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How to harvest your tomatoes four weeks early – Neighbor’s envy, owners pride

When growing tomatoes, the general wisdom is “to start seeds indoors six weeks before the last frost date. Plant them outdoors when the danger of frost is over and night temperatures consistently remain above 55 degrees F…… Yada, Yada, Yada”

Fresh ripe tomatoes

If you are like me, I know that you just can’t wait until the last day of frost to plant your tomatoes. That will delay your harvest by up to 4 weeks. You like to lay your hands on your first tomato fruits of the season as early as you can.

I am not boasting, the quality and taste of tomatoes picked from my own garden is far superior to anything I can buy from the supermarket.

We live in Zone 7. Generally fellow gardeners here has to wait until the end of June to harvest their first tomatoes of the season.

But I’m not that patient. Once I step into Spring and get immersed in the Spring blossoms and nascent lush greenery, I just don’t have the patience to wait another two months for my tomatoes. So, in this article I will share with you my secrets for early-tomato-harvesting.

Believe it or not - using these tips I can harvest my tomatoes by the end of May about 4 weeks in advance.

 Selecting the right variety

The first thing that early-tomato-enthusiasts need to consider is to pick a variety that is known to do well in colder weather. There are several tomato varieties that have been bred to thrive and fruit in colder weather.

Raise the tomato seedlings indoors

Grow the seedlings indoors

If you want to be an early bird to grow tomatoes, you cannot wait for the plants to appear in the Home Depot or other stores. So you have to start your tomato seedlings indoors from seed.

Where to buy the seeds?

You can buy the seeds of the above varieties from the following online seed stores.

http://www.waysidegardens.com.

I have the seedlings, now what?

Next you need to decide whether you want to grow your tomatoes in containers or in your backyard soil. I prefer the latter, though the container approach may give you more control over the plant.

Growing in containers

I recommend that you use this approach only if you plan to grow just two or three tomato plants.

You could use regular planting containers. If you are adventurous you can even try these Topsy Turvy Tomato Planters, Upside Down Tomato Planters, Hanging Tomato Planter, Window Planters etc.

The key is to keep the tomato plants in the containers warm. You can do this by keeping them close to the home. If a frost is expected, you can cover the entire plant including the potting soil with a frost protect plastic sheet, or move the plants into your garage.

Growing in soil
This is my favorite. Again, the key is to keep your tomato plants warm and cozy. Cold air temperatures as well as cold soil temperatures are major factors that delay fruiting, even if the frost is not severe enough to kill the plant.

To get an early harvest, you should try to conserve as much of the natural heat from sunlight around your tomato plants.

Keeping the soil warm: Covering the area around your plants with plastic mulch is a great way to conserve the soil heat and keep it warm.

Keeping the air warm: In addition to helping your plants fruit early, this also helps to protect your tomato plants from being nipped by frost (frost damage). The most popular way to do achieve this is by creating warm structure around the tomato plant.

The Wall of Water (WoW) approach

Tomato Tepees for Frost Protection (Thanks to Diana at TomatoVille.com)

This is a ring of connected plastic tubes filled with water to surround each plant, and supported by stakes. Please see the pictures below. (You can buy these plastic tubes from garden stores. They are also sold by the name Tomato Teepees. They will last several seasons if used and stored properly.)

You can make your own wall of water by using several 1 gallon or 2 gallon soda bottles. Remove the labels from the bottles, fill it with water and place them around the tomato plant in the shape of a ring. You can be creative and make a ring like structure out of these soda bottles by joining them using duct tape.

The above methods works on the principle of heat absorptions and heat release from the water. Water absorbs plenty of heat from the sun during the day. When it gets cold during night, the hot water will release heat back to the air and keep the tomato plants warm. This alternating heat cycle will repeat through day and night.

The temperature inside the wall will be slightly warmer than the surrounding open area. The Wall of Water method can provide frost protection down to the mid-teen Fahrenheit temperatures.

From my experience, the tomatoes and eggplants surrounded by the WoW grow faster and start to fruit sooner than those without.

Important: when you are filling the tubes with water, try not to dampen the soil, because wet soil gets longer to get heated up by the sun. Also the commercial Wall Of Water tubes tend to collapse towards the tomato plant. You can put small wooden stakes to prevent this.

Another approach to support the WoW is to cut the bottom out of a five-gallon bucket or an old planter, and use it as a support for the WoWs. This will also help when you fill the WoWs with water, since the bucket will keep them steady. You may be able to get five gallon buckets for free from restaurants, drywall contractors or painters.

 Using clear plastic tubes

Using clear plastic tubes to protect Tomatoes (Thanks to Ami Deutch at TomatoVille.com)

If you experience only mild cold weather then you can protect your tomato plants with plastic tubes as shown in the picture here. You may need to use tomato cages as the structure to put the plastic tubes.

Try these techniques and plant your tomatoes by the last week of March; you should be ready to harvest your tomato fruits by the end of May.

Clear Plastic Tubing Arround the Cage (Thanks to Ami Deutch at TomatoVille.com)

If you are able to use these techniques successfully, then please come back and tell us about it by posting a comment here.

 Thanks for reading.

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