Keep your cherry tomato plants producing plenty of ripe, juicy fruit from midsummer until fall.
These growing tips will help you keep your plants healthy and maximize your harvest.
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Credit:szatmazs / 500px / Getty Images
A few varieties have received awards for their flavor, disease-resistance, ease of growing, and productivity.
These cultivars are All-America Selections winners because of their superior performance from midsummer until frost.
Try flavorful heirloom varieties.
Heirloom cherry tomato varieties are prized for their flavor and thin skins.
They have a short window of harvest before they are overripe.
Check the fruit daily when it begins to color.
Heirloom cherry tomatoes have a shorter shelf-life than hybrids, but their flavor overrides their shortcomings.
Give cherry tomatoes enough space.
Most cherry tomato plants are so productive because they are massive plants.
Dont be fooled by the size of the seedling atplanting time.
Use a tomato cage.
Tie the cage to the stakes.
Choose short varieties for containers.
That’s because plant breeders have selected several cultivars that thrive in the confines of a large container.
Plant these varieties in a container that is at least 14 inches wide.
Plant early in warm regions.
Because they ripen earlier than largerslicers and beefsteaks, cherry tomatoes often thrive in hot regions.
Plant transplants in early spring so they can bloom and set fruit before temperatures rise above 85F.
Expect toharvest tomatoesbefore the intense summer heat sets in.
Super Sweet 100, Sweet Treats, and Juliet have good disease resistance for hot, humid climates.
Cherry tomato plants need about an inch of watera week to grow and produce fruit.
When natural rainfall doesnt provide an inch of moisture, supplement with hand watering ordrip irrigation.
Regular watering is essential to fruit formation.
Cherry tomatoes thin skins and petite fruit size makes them especially vulnerable to cracking or splitting.
Harvest every couple of days.
Cherry tomato plants are so prolific that their fruit ripens almost constantly for weeks.
Check plants every other day to harvest the ripe fruit.
Cherry tomatoes are ripe when they are fully colored but still slightly firm to the touch.
Harvest fruit regularly to spur plants to continue producing andkeep pests at bay.
Going away on vacation?
Invite a neighbor to come harvest in return for watering.
