I have been planting tomatoes for 50 years. Last year I harvested over 300 tomatoes from six tomato plants. I'd like to share my tips and tricks for growing tomatoes.
I live in the Chicago area. It is possible to experience a killer frost all the way up to Memorial Day. I do not plant annuals or tomatos before Memorial Day.
Gardening Safety: Make sure that your Tetanus booster is up to date. Tetanus can kill. Always wear gloves, leather shoes/boots and knee pads when gardening. It is not unlikely to find broken glass, nails, screws, wood, etc in garden soil.
Prepare your soil: Good soil will produce a good harvest. Poor soil will produce a poor harvest. Most people ignore preparing their soil prior to planting. This is understandable because it takes a lot of effort to prepare soil. Last year I did a "double dig" in my tomato garden. I hand dug the soil to a depth of two feet and added compost. This only needs to be done every five tears.
In the Fall I planted "Hairy Vetch" in my tomato soil as a Winter cover crop. This plant actually "fixes" nitrogen into the soil as it grows (up to 200 pounds of Nitrogen per acre). In the Spring I turn over The Hairy Vetch in the area where my tomato plants will be planted. Chicago tends to have a lot of clay in the soil. Clay is nonorganic and tomato plants will not grow in clay. Poor quality soil can be fixed by adding compost and organic dry fertilizer to the soil. I do not use a tiller when mixing my soil. Instead, I use a shovel. It is easy to over-till soil using a tiller. Over-tilled soil adds too much oxygen to the soil which kills anaerobic bacteria. The tiller also kills worms. Plus its easy to turn soil into a powder when using a tiller. Powerdered soil turns rock hard when it dries. Good soil is crumbly (see below).
Planting: Always buy your tomato plants from a reputable garden center. Big Box stores tend to let their plants dry out too much. Buy healthy plants. Ignore plants with yellow or brown leaves. I buy my plants in quart containers. Dig a big hole (see the picture above). Small holes result in poor results.
I also put a handful of Rock Phosphate (not super phosphate) in the bottom of the hole. Rock Phosphate promotes root growth. Big, health roots will produce big healthy tomato plants.
Tomatoes are one of the few plants that like to be planted deep. I break off the lower leaves and bury half of the stem in the soil. Roots will grow out from the stem. Remove all "ties" and tags from the stem. It goes without saying to remove the plastic pot. I know a person that did not do that and complained about a poor tomato harvest.
I mix Miracle-Gro Garden Soil into my my soil in an effort to increase the organic contentant of the soil. I also add organic tomato fertilizer to the soil. Water the plants deeply.
I also feed the newly planted plants with Mircle-Gro Quick Start.
This is the newly planted garden. Hairy Vetch is between the tomato plants and acts like an organic mulch. The only thing left to do is the add mulch around the plants to prevent wet soil from splashing onto the leaves of the plants.
Temperature: Tomato plants shut down when the temperature gets below 55 degrees. Tomato plants stop producing flowers when the temperature gets above 95 degrees.
Watering and Fetilizing: Okay everyone, wake up. This is important. NEVER GET THE LEAVES WET when watering the plants. I know that that sounds dumb considering that rain gets the leaves wet, but wet leaves produce fungus diseases. Instead, water the soil, not the plant. Also, don't splash wet soil onto the plants leaves when watering. I use a watering wand with a soaker setting.
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Tomatoes are big feeders and require fertilization. I use "Texas Tomato Food". This stuff has a lot of calcium which prevents "Blossom End Rot". Last year I only had about five tomatoes with Blossom end-rot.
That's it! Have fun gardening.