you can).
• Hornworms & pests: Check leaves regularly. Sometimes “pests” are not really harmful at all or their well-being is more important than a hobby crop. 
• Blossom End Rot: Can appear even with good care. But no, tums won’t fix it.

To me, gardening responsibly means positively identifying issues and researching options while considering any potential collateral damage a solution may cause. Sometimes, or perhaps most times, I just let things be.

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10Learn About Pruning (Only If Needed)

Not all tomato plants need pruning. We want good airflow around the stems and leaves but random pruning could remove future fruit.

Generally:

• Bush types: Don’t prune determinates; fruit grows at branch tips.
• Vine types: You can remove excess stems from indeterminates to manage size and boost airflow. Stem cuttings and suckers can be used to grow new plants. 

Always prune with a purpose. If the plant is healthy and producing, you may not need to intervene at all.

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11Tag Your Plants

Tomato growing is an art, science, and sport. Each growing season is an opportunity to test out new varieties and discover new favorites. And that’s where good, reliable tags are important. Be vigilant about keeping your plants tagged all along the way so, by the time you enjoy the fruit, you know exactly which varieties have made your recommended list.

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12Take It Indoors

Just because the growing season is winding down doesn’t mean you have to stop growing tomatoes.

If you have a sunny room or full-spectrum grow lights, consider growing some plants indoors.

You can start new plants by seed, propagate cuttings from existing plants, or buy transplants.

Tomatoes are self-fertile with help from wind or insects. To encourage indoor fruiting, I hand-pollinate the flowers (using a little fine-tip paint brush).

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Resources

More Tomato Growing Tips

• How to Ripen Tomatoes After Picking
• How to Save Tomato Seeds
• How to Make Wooden Tomato Cages (Free Plans)
• Why Tomatoes Split or Crack—and What to Do
• Vivipary: When Seeds Sprout Inside Fruits Like Tomatoes

Tomato Lists

These are examples of tomatoes in each of the growth habit categories. They are all varieties I have grown in my garden.

Other Seed Sources

I have a guide here for finding seeds cheap or free.

Support Seed Saving Initiatives: Organizations like Seed Savers Exchange and Seeds of Diversity champion biodiversity and promote responsible seed collection practices.

• Seed Savers Exchange (United States) | “We’re a community of gardeners and seed stewards, sharing and swapping rare seeds you might not find anywhere else. The Exchange works to keep biodiversity strong and garden traditions thriving.”
• Seeds of Diversity (Canada) | “We are a group of seed savers from coast to coast who protect Canada’s seed biodiversity by growing it ourselves and sharing it with others.”