Tomato Primer

Tomatoes are most certainly the top plant for home gardeners.  Nothing compares to a vine ripened delicious variety such as Brandywine, or that unique acidic bite of a mortgage lifter.  Even a Long Keeper that stays edible for months without refrigeration tastes great compared to store-bought when it's grown in the garden.

A few quick tips for growing tomatoes:

• Start seeds indoors 8 weeks before the last frost
• Transplant your tomatoes deep, taking leaves off the stem.  Tomatoes will send roots out all along the stem
• Be prepared to stake your plants, almost all tomato varieties will require support
• Give them lots and lots of water (with good drainage)
• Don't over fertilize with Nitrogen after flowers set

For more beginner tips on tomatoes, Redwood Barn has a great Tomato Primer explaining some of the tomato basics.  This should help you in determining what to plant and what to expect.

To go a little bit further I'd like to explain determinate and indeterminate growth types.  Determinate, essentially, will grow to a certain size and then start to flower.  Once this type starts to flower the plant focuses primarily on setting fruit, and doesn't usually grow much more.  Indeterminate on the other hand, will grow and set flowers all year long.  Sometimes these indeterminate tomatoes can be trellised up 6' or higher, and with proper care you can harvest a hundred or more tomatoes all year long from one single plant.  A good list of tomato cultivars and their growth type can be found at gardenweb.com.