How To Grow Tomatoes - BEST Secrets on How To Grow Tomatoes

About Fertilizer
I only put one tomato plant per pot. To get an idea of minimum size, I have successfully grown one huge tomato plant in a large reusable grocery bag and that's about as small as I'd go per plant. thespruce

growjourney
How to grow 3 tomato plants in the space of one (Hydra)
Grow tomatos in small pots - what size pots work
Tomato Container Size Matters: Grow Bags, Straw Bales & 5 Gallon Containers
The most common cause for small tomatoes is stressed plants. ... The soil should be kept consistently moist or the plants may show signs of stress such as wilting, leaf drop or tomatoes that are too small. gardeningknowhow
If possible, use at least a 5-gallon container for growing cherry tomatoes. Plus, deeper is better than shallow. Tomato plants have large root systems. You can accommodate tomato roots in a container, but help the plant along by giving it as much room as possible to grow. Look for containers that are 18” to 24” deep or more. tomatodirt

Bury the Stems - How to Plant a Tomato
Bury the stem of the tomato seedling for a stronger plant.
Plant your tomato plants deeper than they come in the pot, all the way up to the top few leaves. When planted this way, tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. And more roots make for a stronger plant.

You can either dig a deep hole or simply dig a shallow trench and lay the plant sideways. It will quickly straighten itself up and grow toward the sun. Just be careful not to drive your tomato stake or cage into the buried stem.

Remove the Bottom Leaves - Tomato Leaf Spot
Many tomato diseases start with the older, lower leaves and move up the plant. After your tomato plants reach about 3 feet tall, remove the leaves from the bottom 1 foot of stem. These are the oldest leaves, and they are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems. As the plants fill out, the bottom leaves get the least amount of sun and airflow. Because these leaves sit close to the ground, soilborne pathogens can easily splash up onto them. Removing them helps prevent fungal diseases from taking hold. Spraying weekly with compost tea also seems to be effective at warding off fungal diseases.

Pinch and Prune for More Tomatoes- Tomato Suckers
Tomato suckers form in the joints of branches. Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They won’t bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant.

However, go easy on pruning the rest of the plant. You can thin out a few leaves to allow the sun to reach the ripening fruit, but it's the leaves that are photosynthesizing and creating the sugars that give flavor to your tomatoes. Fewer leaves will mean fewer sweet tomatoes.

Indeterminate tomatoes reach for the sun. They like to grow tall before they start setting fruits, so don't be alarmed if your tomato plants look healthy and lush but aren't flowering for their first month or two in the garden.

If you're impatient, pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer will encourage indeterminate tomatoes to start putting their energy into flowering. This is also a handy trick toward the end of the summer when you want the last tomatoes to hurry up and ripen.

Determinate tomatoes reach a certain height and then set and ripen their fruit all at one time, making a large quantity available when you’re ready to make a sauce. These tend to start flowering fairly early in the season, and it shouldn't be a problem getting them to set fruit unless weather conditions are unfavorable and cause a condition aptly named "blossom drop." -source

When to Plant Tomato Seeds Indoors - Seed starts
Tomato seed germinates fairly quickly, within 5 to 10 days. The plants also develop fast, so seeds can be started 6 to 8 weeks before you intend to transplant outdoors.
Sprinkle 2–3 seeds into the furrow and cover them with a sprinkling of potting mix. Gently firm the mix down, so the seeds make good contact with the soil. You can spray the surface with water if it doesn’t feel moist enough.
Be Patient: At this point, you should place your containers somewhere warm and check them daily to make sure the soil is moist - not wet - and watch for germination.
Light: You won't have to worry about light until the seeds germinate.
When the tomato seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall and have a couple of sets of true leaves, it's time to pot them up or move them into larger pots of their own.

Commonly, 3- to 4-inch containers are good for seedlings this size.

In general, when nighttime temperatures remain steadily above 50 F, it is safe to begin hardening off your seedlings. This should be about 4 to 6 weeks from when you potted up and your plants are now several inches tall, with some branching. -thespruce
What to Plant After Tomatoes
Try beans.
Legumes and then the cruciferous crops, including brassicas, are what to plant after tomatoes. Legumes are known to trap nitrogen in nodules that form on their roots, adding nitrogen to the soil. But this benefit is only realized if the whole plant goes back into the soil. Harvesting the pods minimizes the nutrients, so leave some plants to die and rot.
Leafy vegetables use up loads of nitrogen – which is why you should plant the brassicas after growing beans and peas. But you will still need to feed the soil and add manure and compost for the crop to really thrive. If they do thrive, leafy vegetables will generally enrich the soil with phosphorus, which the root crops thrive on. The root crops then leave behind some extra potassium that our tomatoes love! -Crop Rotation

Tomato Selector Guide
container-gardening-for-food
Growing
About Blight