With a little time, some decent sun and a little bit of money, just about anybody should be able to produce their own monster tomato plants.

1) Seeds

Buy some heirloom tomatoes from us at the Farmer's market or some other vendor.  When you slice into the fruit, set aside some of the seeds, rinse them off in a strainer and allow them to dry on a sheet of paper.  After they are dry, scrape them off into an envelope (alternatively, buy a packet of heirloom tomato seeds from the store).  Why heirloom?  They're fun to grow and have much more flavor than your conventional grocery store tomato.  If you're going to go through the effort of growing your own plants, it doesn't make sense to grow anything BUT heirlooms.

The right germinating “mix” is going to help in a big way.  Steve’s recommended blend includes the following ratio:

·                    25% Peat Moss

·                    25% Vermiculite

·                    50% Green All Organic Potting Soil

2) The mix

Nursery owner, Steve McShane spent five years studying soil at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.  The right “blend” of organic compost, manure and starter fertilizer is key.  You will want to prepare a “bed” where the tomatoes will thrive.  You have the option of purchasing bulk soil mix or bagged organic compost from McShane’s Nursery and Landscape Supply.  This will depend on the size of the garden you are preparing.  For bagged soil builder, Steve recommends Master Nursery Bumper Crop or Master Nursery Gold Rush Planting Mix.  Many gardeners also add E.B. Stone Chicken Manure or Master Nursery Steer Manure.  Steve also recommends a high quality starter fertilizer to be mixed right into the bed.  The best conventional fertilizer is Master Start Starter Fertilizer.  Master Start is high in Phosphorus and Potassium, both of which are immobile in the soil.  Dr. Earth Starter Fertilizer is the best organic alternative.  Dr. Earth contains beneficial organic amendments and soil microbes.  In addition, Steve recommends the additional of Dr. Earth Alfalfa Meal and Dr. Earth Kelp Meal.  Both have amazing results in encouraging the development of beneficial soil microbes that help make nutrients readily available.  The final step to success is going to be a high quality soil dressing to keep roots cool and conserve water.  For this , Steve Recommends a 3 cubic foot bale of either E.B. Stone Redwood Compost or Master Nursery Black Forest.

A wide variety of “garden ready” tomato plants can be found at your local nursery.  Depending on your climate, some varieties are much better suited to coastal fog or hot inland sun.  Seek the advice of one of our nursery professionals for guidance.  Tomato seedlings come in a wide variety of sizes ranging from 2 inch pots to one gallon containers.  All sizes will work well and flourish if planted in the right conditions.  Of course, Steve is a huge fan of heirloom tomatoes.  They are fun to grow, unique and often have much more flavor than conventional grocery store tomatoes.

3) Picking the right plants for you

A wide variety of “garden ready” tomato plants can be found at your local nursery.  Depending on your climate, some varieties are much better suited to coastal fog or hot inland sun.  Seek the advice of one of our nursery professionals for guidance.  Tomato seedlings come in a wide variety of sizes ranging from 2 inch pots to one gallon containers.  All sizes will work well and flourish if planted in the right conditions.  Of course, Steve is a huge fan of heirloom tomatoes.  They are fun to grow, unique and often have much more flavor than conventional grocery store tomatoes.

4) California Clay is your friend

Find a place in your yard where your plants will get plenty of sun.  A half day's worth of sun works if that's all you have but it needs to be direct sun.

Dig a hole in the California clay (the typical soil just about everywhere here in the bay area) about 18" deep and 18" round and set aside the clay to be used later.  Fill in the hole with 'the mix' and also add a handful of fish emulsion on that boundary layer between the 'mix' and where your plant is going to be.  Take a seedling out of a container and place it in the hole and then fill in the rest of the area around the plant with 'the mix' and compress all of the soil and water fairly vigorously.

5) The Cage.

The ideal cage is created out of cement reinforcing rebar sheets (with 4" x 4" mesh).  These cages are strong, tall and easy to work with.  You can buy two 4' x 7' sheets from Home Depot, or you can buy a 100' roll of the material.  Curl the mesh so it makes about a 36" diameter, 7' tall cylinder.  Using wire cutters, cut off the very tips of one of the ends of the cylinder so that you're left with a set of spikes on one end.  Turn these spikes towards the ground and place the cage around your seedling and drive the cage firmly into the ground as far as you can go.

Somewhere in the middle of this monster 12' tall bush is a 7' tall, 8' circumference cylinder (you can slightly see the form at the bottom).

*NOTE, the usage of the word cage is a bit of a misnomer.  They are really support structures so don't confine your plants to the interior of the cage, allow them to roam freely to the outsides.  There are approximately 5 plants growing in this one cage, but, since they are encourage to grow to outside of it, the plants flourish.

6) The mortar mix.

Using the clay that you've set aside, make a thick, pasty mixture with some ground up clay (that you took out of the hole and set aside) and water until the consistency is smooth and the texture is thick enough to set up on it's own.  Take this heavy mix and layer it over the lowest rung of the cage, making a circular mound around the tomato plants.  Don't be afraid to work this mixture with your hands. There's something very primal about working with clay between your fingers.

This will dry out and form a nice solid base.  This serves several purposes:

* keeps the cage sturdy and anchors it down
* keeps water in the hole (and makes the hole 'deeper' by making the walls higher)
* prevents runoff of any fertilizer you might use
* cuts down on your water bill

7) The mount

You can extend your 7' cage to almost 12' by adding one of the cheap, conical, tomato cages (about the only thing they are good for) to the top.  Take the four prongs, bend them out, and then wrap them around the tops of the cylindrical cage at four equidistant points. In all, if you purchase the rebar by the roll, you can build a 12' tall cage for around $12.

8) Fertilizer

Fish emulsion works well and is naturally organic (as opposed to synthetics like miracle grow).  One of the top organic tomato fertilizers include Dr. Earth Tomato and Vegetable Food and Master Nursery Fish Emulsion.  Both are natural and work wonders.  Feeding approximately every three weeks in small doses from April to August will help performance.  A small application of Epsom Salts in September will give your plants a big fall push prior to frost.

9) The Love

You can never underestimate the value of the personal attention you give your plants.  Taking a moment or two to spend in your garden can be a therapeutic, meditative, relaxing, stress releasing and invigorating diversion from whatever activities you are immersed in and the difference in makes in the plants is enormous.

There are several things that you can do along the way to keep your tomato plant growing healthy and producing abundant, juicy, vine-ripe tomatoes.  The first tip comes when your tomato plant is approximately 3 foot tall.  You will want to remove all the leaves from the bottom one foot of the stem.  These are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems.  They get the least amount of sun and soil born pathogens can be unintentionally splashed up onto them.  Spraying the leaves weekly with a drench of Compost Tea made from Cranford’s Granulated Compost will help in warding off fungus. 

Secondly, you will want to pinch and prune off any suckers that develop at the crotch join of two branches.  They will not bear fruit and only take energy away from the rest of the plant.  That said, go easy on pruning the rest of the plant as it’s the leaves that are photosynthesizing and creating the sugars that give flavor to your tomatoes.

Stop and smell the tomatoes.

10) Support

A little bit of support goes a long way in helping the vines reach for the heavens.  The best and cheapest means of support for the vines is the 16"-20" twist-ties that you commonly find spinach, celery & lettuce rapped in at the grocery store.  They work great because the wire on the inside is strong but the paper on the outside is gentle on the plants.  Wrap the tie around a branch and then fold it over itself at a 90 degree angle and fold it over twice with firm creases.  This will be quite strong.

11) Self-Support

After the plants outgrow whatever support structure you've built for them, you can use their own strength to support them to grow even taller.  Find one strong stalk coming through the middle of the cage to be used as the 'center post'.  Going outwards, attach other vines to this center post and then cascade the outside vines then to the inside vines.  This will all make for a fairly strong lattice of vines.

The RED line in the photo above was drawn in just below the top of the actual cage and the plants grow 2-3 feet above this (and will continue several more feet if the support it there).  The red line represents a height of around 9' off the ground so these plants are nearly 12' tall.

12) Watering/Irrigation

A drip system works best for tomatoes and will pay for itself with the time and water that you save.  They are fairly inexpensive to put in, and you can put a battery operated timer on a hose and put the garden in auto pilot.  These plants get watered daily but the recommendations is 2-3 times per week.  You don't want to water the leaves, only the roots so that's one of the reasons to go to a drip system (thanks Kenbrah for the instructions).
 

*Growing in Containers

Growing in containers can also be very fruitful, so to speak.  Manikya Veena  shows off her container grown heirlooms (grown from Frank's seedlings of course):

She's over 5'8" and these plants are already over 9' tall and growing (plus the additional 18" of container height).  By the end of the season, these plant should reach at least 12' tall.

Containers are tricky as they usually require more water so make sure the soil is moist.  The conventional wisdom is to place a limit of up to two plants per container, but these containers have about five plants each and they seem to be doing ok.  So much for conventional wisdom.