In growing tomatoes, there are some things that people do not tell you about. First, there are two different types of tomatoes, indeterminate and determinate varieties. Indeterminate types produce tomatoes thru the season while the determinate ones produce tomatoes faster in cycles making them good if you want to can or preserve.
Another secret is not to buy the cheap tomato cages. Most of you have experienced go out to the garden after a windstorm and seeing those cages all bent out of shape and twisted. Get the more expensive, taller ones and place and tie a T-post inside the cage. You can make your own cage out of heavy fence.
Tomatoes do not like the leaves to get wet which causes various fungus diseases. Water the plants with a soaker hose or drip irrigation. My mother use to dig trenches along the plants to get water to them allowing the water to get deep into the soil.
Plant deep, always deeper than the pot they are growing in. Plant much of the stem into the soils allows for better protection from the wind. Roots will form along the stem allowing for a sturdier plant.
Fertilize the plants when you transplant with a water diluted fertilizer like Miracle-Gro. However, do not feed the plants too heavily thru the growing period, this creates more foliage at the expense of fruit.
I you can, mulch the soil around the plants with 1 to 2 inches of straw or hay. This keeps the plants from drying out, controls weeds, and controls fluctuations in soil temperatures.
After the plants get taller, prune all the lower leaves and sucker off the bottom 12 inches of the plant. This lessens rain hitting the soil and splashing up to the plant reducing diseases like Septoria and other fungus diseases from affecting your plant. If you want to do further pruning, remove the suckers between the stem and main leaf. This allows for more air movement in the plant reducing diseases. Remember is you remove too much foliage, you will run into sunscald later on.
