Once you’ve planted them, tomatoes are relatively easy to maintain. You want to make sure they are getting enough water. If you are not getting an inch of rain per week, you will need to supplement it with additional water. The easiest way to keep tabs on the water is with an inexpensive rain gauge. There are some excellent fertilizers available specifically for tomatoes. I like the Vigoro Tomato and Vegetable Plant Food Plus Calcium, and that’s what I usually use. If you prefer to be organic, Tomato-tone is very good too, but it does smell. Tomatoes need calcium to produce quality fruit, so I like to supplement my fertilizer with Oyster Shell Flour. You should also keep an eye out for stems creeping out of the cage, which they are prone to do. If you don’t let them get too far out, it is easy to pull them back in without breaking a stem.
To Prune or Not to Prune?
This is a great question, and my answer is “sometimes yes, sometimes no.” I like to have a singular vine for the first couple of feet because I want to get my plant off the ground as soon as possible. So, how do you prune a tomato?