The Everything Tomato Guide: All You Need to Know About Growing, Harvesting, Cooking, and Eating Delicious Tomatoes

Please check out the brief video above, to learn what this premium gardening guide is all about—the video will give you a glimpse into all the content in this gardening guide, including history and background, planting tips, specific plant profiles, recipes, nutrition and health information, and resources to help you be the best food gardener you can be.

Curator’s Corner

Welcome to the really wonderful world of growing your own tomatoes! According to the National Gardening Association, 86% of American households grow tomatoes—vastly outpacing the next most-popular home-grown food item, cucumbers, at 47%. Tomatoes are so popular, and yet so easy to… READ MORE

Introduction

Have you ever tried eating a whole, raw tomato like you would eat an apple? If you have, it’s best that you eat your own home-grown tomatoes and not those washed-out-looking, store-bought tomatoes. A fresh garden tomato—and not only the pop-‘em-in-your-mouth-size Cherry tomatoes—are simply succulent and… READ MORE

Features

Growing Zones for Tomatoes

Tomatoes thrive in various USDA hardiness zones, which are determined by factors like temperature, frost dates, and growing season length. READ MORE

Types of Tomato Plants: Standard, Hybrid and Heirloom

Tomatoes come in three main types: standard, hybrid, and heirloom. Standard tomatoes are exactly what the name implies—standard—they haven’t been cross-pollinated or altered and don’t have any heritage. Hybrid and heirloom tomato types are explained below: READ MORE

Preventing Cross Pollination of Heirloom Tomatoes

Tomato plants are self-pollinating, because their flowers have both male and female parts. Most plants aren’t routinely exposed to natural cross-pollination, however, if a bee or other insect were to access some of the flower, cross-pollination could occur between two differing varieties of plants. Even the wind or a strong breeze can cross-pollinate tomatoes that are located near one another. READ MORE