Grow Lots of Tomatoes... Not Leaves // Complete Growing Guide

Spray the Aspirin every two weeks!

In my 20’s (I’m 70 now) I worked on a 17 acre tomato farm that had a packing shed. I learned a lot about endurance and became a tomato snob. We drove a stake after 2 plants. As the plants grew we looped twine around the stakes and took out the slack. This process was repeated as the plants grew. Each morning a 16’ flatbed truck made the 45 mile trip to the Sacramento produce market destined for grocery stores. Those were the most memorable years of my life and paid my college expenses.

What a pleasure viewing a video with good audio in plain English, no distrating music or graphics and the presenter knows what he's talking about. Thank you Brian!

When you pinch out your plant's put those into a pot to shoot and you will have an exact match of the tomato your growing and It also staggers your planting to avoid gluts of produce.

Love the tomato info. Thanks. 😊 Just one suggestion on covering tomatoes or any plants, trees or shrubs to keep the birds out - please use tulle fabric instead of bird netting which can trap some birds (like hummingbirds) and they could die. Besides, tulle fabric is cheaper than bird netting and can be found at most fabric shops and on line stores like “The Tulle Shop” (Emerald, 54 inch Bolt X 40 Yards for $4.99) and other discount shops and some specialty stores like Etsy ($0.99 per yard). The little holes in the tulle are small enough not to catch and trap most birds including little hummingbirds unlike ‘bird netting’. We want to discourage birds from steeling our fruit, not kill birds. Thanks. 🙂

Thank you for not putting music on your video. It makes it much easier to focus on what you're saying.

Brooooooooooooooo...... Where the hell were you last year when I destroyed my tomatoe plants!?!?! Now, it's me and you buddy... We're gonna DOMINATE this year!! Thank you.

As a 76 yo Aussie, I have never had to buy more than one tomato plant, if at all, because I use what my grand father called the 'lentrels' or middle shoot that you snipped out between the leaf and main stem. Sticking those off shoots into potting mix, starts my next lot of tomato plants. Can't find that world 'lentrils' anywhere. May have been my grandfather's invention.

The photos of blossom end rot, rust, blight, etc. are very helpful, as is the entire video. Thanks!

Great video! I grew up hearing a few tricks and tips, but the wackiest one my grannie did was hitting her tomato plants with a old grapevine broom. She did that when she didn't think the plants were doing their pollination properly and she said it kickstarted that process. She also would use egg shells in a large glass jar covered with water and when her plants needed a boost she would water them with that concoction. She grew some amazing, huge, beautiful, TASTY tomatoes! So she must have had something working. One comment about the plants growing. I had a cherry tomatoes plant self-start at the ends of my porch and that plant grew to about 7' long growing along the ground. My son was about 3-4 yrs old then and he had a little tunnel in that plant and when he was missing you could find him there laying on his back, picking tomatoes and eating them one by one! (he ate more of those tomatoes than my wife and I put together!!)

Thank you son. I'm an old guy now and that was the easiest, most succinct tutorial on growing tomatoes that I've ever seen. Well done. And I am now a subscriber. You get so much convoluted content these days, it is refreshing to skip the nonsense, and see how easy it can really be.

Our method for discouraging tomato worms is to plant Marigolds among the tomatoes. While it won't get rid of them all, we saw a huge reduction in population of tomato worms on our plants as compared to our neighbor's plants next door.

I plant 200 plants minimum every year in Iowa. 4 foot high hog fence 18 inches apart. I take straw, too, support plant after it's about 2/ 2.5 feet. It's insane how many tomatoes I get. I plant them deep as well. I also learned that over the years,they don't like to be touched.

I always cut off all the leaves 1 foot from the ground so when I water tomatoes using garden hose, they don't get splash back (water on leaves that grow higher up). Furthermore, instead of the stuff you put underneath the plant (when planting them), simply bury a nettle which contains a lot of potassium so the plant will feed on it as roots grow. Also, if I plant/grow tomatoes too late and they don't turn red by rainy season (autumn), I collect them while they're green and keep them in dark place at home (cupboard) and they mature (turn red throughout) in about 3-4 weeks. Kris from Ireland

I’m 70 years old and I have had plenty of experience growing a garden mostly in the NW. I learned more from your video than watching a bunch of others. You are one smart feller. Thanks

I feel like this is the kind of stuff when you sell produce, people will say-I'll only buy from you, your tomatoes taste so much better! It's the extra knowledge and care-thank you!

Not only do I pick off my suckers, i cut all leaves that touch the ground to give them good air flow, that really makes a difference

If you want to keep worms off your tomato plants and add nutrient that the plants want, try a 9" circle around the base of the plant using Epson Salt. Crawling bugs are detoured away and the Magnesium is a healthy thing for tomatoes and also roses. Cheers!

For those wondering, like I was, how often to spray the plants with the ASPIRIN solution, it’s EVERY 2 WEEKS. This got answered in a reply to somebody’s comment here already, but it’s buried and a bit hard to find. These videos are gold, by the way! Thanks for starting this channel - the content is fantastic.

I've had this video in my "saved for later" playlist for 3 years, and I'm so glad it popped up today. Great insight, concise information, and the secret weapon at the end is such a bonus! Can't wait to start my first tomatoes with success from the start. Thank you.