12 Steps To High Yield Tomatoes – 50-80 lbs per Plant

How many pounds of tomatoes can one plant really give you? A home-garden plant can yield 10 to 15 pounds or more. You will see claims of 50 to 80 pounds per plant. Treat that as a stretch goal, not a promise.

The good news is that most of what raises your odds is in your hands: sun, soil, planting depth, steady water and good support. Even if you have never grown tomatoes, or have had bad luck before, these steps will get you a strong start. Here is a video with some smart tips. A 12-step checklist near the end pulls it all together.

Start With Sturdy Plants

You can start tomatoes from seed indoors or buy transplants. For seed, University of Minnesota Extension says to sow five to six weeks before planting outside, and Clemson Cooperative Extension says six to eight weeks before your last frost date. Give seedlings plenty of light, because low light leads to tall, spindly plants.

If you buy transplants, look for stocky plants about 6 to 10 inches tall.

Heirlooms, Hybrids and Bee-Friendly Buying

Heirloom seeds are fun to grow, and an heirloom seed assortment like this lets you try several. One catch: most heirloom varieties have little to no disease resistance. If disease has been a problem in your garden, a resistant hybrid may serve you better.

Hybrid does not mean genetically modified. NC State Extension says, in a page updated in January 2023, that whether you choose organic, heirloom or hybrid seeds, you are not getting genetically modified seed, because those seeds are not sold to the home garden market.

Many gardeners also worry about bee-harming pesticides on garden-center plants. University of Maryland Extension calls neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides, a primary threat to pollinators and other beneficial insects. Its advice is to ask your local garden centers and nurseries which pesticides they use to produce the plants they sell.

Choose the Right Tomato Varieties

First decide between determinate and indeterminate plants:

• Determinate (bush-type): typically 24 to 30 inches tall. The plants stop growing and ripen a set number of fruits within about four to six weeks.
• Indeterminate (vining): three to five feet long, sometimes more. They keep flowering and ripening fruit until the weather turns cold, and they need cages, stakes or a trellis.

Because determinates ripen over a shorter period, Illinois Extension says successive plantings can keep the harvest coming all season.

Check the plant label for disease-resistance letters: V for Verticillium wilt, F for Fusarium wilt and N for nematodes. UF/IFAS advises choosing varieties resistant to known tomato diseases, and for Florida it recommends ‘Better Boy’, ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Amelia’, plus the heirlooms ‘Cherokee Purple’, ‘Green Zebra’ and ‘Mortgage Lifter’. Your local extension office or gardening club can tell you what thrives where you live.

Which Type Fits How You Cook?

• Cherry and grape: small, very sweet tomatoes often used fresh in salads. Compact patio and dwarf types are best in containers and hanging baskets.
• Beefsteak: large fruit for slicing. Individual fruits often weigh more than a pound, but larger fruit is prone to splitting and cracking. ‘Amelia’, ‘Better Boy’ and ‘Big Beef’ are indeterminate, so give them sturdy support. Beefsteak seeds like these are one place to start.
• Roma or plum: these meaty, oblong tomatoes with few seeds are favorites for cooking and canning, and ‘Roma’ is determinate.
• San Marzano: indeterminate, about 80 days to harvest. Here are details on growing San Marzano tomatoes.

Pick and Prepare Your Garden Spot

Tomatoes want full sun: direct light at least 6 hours a day, and they prefer 8 to 10 hours. Choose a well-drained spot, because University of Missouri Extension says poor soil aeration leads to root loss and physiological problems such as blossom end rot.

Start with a soil test through your local extension office. Target pH ranges differ by state (recommendations run from 6.0 to 6.5 up to 6.5 to 7.0), so let your own results guide you. Work in compost or other organic matter before planting.

For fertilizer, choose one low in nitrogen, high in phosphorus and medium to high in potassium (8-32-16 and 6-24-24 are examples), and avoid ammonia fertilizers such as urea or ammonium nitrate. Many Minnesota soils already have enough phosphorus, so follow your soil test.

Some gardeners add a mycorrhizal inoculant, like this granular product. Mycorrhizal fungi are real and useful, but UConn Extension cites a meta-analysis finding that roughly 80% of commercial inoculant treatments produced minimal or no root colonization. It also says many established garden beds already hold these fungi.

Give Soil Diseases Less to Work With

Fusarium wilt is a common disease that can destroy an entire tomato crop, and many varieties are resistant. Three more habits help:

• Rotate your crops. Choose a site where tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or potatoes have not grown for at least three years, which helps avoid soil-borne diseases and nematodes. Some guidance says three or four years and adds tomatillos to the list.
• Space plants. Ideal spacing is generally 24 to 36 inches, and planting closer than 24 inches reduces air circulation and can trigger disease outbreaks.
• Keep leaves dry and airy. Staked plants are less likely to get diseases because their foliage dries more quickly after rain or dew. The do’s and don’ts of growing tomatoes cover more.

Blossom End Rot Is Not a Pest or a Fungus

Blossom end rot is a physiological disorder, caused by insufficient calcium as a result of nutrient and water management challenges. It can develop when soil moisture levels fluctuate during fruit growth. Consistent watering is the habit that helps most.

Plant Your Seedlings

Wait until all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed. Transplant in late afternoon or on a cool, cloudy, calm day. A few planting mistakes to avoid are worth a read before you start.

Tomatoes root along their stems, so bury the stem. Dig a trench three to four inches deep, remove the lowest leaves, lay the plant down and bury the stem up to just below the lowest remaining leaves. Roots will form along the buried portion of the stem. A leggy plant can go in at about a 30-degree angle in a trench, leaving only the top 5 or 6 inches exposed. Firm the soil around the roots and water well.

Deter Cutworms

Cutworms can cut off newly transplanted plants at the soil line, says UC IPM (the University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program). They are mainly active at night and hide in the soil by day. Guard the plant base with a wax paper collar about 3 inches high, 2 inches above the ground and 1 inch below.

Support and Stake Your Plants

Install stakes, cages or a trellis at planting time. Use 6-foot wooden stakes, 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide, driven a foot into the soil 4 to 6 inches from the plant soon after transplanting, or cages with gaps of at least 6 inches so you can reach in to harvest. Staking improves marketable yield, fruit set and fruit quality. If you would rather build your own tomato cage, that works too. Bush-type determinates need less support and do not need staking or trellising.

These videos show two popular setups: pruning and trellising tomatoes and stringing a high-yield tomato crop.

Greenhouses and High Tunnels

If you have the space and budget, a greenhouse or high tunnel can extend your growing season. It also asks for close attention to pruning, feeding and watering. It is a bigger project, so start with the basics above.

Mulch Your Garden

A layer of mulch helps retain moisture around the plants and suppress weeds. Use organic mulch 3 to 4 inches deep (some guides say 2 to 4 inches). Wood chips and straw are good choices; mulch after the soil has warmed up.

Water and Feed Consistently

Watering

Tomatoes need about one to two inches of water per week, and one heavy soaking a week is better than several light sprinklings. Light watering can cause shallow roots. Avoid overhead sprinkling, because wet leaves are more prone to disease and splashed soil can carry disease spores. Water tomato plants deeply at the base, and soaker hoses make slow watering easy.

Feeding

Tomatoes have a high requirement for nutrients. Fertilizer applied at planting will not supply enough for the whole season, so side-dress later. One schedule starts when the first fruits are about one-third grown, at 0.5 pound of actual nitrogen per 100 feet of row, with more two weeks after the first ripe fruit and a month after that; another suggests side-dressing three to four weeks after planting. Timing advice varies by state, so ask your local extension office.

Too much nitrogen early on results in lush vegetative growth and poor fruit set, and don’t get fertilizer on the foliage. For more options, see our guide to natural tomato fertilizers. Related: Urban Farm Fertilizers Texas Tomato Food.

One more note: don’t add Epsom salt to the soil unless a soil test shows a magnesium deficiency. Here is what Epsom salt actually does for tomatoes.

Trimming and Suckering Tomato Plants

Suckers are shoots that grow where a leaf branch meets the main stem. They will eventually produce flowers and fruit, but moderate pruning increases fruit size, hastens ripening and keeps plants more manageable. Train staked tomatoes to one to three main stems (some guides say one or two), removing all other suckers weekly and pinching them off with your fingers.

Not every tomato needs it. Determinate and semi-determinate varieties typically do not require pruning, while indeterminate varieties benefit from removing some suckers. Plants grown in cages need less pruning. A plant pruned just once develops heavier foliage that reduces sunscald on fruit, but the denser leaves can raise humidity and let foliar diseases and fruit rots spread more easily. Personally, I opt for pinching suckers and pruning tomato plants.

How Do You Keep Tomatoes From Splitting?

Cracking is usually a problem when soil moisture fluctuates, and soil drying followed by watering encourages it. Fruit exposed directly to sunlight is more susceptible, and some varieties are more crack-resistant than others. Growth cracks occur when fruit grow too quickly, most often during heavy rains and warm temperatures. Harvesting as soon as fruit color begins to change prevents many fruit problems, including cracking and splitting.

Grow New Plants From Suckers

Suckers can become free replacement plants. University of Georgia Extension suggests rooting them as mid-season replacements to extend the harvest. Here is its method:

• Choose healthy suckers three to four inches long.
• Place several in a jar and add enough water to cover the ends one to two inches.
• Set the jar in a cool, well-lit spot until new roots develop. Rooting hormone is not necessary, though it would probably hasten the process.
• Set rooted plants in the garden and shade each one for a few days until it starts to grow.

Late-season plants need good fertility, so take a soil test.

Rotate Crops and Choose Companions

Rotating away from tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes is covered above. Legumes such as peas, beans and clover fix nitrogen from the air, and decomposing legume cover crops return nitrogen to the soil for the next vegetable crop. One caution: tomatoes that follow legumes can face more cutworm risk, so till plant residue at least two weeks before planting.

Companion planting has fewer proven benefits than online charts suggest. Lists of plants that repel insects are not always accurate or backed by research. A few studies do show basil and marigolds can reduce thrips in tomatoes, and intercropping with basil may even promote tomato growth. See our list of companion plants for tomatoes. A large planter of cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic and chives is also a handy thing to have beside your kitchen door.

Watch for Tomato Pests

The best way to keep small problems from becoming major ones is to check your plants regularly for early warning signs of insects and disease. Our tomato disease identification key can help you name what you find.

Tomato Hornworms

Tomato hornworms are bright green, striped caterpillars up to three inches long with a horn on the rear, and they can defoliate a plant in a matter of days. Handpicking is a popular method. Tilling between crops kills about 90% of the pupae in the top few inches of soil.

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a bacterium that is toxic to the larvae of moths and butterflies when they eat it. The key is to apply it routinely, and it works best when it is present as the larvae first hatch. Because it affects butterfly caterpillars too, apply it carefully and only where needed. Video: tomato hornworm treatment and results using organic Bt.

Protect Your Fruit From Birds

Bird netting is a simple way to protect ripening fruit.

Harvest and Ripen Your Tomatoes

Flavor is best when fruit is picked fully vine-ripened but still firm, though you can also harvest as soon as color begins to change and let tomatoes finish ripening on your kitchen counter. Before a frost, fruit picked when the green is fading and starting to turn white or pink should not disappoint, while truly green fruit will probably never ripen to a good flavor.

To ripen indoors, try a paper bag: place the tomatoes stem end up, punch several holes around the bag and fold the top over. The bag keeps some of the natural ethylene gas in place, which aids ripening, and it can take one to five days, so check daily. Light is not necessary. Do not refrigerate green tomatoes, because that inhibits ripening. Refrigeration also makes ripe tomatoes tasteless and mealy, and flavor and texture begin to deteriorate when the temperature drops below 54 F.

Tomato Quick Reference Checklist

• Start strong. Sow seed indoors five to eight weeks before planting out, or buy stocky transplants 6 to 10 inches tall.
• Pick the right varieties. Match the type to your area and check the label for resistance letters such as V, F and N.
• Give them sun. At least 6 hours of direct light, and 8 to 10 hours if you can.
• Choose a well-drained spot and let a soil test guide your lime and fertilizer.
• Give plants room. Space them 24 to 36 inches apart.
• Bury the stem. Plant in a trench or set plants deeper so roots form along the stem.
• Guard against cutworms with a wax paper collar at planting.
• Support your plants with stakes, cages or a trellis at planting time.
• Mulch 2 to 4 inches deep after the soil warms.
• Water deeply and evenly, about one to two inches a week.
• Side-dress during the season, and avoid too much nitrogen early on.
• Rotate crops and harvest at first color to reduce disease and cracking.

Closing

A big tomato crop comes from getting the basics right: sun, soil, steady water and support. Adjust these steps for your own climate, and check with your local extension office when advice differs by region. What are your top tips for growing tomatoes?