9 Tomato Growing Myths to Avoid!

Got a myth you think needs busting? Let us know below, and while you're at it grab a deal on Birdies Beds (have a few on sale for the next week or so): shop.epicgardening.com/collections/birdies-origina…

Here's another one: You can freeze whole tomatoes! Last year I didn't have the energy to make a whole bucket of sauce so I just pulled the green top off of the tomatoes, threw all of them in a zip lock bag into the freezer, and we've been pulling out whatever we need for stews, soups, sauces etc throughout winter.

I absolutely love the fact that you all show your tomato plants as they exist naturally, warts and all. It’s a positive reinforcement for me to see a few yellow leaves or dried out branches on the plants when you make the videos. It helps me not freak out when, what I thought where “issues” with my plants, are just nature. Not cleaning everything up to be “Instagram perfect” before filming is very refreshing and it gives me more confidence to know my plants are as “normal” as yours are. Thank you, as always for your refreshing perspectives, positive energies, and super-helpful education. EpicG has a lifelong fan in me!

I started cutting my tomatoes at that 50% ripe stage and it stopped my tomatoes from being plagued by tomatoe worms. Thank you for posting this video. It's so informative.

My cherry tomatoes produce fruit steadily for a good couple months or so. Last year, after a couple months of picking tomatoes every day, I still had a lot of green tomatoes left on the vine when the frosts started to hit. Before pulling the plants for the year, I picked off about 3 gallons of green tomatoes, figuring I would do something with them. What I ended up doing was snacking on ripe tomatoes every day for the next few weeks as they gradually ripened off the vine in my house. I plan on doing the same with this year's end of season green tomatoes too.

I was growing some turned garlic in a plastic container by my window with some homegrown compost. A tomato seed sprouted from the compost and I decided to see what would happen and left it there. It strangled out four garlic plants and started climbing my window and is putting down roots in surrounding potted plants. Instead of a trellis I've just been taping the vine to the window. I've been getting some decent cherry tomatoes lately and I plan on propagating the seeds since the tomatoes taste decent and clearly this plant will stop at nothing to survive.

The main reason Roma and cherry tomatoes are better for sauce is that they have much more pectin which helps thicken the sauce

Totally agree with you guys on the deep watering your tomato plants. Last year for me I was inconsistent with my watering and every plant got hit with BER. This year I made a concerted effort to be consistent with my watering by checking each plant at the soil level for moisture. If dry an inch down, I’d water. Kept up with regular fertilizing and big difference, I used deep compost as a mulch and nutrition. Not one plant developed BER this year! ❤️

the best sauce is made from multiple varieties mixed together

I gotta say it's weird to me seeing that there are a lot of issues people have with tomatoes because I can't stop them from growing! The various spoiled ones I have tossed into my compost now pop up in ever plant I add the compost to so I just yank out the seedling and replant them somewhere else, and they tolerate it well because of the omnipotence of their stems to grow roots. Now I have like 8 random varieties growing all over my property and it's fun seeing what they come out with!

One thing to remember about storing ripe tomatoes in the fridge is that tomatoes produce a ton of ethylene. In a closed container or small space like a fridge this could cause the tomatoes not to last as long as one might expect. I do refrigeration contracting and one of my customers is a produce wholesaler. Tomato storage is a big issue for them and over ripening can cost them a lot of money.

I thought I knew all the basics of tomatoes. But, you guys have taught me several knew things today! I had no idea tomatoes could go in the fridge. and thanks for the comment about bringing tomatoes in at 50% ripeness. My mice won't be happy about that lolz. Keep up the great work guys. You guys are Awesome!

love seeing the combined perspectives of kevin, jacques, and chris all together in a video <3

In Alaska we would wrap green tomatoes in newspaper & have them at Christmas we check them every few weeks

I have been a gardener for fifty years, plus I am a master gardener. What amazes me is all the crazy stuff people put in their soil thinking it will improve the vegetable production. Products like epsom salt, rock phosphate, calcium, lime, biochar, fish heads and dozens of other items. People read that tomato plants need calcium so they add a Tums to the soil. As a master gardener I asked people if they ever had their soil tested. Of the thousands of people I talked to at various shows/events no one ever reports getting their soil tested. I had one women tell me she had her soil tested and I thought I was having an auditory hallucination. It is the same with people who take all kinds of vitamins/supplements believing they will become immoral and then wind up with liver damage. None of them ever get their urine/blood tested before taking whatever it is that is supposed to make them super healthy. The bottom line is that plants need certain nutrients and your soil has or does not have those nutrients. Guessing at what needs to be put in your soil is like guessing what the winning lottery ticket number is.

I did not know tomatoes ripen from the inside out, and from the bottom up. Three cheers for a regular, daily regime of continuing education! (And, three more for Epic Gardening!)

I've had some success with an upside down tomato planter. This year I'm growing grape tomatoes because they're easier to eat in a salad...

Yep, I agree with all of these! Definitely things I have discovered by trying them out for myself. You can also save most of the green tomatoes at the end of the season by picking them, and layering them in cardboard boxes, leaving a bit of stem on, stem end facing down. They will ripen gradually in the box, so you get tomatoes way into winter (cool temperate climate where I live in Australia). They just have to have started turning from hard dark green into a paler green with white starting to come through.

Watering has always been a question with tomatoes. I hear water every few days, keep it consistently moist, don't water every day. The best tomato gardener I knew watered his tomatoes three times a day with a drip system. I've been using that methodology for ten plus years now. I do get end rot problems now and then.

What a nice, informative, pleasantly delivered video. One of the very best!