Cooking Tomatoes
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting
Cooking Tomatoes
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow cooking tomatoes in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- How many cooking tomato plants to grow
- Growing conditions for cooking tomatoes
- When to plant cooking tomatoes
- How to plant cooking tomatoes
- Watering, fertilizing, and pruning cooking tomatoes
- Companion plantings for cooking tomatoes
- How to harvest, store, and use cooking tomatoes
Growing Cooking Tomatoes
Cooking tomatoes are warm-season, tender fruiting perennial plants. Most are oblong or pear shaped, with meatier flesh and sweeter flavor than eating varieties.
Many cultivars are determinate, ripening together and providing ample quantities at a single picking for preserving, canning, or freezing.
Cooking Tomato Plant and Care Guide
How Much to Plant
Allow 3–6 plants of each cultivar, yielding 8–10 qts. (7.6–9.5 l).
How to Plant
Seed germinates in 8–10 days.
Tomato seed germination and early plant development vary with soil temperature. To start indoors, sow seed indoors 10–14 weeks before the soil is expected to warm to 60°F (16°C) and harden seedlings 7–10 days before transplanting. Set out tomato starts in full sun when soil warms to 60–85°F (16–29°C).
To plant outdoors in garden soils warmed to 55°F (13°C) or higher, allow 6–8 weeks for first flower set and tomato development.
Sow 2–3 seeds into each drill, spacing 1/2-in. (12-mm) deep, 14 in. (36 cm) apart, thinning to 42 in. (1.1 m) apart.
Plant seedlings 42 in. (1.1 m) apart, in rows 40–50 in. (1–1.2 m) apart. For staking cultivars, thin to 24 in. (60 cm) apart, in rows 36–48 in. (90–120 cm) apart, installing stakes or cages at time of planting [See: Installing Tomato Cages].
Plant successions of determinate cultivars every 2–3 weeks.
Best Conditions for Growth
65–90°F (18–32°C). Protect plants from temperatures below 40°F (4°C) Flowers may fail to set fruit at temperatures over 85°F (29°C). Shade plants in full sunlight at temperatures over 90°F (32°C).
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich. 5.5–6.8 pH. Prepare soil at least 3 ft. (90 cm) deep.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist; avoid wetting foliage, fruit, or vines. Fertilize monthly with 5–10–10 formula until fruit begins to set; avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers. Mulch. Inspect frequently for foliage damage or droppings due to tomato hornworm, a large, green moth larva, and other pests. Cooking cultivars are prone to blossom-end rot, a growth disorder; prevent it by planting resistant varietals or by watering regularly and dusting soil with crushed oyster shell, gypsum, and other high-calcium supplements.
Pairing Recommendations
Asparagus, basil, borage, calendula, carrots, chamomile, chives, garlic, marigolds, onions, parsley, and shallots.
Maturity, Picking and Gathering
50–90 days. Determinate varieties: pick when full colored. Indeterminate varieties: pick when full colored, firm, and fragrant. Ripe tomatoes dimple when their skins are pressed by a fingernail. Support vines while gently removing fruit.
How to Store and Preserve
Fresh at 60–70°F (16–21°C) for 7–10 days; cut, packaged, and frozen, 3–4 months; canned, to 2 years; dried, to 1 year. Avoid refrigerating fresh tomatoes. Dry sliced tomatoes on drying trays or in a vegetable dehydrator. Freeze or use overripe fruit immediately for cooking; avoid canning due to loss of natural acids that increases hazard of botulism.