- Every year the garden is a little bit different.
And this year I've made some changes
in how I've been growing my tomatoes.
And honestly, I have to say my tomatoes have never
looked better this early in the season.
So let's go over what I've changed
when it comes to growing tomatoes,
and what I've kept the same,
and why it's working for me.
And maybe some of these things might apply
to your tomato garden as well.
Every year I tell myself the same thing,
I'm going to be growing less tomatoes.
That's already new.
And two,
I'm going to give them more space between each plant.
This year I actually did it,
and it's a really good thing I did
because the more airflow,
the more space the tomato plant has,
the more access to nutrients
and sort of lack of disease that it will get.
And now in terms of actual plant to plant spacing,
each tomato plant is 24 inches apart.
Usually, I try to keep it at 18 because I'm greedy,
and I wanna try to fit an extra tomato plant in a row.
But this year I was like, no, I'm giving them the amount
of space that they actually want,
which is about two feet for indeterminate tomatoes.
You could go even up to three feet,
but I am still a little bit greedy.
The benefits of going farther apart
is that you get way more airflow.
The tomatoes don't have to compete
for the same water and nutrients as much,
and they just grow much better.
The other thing I really made sure to do this year
is I didn't wanna plant a very dense block of tomatoes.
I have one example of that,
but that is the determinate tomatoes
that will show pretty soon after this.
But what I'm talking about is the actual main tomatoes.
I have this about five feet apart from row to row.
That's, again, giving them way more airflow,
less competition between each other.
When I did last year's, I planted a very dense block
of tomatoes over here in the corn patch.
They ended up getting a lot of disease,
and they didn't produce as much as I would've liked.
So now they have more sun, more airflow, less competition.
They just look fantastic for it.
So that's tip number one.
The thing that I really changed this year
is something that I've always wanted to change,
and that is giving my tomatoes more space.
Something that I haven't changed
over the years is how I like to support my tomatoes.
And that is my preferred method
of the Florida weave trellis system.
All it takes is a couple T-posts and a spool of twine,
and you've got yourself a very robust tomato trellis
that can support many large plants over the whole season.
So it's definitely a favorite of mine
for the variety of reasons I just mentioned.
But also it's easy to just maintain
and continuously tie up tomatoes.
You could support more branches,
which means that you get a bigger overall yield
in the long run.
And, of course, it's easy to set up these long rows
with distance to provide all the airflow
that I could possibly ever want.
So the Florida weave trellis
is definitely still my go-to favorite.
But as you see throughout this video,
I have a couple other setups that I use as well.
So let's move on to the next thing
that I've definitely changed from last year.
One thing that I did not do this year
is actually fertilize my tomatoes.
This might sound shocking to many of you,
but basically I did a soil test earlier in the spring,
and I found that my entire garden is totally fine
in phosphorus and potassium, or P and K.
Those are the major nutrients
that are usually required for things like tomatoes
because they support fruiting and rooting,
which is what tomatoes really want to do
for their entire lifespan.
So fertilize if you know that you need it,
but don't fertilize if you aren't sure
because you might be causing a bigger problem
rather than solving one.
I just really quickly wanted
to show you my determinate tomato bed.
This is the style bed where I planted everything
a little bit too close together
because I got greedy knowing
that they were determinate tomatoes.
And what you're seeing
is a little bit more disease pressure.
I have some leaves dying off.
I actually have a decent amount of aphids on here,
but I'm not too worried about it
because I also have a lot of ladybugs
that I've just moved in,
and they've started to take care of my aphid problem for me.
Now the thing I'll mention here is that
if you do plant very densely together
like these determinants are, you wanna make sure
you're providing more fertility and water.
So in this case, I probably should have been
giving them some liquid fertility
just because there's so much competition.
There's no space in between rows
and they're only about 16 inches apart.
I did this on purpose because they're determinant
and they only grow for about three months
before they're harvested.
So I figured not a big deal,
and honestly it's really not a big deal,
it just doesn't look as good.
Something that will never change
in my garden is how densely I plant things,
and specifically, how I interplant or companion plant
all my different fruits and vegetables.
So the tomatoes here have these marigolds planted
in between every single one.
And the idea behind it is that the marigold is a flower,
so it attracts pollinators.
It has a very specific aroma
that apparently deters some pests.
And also the roots are beneficial
to fight against things like root-knot nematode.
Now, french marigold specifically
are the best ones for that specific task.
So keep that in mind if that's your goal.
The other thing you'll see
in this particular patch right here is I have some zinnias,
which just grow well in the same conditions
that tomatoes do and again are a flower.
So they should help increase the pollination activity.
And the other weird one isn't really companion planting
but just a bed mix,
which is that I have my tomatoes planted up here,
which will provide shade for the peppers down here.
It'll stop them from getting sun scald.
And also since these are in the same family,
I will now treat this bed
as a bed that's been growing solanaceous things.
So things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes.
So the idea behind this is that when I do a crop rotation,
which is actually the next tip, something new to me,
is that this whole family of plants is now in this bed.
So whatever I plant here next
should not be part of this family.
Now let's pop back over to that raised bed
where I'll show you another style of companion planting
that will actually give you more food overall.
In terms of companion planting to get more food,
my favorite thing to do is actually grow herbs
in between your tomatoes.
So right here I have a Genovese style basil,
which of course is the perfect companion for tomatoes
when you're eating them together.
Now the other herb that I have right here
is a nice summer savory,
which is again wonderful with tomatoes.
And on this side I have my nice tetra dill.
So all of these herbs are edible and go well with tomatoes,
which of course is a wonderful thing to put together.
It makes harvesting much easier.
The last thing I'll mention is that I have been
using the shade that these tomatoes provide
to grow little gem lettuces.
So all of this right here is little gem lettuce
that is now protected by the tomatoes from intense sun,
allowing them to grow very nice and healthy
and making the most use out of this raised bed.
Something else I'm doing differently this year
is actually succession planting tomatoes.
In San Diego, we have such a mild climate
where the winter doesn't really show up
until maybe January for a little bit.
So the idea behind this is that
I should be growing tomatoes all throughout the season.
What I'm doing here is I bought
a six pack of determinant tomatoes,
and I'm going to be planting them out in this bed.
The bed that I just showed you earlier
with the determinants is now starting to produce tomatoes.
So soon that's going to be out of the way.
And I want another succession of tomatoes,
so I could can up a bunch of sauce later in the season.
This also works for areas
that are even warmer than San Diego where things
like disease and heat stress are an issue.
You could just keep growing more backup
indeterminate tomatoes even to replace the tomatoes
that get the most disease stricken throughout the season.
And that way you'll still have something
throughout the whole year.
So succession planting tomatoes
is something I don't hear about very often,
but for warm climates, definitely give it a shot,
especially with determinate tomatoes.
Prior to this year,
I honestly was one of those gardeners
that just didn't believe in crop rotations.
I thought it was something
that you only really had to do as a large farm.
Well, it turns out that's not true.
I grew my same tomatoes
in this big bed here for two years in a row,
and this past year what I found
was those root-knot nematodes that I mentioned earlier.
This is what it looks like here.
It makes the roots look very chunky and big,
and they just swell up and stop the flow of water up
into the plant leading to less yield,
and honestly very unhealthy tomatoes
by the end of the season.
So this year I did practice crop rotation.
As I mentioned earlier,
I showed you the tomatoes with the peppers,
and this bed over here has never grown tomatoes before,
which is why the tomatoes are planted in it now.
Now, next year I could return to this bed
and plant tomatoes again, or I could keep looking
and maybe do a two to three year rotation.
So crop rotation can be required,
especially once you find a problem
that keeps attacking your tomatoes year after year.
Something that will never change
in my garden are these big pollinator patches.
Right now, it's absolutely buzzing with bees.
It's full of beneficial insects,
and it's bringing in those wasps that help parasitize
and attack any hornworms that might find my tomatoes.
The other thing it does, of course,
is all these pollinators ensures
that I have very good pollination overall,
and I get those long perfect trusses
of well pollinated tomato plants.
Now one thing that I did change this year
is when I started my tomatoes.
Usually I try to start them as early
as I can sometime around January.
But this year, life got in the way.
I started them later in February,
and it was so much better
because instead of having to keep potting up these tomatoes
to try to keep them healthy and happy,
I ended up just having to pot them up
on a pretty standard schedule
without having to fuss too much about fertilizing.
And I ended up planting them in the ground
around the same time and they were just so much happier
because they didn't have to live in a container
for three to four months.
They only had to sit in there for two to three.
So definitely this year and every year following,
I will be planting my tomatoes later.
Well, not planting them later, but starting them later.
So pay attention to your climate,
see if anything's changed overall,
and try to get that timing of tomatoes in the sweet spot
because if you start too early,
you end up with more pounds by the time you plant.
If you start too late, you might miss your season.
So that timing is really key.
And paying attention to your own garden
is the best way to know when that time is.
As a gardener, it is really easy to be attempted
by all the new varieties of plants that come out every year.
Tomatoes are no exception.
And every year I try to grow maybe too many new varieties.
And this year I've slowed that down.
Instead of growing a whole bunch of new varieties
I'm growing maybe two to three new ones
and growing more of the ones
that I know that I absolutely love.
For example, last year I only grew
one each of the sun gold and Cherokee purple,
which was a huge mistake
because they are our favorite tomatoes by far.
So now I have two to three of each of those,
and I'll have plenty of that harvest
that I truly look forward to eating every year
instead of a bunch of new ones
that I maybe will or won't like.
So always remember in the garden
that you wanna grow something that you wanna enjoy eating
and something that you truly love
and look forward to every year.
And tomatoes, of course, are no exception.
So this year I've just pared down my overall varieties
and grown more of what I love.
Hopefully all these tips and things
that I've changed over the year
and some of the things
that I've reinforced and learned were helpful to you
and you guys will have
a more successful tomato garden from it.
Thank you for watching and make sure to subscribe
if you wanna see more content
about tomatoes and gardening in general.