If you want to know how to successfully start growing big tomatoes then there is no better person to turn to than expert tomato grower, Kacper M Potawski.
A highly respected tomato farmer, Kacper, gives up closely guarded family secrets on how even novice gardeners can successfully grow big, tasty, tomatoes, year after year and you can find out more about his methods by clicking here.
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Growing Big Tomatoes is something many gardeners would like to do, understandably so as there is no better sight in the garden or greenhouse than a good yield of big red tomatoes, but do these huge tomatoes still manage to retain their flavour as they grow in size or, is it unfortunately sacrificed on the altar of enormity?
The answer is that it simply depends upon the variety of tomato that is being grown. If you are new to growing tomatoes there are basically five different types of tomato and they are listed below:
- Standard - These are normal, everday variety of tomatoes that can be bought from your local supermarket or grocery shop. They usually grow between an inch to two inches in diameter and are no good for the large tomato grower
- Cherry - These sweet little tomatoes are a favorite of mine and adourn many a salad but as you can tell by their name they are highly unlikely to provide you with any scale busting tomatoes
- Plum - These oval shaped tomatoes have been bred with good storage in mind as they store exceptionally well when bottled or canned and they are easily frozen as well. Although plum tomatoes can grow quite big they do not tend to be.
- Oxheart - these cone shaped tomatoes have a beautiful flavour and are usually firm fleshed but are not overly large, there are exceptions however, such as the ‘Bull’s Heart’ which can produce fruit up to 2 pounds in weight.
- Beefsteak and Marmande - If I was teaching you how to grow big tomatoes these types of tomatoes are the varieties we would be using and on this site we’ll go into some of best varieties available.
Most of the tomato varieties that provide large fruits are ‘slicer’ or ‘beefsteak’ varieties which are indeterminate (indeterminate means that they are plants that will grow and produce fruit all season). Whichever variety you decide to go with you should be prepared to put in a lot of effort as getting your tomatoes to pack on the pounds isn’t easy.
Growing Big Tomatoes Step 1
Growing big tomatoes requires the very best basic care there is; plenty of sunshine, well aerated soil containing a lot of organic material, plenty of room between each plant, two to three centimeters (an inch) of water a day, and good strong support stakes. You will need to get your plants into the ground as early as possible and use cloches to give them some protection.
Do not lay down mulch until the ground start to warm up and the plants start to flower. You should fertilize the plants every two weeks a dilute fish emulsion fertilizer is best, (there are, of course, differences in opinion!) although great care should be taken not to put too much nitrogen into the ground as your tomato yield will suffer due to the growth of too much foliage.
That’s the easy part of growing big tomatoes out the way…now the work really starts!
Growing Big Tomatoes Step 2
Once your plants start to show some growth you need to ensure that you only ever allow one stem on each plant to develop plucking off any suckers as they appear (suckers are the sprouts that grow inbetween the branches and the main stem).
After fruit has started to appear on your plants you must remove all of it except for two or maybe three fruits from each plant. It is always best to leave the older fruits lower on the plant and remove the younger, developing fruit at the top of the vine.
When pruning off the tomatoes ensure you prune those farthest away from the stem, leaving just a single fruit from each cluster. As your tomatoes grow, they will increase in weight and will need additional support to prevent supporting branches breaking.
There are many things that can be used for this but avoid things like yarn and string as they will cut into the branch, using pantyhose tied into slings seems to be very popular! That’s about it! Keep your fingers crossed and you’ll be growing big tomatoes like a pro before you know it.
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