Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
The cottage plot's hungry star — thrives among basil and marigolds.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 23.6 in
- In-row spacing
- 17.7 in
- Between rows
- 2 ft 11 in
- Square-foot density
- 1 per square
- Sow depth
- 0.2 in
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Sow indoors
- 42 days before the last spring frost
- Plant out
- 14 days after the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 80 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- at the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Vegetable · Grown as an annual
- Botanical family
- Solanaceae (nightshade family)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Rich, well-drained
- Feeding
- Tomato & vegetable
- Frost tolerant
- No
- Season
- Warm Season
- Harvest type
- Continuous Harvest
- Start from
- seed
Growth stages
- 0 d Sow seeds
- 7 d Germination
- 95 d Flowering
- 115 d Fruiting
- 135 d Harvest
Harvest
- When
- First fruits ripen 60–85 days after transplanting depending on variety, from midsummer until the first frost. Cherry types come earliest; large beefsteaks need the longest, warmest run of the season.
- What to look for
- Fruit shows full, even color for the variety (red, orange, yellow or striped) and yields slightly to gentle thumb pressure. The skin turns glossy and the fruit detaches easily; a ripe tomato smells distinctly sweet at the stem end.
- How to harvest
- Hold the fruit and twist gently, or snip the stalk just above the calyx with scissors or snips so the green cap stays on the fruit. Support the truss with your other hand to avoid tearing the vine, and never yank — a torn stem invites disease.
- How often
- Pick every 2–3 days at peak season; regular picking keeps the plant setting new trusses. Before the first frost, strip all remaining fruit — green ones ripen indoors on a windowsill or in a drawer with a banana.
- Storing the crop
- Store at room temperature out of direct sun, stem-side down; refrigeration below about 10°C dulls flavor and turns the flesh mealy. Gluts freeze whole for cooking, or preserve as passata, sauce or oven-dried halves in oil.
Pests & problems
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Colorado potato beetle Yellow-and-black striped beetles and reddish grubs that can defoliate potatoes and relatives. Hand-pick adults, crush egg clusters under leaves, and rotate crops.
- Whitefly Tiny white moth-like insects that rise in clouds from leaf undersides, weakening plants and leaving honeydew. Hang yellow sticky traps and encourage or introduce parasitic wasps.
- Slugs & snails Ragged holes and silvery trails on seedlings and soft young growth, worst in damp weather. Use beer traps, wool pellets, or torchlight hand-picking; keep beds clear of daytime hiding places.
- Blight Dark spreading lesions on leaves and stems of tomatoes and potatoes that collapse the plant in warm wet spells. Grow resistant varieties, space well, and remove affected plants at once.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Assassin bug Reduviidae
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Dragonflies & damselflies Odonata
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds Passeriformes
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & Trichogramma
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Spiders Araneae
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.Hunts Slugs & snails
Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.
- Centipedes ChilopodaHunts Slugs & snails
Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Frogs & toads AnuraHunts Slugs & snails
A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.
- Ground beetle CarabidaeHunts Slugs & snails
Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.
- Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeusHunts Slugs & snails
A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Rove beetle StaphylinidaeHunts Slugs & snails
Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.
- Salamanders & newts CaudataHunts Slugs & snails
Damp-loving hunters of slugs, worms, woodlice and beetle larvae that spend the day under a log or a stone and work the beds at night. Companions to the toads: they want the same damp shade, the same log pile, and the same absence of slug pellets.
- Snakes & lizards Colubridae & PhrynosomatidaeHunts Slugs & snails
A garter snake works the beds for slugs and voles and a fence lizard clears grasshoppers off a sunny wall. Almost every snake a gardener meets is harmless and useful; give them a log pile, a warm flat stone and a bit of cover and they stay.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spined soldier bug Podisus maculiventrisHunts Colorado potato beetle
A predatory stink bug — same shield outline as the pest, but with a sharp spine at each shoulder and a beak it uses to spear caterpillars and beetle grubs. Learn the spines before you squash a shield bug, because this one is on your side.
- Tachinid fly TachinidaeHunts Colorado potato beetle
Bristly, house-fly-lookalike parasitoids that lay eggs on caterpillars, beetle grubs, and earwigs — the maggot consumes the host from within. Adults sip nectar from shallow umbels and daisies.
Germination & growth
- Germination temp
- 68–82°F
- Min soil temp
- 54 °F
- Photoperiod
- day neutral
Companion planting
Good neighbors
- Basil Repels pests, Improves flavor
- French marigold Repels pests
- Asparagus Repels pests
- Calendula Trap crop, Draws pollinators
- Parsley Draws pollinators, Repels pests
- Mint Repels pests
- Tarragon Repels pests
- Lemon balm Draws pollinators, Improves flavor
Keep apart
- Fennel Fennel secretes growth-inhibiting compounds — keep it well away from most vegetables.
- Potato Both are blight-prone nightshades — separating them slows disease.
- Sweet corn Corn earworm and tomato fruitworm are one pest — separating them slows it.
- Cabbage Tomatoes and brassicas compete heavily; keep them apart.
- Kohlrabi Brassicas and tomatoes compete heavily; keep kohlrabi away.
- Jerusalem artichoke This towering sunflower-cousin shades and starves tomatoes nearby.
Did you know?
Botanically a berry — yet the US Supreme Court legally ruled the tomato a vegetable back in 1893.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com