Tomato Growing Tips (2026): Planting, Training & Troubleshooting

No garden plot is truly complete without this ultimate summer staple. In fact, you are more likely to find tomatoes in home gardens than any other vegetable. With over 60 percent of us growing them, they are officially more popular than potatoes, strawberries, and salad greens!

It is easy to see why: tomatoes are incredibly inexpensive to raise from seed, and there is absolutely nothing that compares to the flavor. Once you have enjoyed the sweet, bursting flavor of a just-picked, home-grown tomato still warm from the afternoon sun, it ruins your experience of bland, shop-bought ones forever.

Whether you are a newcomer to growing your own food or a seasoned gardener, my ultimate Tomato Growing Tips will help you secure a bumper harvest. Today, we aren’t just looking at standard red salad tomatoes—we are diving into everything from juicy heirloom beefsteaks to meaty Italian plums. Let’s look at the best ways to plant, train, and troubleshoot your crop this season.

Where and How to Plant Your Tomatoes

Greenhouse Tomatoes

If your tomatoes are destined to crop in a greenhouse, plant them into large containers, growing bags, or directly into the greenhouse border as soon as the first tiny flower trusses form. Choose a large pot—at least 30 cm wide and deep—and fill it entirely with high-quality peat-free compost.

Baskets, Bags, and Containers

Hanging basket “tumbling” types are incredibly popular, but they must be planted into large baskets. Small hanging baskets will dry out far too quickly in the height of summer once temperatures soar and root systems become extensive. Planter-style fabric growing bags provide the extra compost volume needed to avoid drought-stressed plants, making them ideal for patios.

Planting Outside

Outdoor crops need hardening off. Once nighttime temperatures are reliably in double figures (usually early June), move your young plants outside for the day, then bring them back indoors at night. Repeat this for a full week before planting them outside permanently. Choose early-fruiting types like ‘Shirley’ or bush varieties like ‘Red Alert’ to beat late summer blight.

4 Advanced Tomato Training Methods

Training your plants isn’t just about keeping them tidy; these methods help boost water and nutrient uptake. Over the years, I have tested four different methods. Here is what I found:

1. Single Cordons

• Best for: Larger, premium fruits.
• Method: The conventional growing technique. Tie each tomato plant to a single, sturdy cane, pinching out any side shoots that form to leave one central stem.
• Results: While single cordons produced fewer overall fruits than other methods, the individual tomatoes were much larger. However, the plants struggled slightly during severe droughts.

2. Double Cordons

• Best for: High yields and maximum production.
• Method: Sink canes on either side of the plant. Tie the main stem to one, then allow the first strong side shoot to grow and train it onto the second cane. Remove all other side shoots that appear.
• Results: Bumper harvests! I got almost twice as many tomatoes, though individual fruits were slightly smaller.

3. Earthing Up

• Best for: Extremely strong, thick growth.
• Method: Once plants are 40 cm high, strip off their lower leaves and wrap a piece of cardboard around the base of the stem to make a cylinder collar. Fill this collar almost to the top with rich compost.
• Results: The buried stem sprouted massive new root networks. By June, these were the most vigorous plants in the greenhouse. They weren’t bothered by drought and produced the first ripe fruits of the season!

4. Burying Seedlings (Trenching)

• Best for: Ultimate drought resistance.
• Method: Remove the lower leaves, then lay the young plant on its side in a 15 cm-deep trench. Backfill with soil to bury the bare stem, then gently bend the leafy tip upright and tie it to a sturdy cane.
• Results: This is my favorite method! It produced an incredibly deep root system, resulting in noticeably greener foliage and an extended cropping season that sailed through high summer temperatures.

Tomato Troubleshooter: Fixing Common Pitfalls

Despite your absolute best intentions, disaster can sometimes strike the vegetable patch. Here is how to tackle the most common tomato problems:

• Blight: This fungal disease causes brown spots on the fruit and makes it unpalatable. It’s much worse in damp weather. Grow your plants in a greenhouse to keep leaves dry, or plant blight-resistant outdoor varieties like ‘Mountain Magic’.
• Whiteflies: These tiny pests suck the sap and weaken your plants. Grow strong-smelling French marigolds nearby to naturally deter them, or release a biological control like Encarsia formosa (a parasitic wasp) in early summer.
• Blossom End Rot: This condition presents as a dark, flat, leathery brown patch on the bottom of the fruit. It is a calcium deficiency caused almost entirely by uneven watering. Avoid allowing your pots to completely dry out!
• Fruit Splitting: When the skins crack open, it is due to fluctuating water levels. If you flood a dry plant, it drinks so fast that the fruits literally burst open. This is especially common with thin-skinned cherry varieties like ‘Sungold’ after a heavy summer downpour.
• Verticillium Wilt: A nasty soil-borne fungal disease that causes green plants to droop and die suddenly in midsummer. There is no cure. If your garden soil is infected, you must grow resistant varieties (like ‘Fandango’) or permanently switch to growing in fresh compost bags.

Final Thoughts

Growing tomatoes is a deeply rewarding experience that gets better with every season. By choosing the right container, training your plants for maximum root growth, and staying vigilant against inconsistent watering, you will be slicing into sweet, juicy homegrown tomatoes all summer long. Remember, as late summer approaches, cut back slightly on your watering volume—this will stop the fruits from diluting and intensely concentrate those all-important natural sugars!