Caring for Your Heirloom Tomatoes

Those of you who purchased heirloom tomatoes at the Garden Club Plant Sale this spring have probably noticed how BIG they are getting! Since they are indeterminate, they will get larger still, so now is the time to give them extra support if they need it so they don’t fall over or break. Mine are loaded with tomatoes that should be ripe soon - yum!

You can prune your tomatoes to lighten the load, open them up to the sun, and also save the plants some energy to direct to the fruit. Look for the tomato "suckers," which grow in the "V" space between the main stem and the branches on your tomato plant.

If left unpruned, these suckers will eventually grow into full-sized branches—adding lots of foliage and eventually fruit. This will also result in a very LARGE tomato plant. It’s a good idea to prune at least some of the suckers. For the suckers that have grown into larger stems with fruit on them, I also prune the leaves right below the sucker – they don’t produce fruit and will eventually yellow and wither. But they draw energy from the plant that could otherwise go to the fruit.

And remember that tomatoes are very heavy feeders, so fertilize them at least once a month. You can also top dress them with some compost to enrich their soil.

Happy growing!