My Clever Ways to MANIPULATE Tomatoes to Produce Early, Often, and Nonstop 

I heard a person comment on another channel that the you tuber only talked garden and no music or dogs they said, I knew they meant you. It’s sad though because they are missing the whole point. Let me say it for the record that you have the best, most educational and also the cutest co star of any and all channels. Keep up the great work and I will keep supporting you and the boss man. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Wish your sweet yorkie could sit at table in hi chair with kids around to see him eating veggies....maybe it might encourage the kids that veg are great after all. 😅😅😅

Put the alcohol in a travel, continuous spray bottle. Then just spray your shears in between cuts. It’s the quickest way I have found. Small enough to keep the bottle in your pocket as you travel around the garden.

I have rooted healthy suckers from hybrid tomato plants and planted them as a whole new plant. Very productive!

For indeterminate variety tomatoes: 1. Prune plants to a single stem to train and support vertically. Pruned plants produce about 2 weeks earlier than unpruned. 2. Prune suckers, but in especially hot climates you might want to allow some to grow out to provide some extra shade protection to tomatoes. 3. For the suckers allowed to grow, prune them back to the point just after any flowers produced, so that you maximize airflow and sunlight while getting some extra production. Health and production tips for all tomato varieties: 1. Be sure to clean pruners with alcohol before use to prevent disease spread and help coagulate pruning cuts quicker. 2. Choose varieties mindfully. For more production,mix varieties that grow early along with ones that grow late into the season. You’ll find that both some hybrids and heirlooms will grow better for you than others. You can identify your best growers over time and fine tune your garden in the future to those varieties that grow best for you. 3. Sunlight and air are the enemies of disease. Remove any dried or diseased leaves to prevent disease spread and increase sunlight and airflow. 4. Use a thick organic mulch to keep a consistent level of soil moisture, reduce chance of blossom end rot, and combat weeds. 5. Top dress soil around tomato plants with a balanced or higher potassium (not nitrogen) fertilizer when they head into production to give the plant some additional food at this time. Water in fertilizer and then cover the soil back up with mulch. 6. Water tomato plants at the base. Aim to keep plants’ leaves dry to prevent disease. Plants can put more energy to fruit production when they are fighting less disease and dealing with less unnecessary leaf production.

Videos like this make the world a better place. Thank you

This is the best show of yours that I've seen, and I've seen many. A serious show, without too much excitement, calmly, carefully told, everything explained, a real educational episode. I have not yet found a better explanation of growing tomatoes in the garden on RU-vid. Thanks, I enjoyed it.

Pruning is necessary, yes. I would add this: twin your plants to have two main trunks. Treat those like two plants, continuing to sucker and tie them up as necessary. The yield was 8% more by weight. I compared singles to doubles, planted in the same place. The possible drawback, depending on the grower's purpose, is that twinned plants tend to yield the mature fruits in a tighter time window. If growing to process, this is a good thing. Also, be sure to shut your plants off from further growth, about 3-4 weeks ahead of your anticipated end of season. This is done by heading all leads that are actively growing, removing all flowers, and all tiny fruits that will not have enough time to develop.

Isn’t the garden a fantastic laboratory?! I love what you’re doing and how you’re tracking your results. I try to do the same. I can feel your passion for what you’re doing. If we all continue to shower knowledge on each other in this space, we can all get better together. A rising tide lifts all boats as they say.

poking a small hole in the seal on the iso alcohol container w a pin and using that as a sprayer for your blade will make the alcohol last a lot longer.

Another tip for sweet tomatoes is to water them with diluted bicarbonate of soda as it reduces the soil acidity levels.

Those tomatoes are absutely loaded! Blessings to everyone here! 🙏❤️🍅

Texas, and other states where it gets over 100 during the summer need to use 40% shade cloth.

When I saw your first video introduction I thought to myself “what is he so excited about?” Well, after watching the video and now the second one I know why you’re excited. Who wouldn’t be having a beautiful garden like yours. I’m simply blown away!!

I showed my husband your videos and he too really enjoyed them. Thank you, for all you do. Tuck is awesome. I love getting to see him enjoying the garden too. 💌🐾🌱🍅🐾🥕🐾just as it should be.

Please do video with the COMPLETE LIST of both good and bad producing tomatoes. Thank you

❤❤❤❤❤ for Tuck!!

You and Tuck keep on getting better ! : more informative , productive, expansive , useful and innovative and awesome for us all, thank you. Your garden of life is abundant and glorious.

A trick for huge production if you don't have many plants is to use a vibrating toothbrush. If you have one give the fruiting stems a quick buzz with the backside of it. It shakes the pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part and guarantees pollination. Went from a good amount via pollinating bugs to literally every flower growing a tomato. Mine are growing like grapes this year! Another tip so you don't waste time is pollen goes bad when the daytime temps are over 90 AND the nighttime temperatures don't drop below 70 or so (Probably google this lol).

SHARE THIS VIDEO IF YOU ENJOYED IT! 🐕😁❤

Great video James! I prune to a single stem, I never thought about allowing suckers to grow until they produce a set of flowers/tomatoes and then trim them above that. That's a definite game changer!

Woooow....incredible...all those green tomatoes...I usually don't let mine get red...im hooked and booked on fried green tomatoes....fantastic vid...fantastic Information....thank u family....1 PEOPLE...1 MIND...1 LOVE ❤️...1 NATION...1..

Love all your videos, your enthusiasm, and Tuck! Thank you for all that you do.

Phenomenal tomatoes. Having a tough time here in Peoria, AZ. The heat is rough on my plants, but I won't give up!! Hey Tuck!❤

Love the next-level advice for those of us intermediate-level tomato growers. Particularly love the explanation about knowing the rules to "break the rules" to your advantage to grow more fruit. And thank you too, Tuck, for all the adorableness.

I have benefitted so much from watching all your videos! Keep them coming! 3yrs. ago on my first attempt at growing tomatoes and peppers was a disaster and resulted in 12' plants and no fruit. Last year after following your videos, my tomato plants thrived and fruit production increased 20 fold

I lsten to dozens of RU-vid gardening videos. You are the most energetic guy I watch, a greath of fresh air. Thank you.

❤️ Tuck is so cute! I love that he helps in the garden.

Thanks for the disinfecting info, James. I unknowingly transfered black spot to my cherry bushes by not cleaning my tools between cuts. Knowledge is power!😊

HIS A VEGGIE FUR BABY""!! KOOL!!

I’m certainly going to try these tips. So many professionals in Qld Australia say growing anything larger than a cherry tomato is impossible. You’ve given me some great varieties to try. Brad’s Atomic Grape, WOW! Keeping Tools super clean…the basics I forget. Cheers for the reminder.👍🙏🇦🇺

Thanks to your tips, this year I'm going to best tomatoes I've ever grown! No diseases for the 1st time ever! The only thing I've had some issues with are tomato hornworms, but I've been going out every night with a blacklight to pull them off. Thank you for your great channel!

The ethanol in the iso (rubbing Alcho) is a PGR as well telling the fruit to ripen quicker. I leave a bottle with the lid open in my green house just before the first frost for the same reason "no green tomatoes for me"

I live in a high Blight risk area in the UK, and grow all my Tomatoes outside. in 2021 Blight tore through our area, even for those growing inside, yet out of all the varieties I was growing Barry's Crazy Cherry, and Brad's atomic Grape were not hit. They both carried on until frosts wiped them out. This year I have the three new varieties from Brad, along with some of his others in my garden, and we've had storms for a month, with no change forecast for the next two weeks. They're certainly getting put through it! Lovely trusses you have there on your plants.

James and Tuck, great video. I started planting my sucker this year. What a blast. Sucker are rooting and growing like mad. Your the best Tuck❤!

Thank you - my garden is off timing wise this year - no tomatoes yet - im in zone 6b. Thank you Thank you Tuck !

nice work. greetings to the camera person as well

I love how you've learned that the sucker is totally your friend. They produce amazingly if you learn to control them. I have a few suckers growing up each string and then allow suckers to form a new set or three of flowers before stopping it. It seriously lets you max out a tight area.

Wow! My 1st time to see and listen to your knowledge on Tomatoes 🍅. Yes , I caught a couple of your tips to apply immediately. 😊. Yes , this is my 1st tomato plant to grow. I shall continue to watch and learn. Thanks.

Wow... thanks for sharing ❤. I'm watching from 🇳🇬 Nigeria

Would love to see a James and tuck with Kevin and Jacques collaboration!❤ for tuck!

Make sure you keep heirloom tomatoes

Oh my gosh, sungold is one of my small group of sjort season tomatoes. I grew tomatoes in montana

He is the "Boss"😅😅. Our Shih-Tzu loves cukes as well but only seedless as they can lead to issues with the tummy. He eats all salad veggies😅. Mo does the same thing drinking water as it comes out of the bottle😅

Love little Tuck!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤ He's such a good helper

James, how do you handle watering in your big spread out garden? Would love to know!

Love your videos! Great information and I love that your pup joins you in your gardening! Thank you!

Tuck is small enough that you can let him do whatever he wants! My buddy is a Great Pyrenees and weighs 140lbs so I have to make sure and close the gate to the garden. Especially when things are just starting out because he is oblivious to what is going on and will trample the small plants! 😂 But I love that he likes to be with me and see what I am doing! I have a second fence that is about 3’ from the garden fence though to prevent the cows from reaching over and pulling plants up and the deer from jumping over and getting in. That lets him patrol the space in between and stay nearby so he can feel like he is a part of things and leaving his scent around the perimeter further deters the deer! He refuses to eat vegetables or fruit though unlike Tuck! ❤❤❤

EXCELLENT video! Smart ideas! Thank you so much, James, THE BEST! Tuck is so adorable!

James, thanks for always being so positive! You are awesome!

I LOVE FUR BABIES"""""🌹♥️🐶 TUCK..IS A CUTIE

Honestly THE BEST tomato video I have to seen & LEARNED from in YEARS!!! Thank You❣

I thought I was being overly paranoid cleaning my pruners between each plant and often each cut. I have a little spray bottle that I hang outta my pocket with a long twistie tie and tomato spring clips.

Love your videos and learn so much from you. Tuck is as enthusiastic about the garden as you. He is just adorable, I love watching him enjoy the harvest. Thank you again to you, Tuck and your film partner.

Thank you ❤ Tomatoes are my favorite. I have over 50 varieties growing. Most of which I’ve never tried. I can’t wait.

Thank you, this is the most comprehensive and detailed video on growing tomatoes that I have ever found!

James, Thank you to you and Tuck (and loads of love and cucumbers to Tuck)! This is THE best video I have seen on growing tomatoes! 💜💜

Thank you so much for bringing joy back to gardening!

Hi from Australia tropical Queensland it’s our growing season my toms are thriving but thanks for your sharing knowledge I have been following your channel for 3 years now .

James, I cannot tell you enough how much my husband and I love your channel! You are very gifted and wise! I have had one of the best gardens of my life this year, thanks to you! We are in zone 6b in Virginia.

I love that you showed more of Tuck in this video!😁 Your vids are always so informative & I really enjoy watching Boss Tuck going around the garden & snacking on vegs, he's so funny 😊🐾❤

you and tuck are the best gardening youtubers ever yous are always so helpful i just started my very own garden and its going so well and when i have questions you always have a avideo answering them never quit and i cant forget ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ for tuck and a 🥕

I live in a very short summer growing season (zone 4/zone 5a) and I always let 1 or 2 suckers about a foot up the main stem to grow, and reduce suckers all up the main stem. I also let suckers that are larger than 7 inches just grow because usually if I missed it for that long, they’ve already set flowers and no need to waste all the energy that went into producing the flowers. I’ve also snipped the tops of all growing ends come mid-September so the rest of the energy is put into growing/ripening the fruit that’s already on the plant. In Oct, we might get a frost. I usually wait until the day of the first frost to go out and just pick EVERYTHING and let them ripen in cardboard boxes.

Thanks guys, my old Jack would would keep me company in my garden too. Now I have an Australian Kelpie that let's me know when my tomatoes are flowering....with sneezes. Thanks for good info on pruning. I WILL be paying attention to that more this year.

Absolutely love your videos man! Im a 2nd year gardener and this year i leveled up about 10 times and thx to your videos and a few others, my garden is not only beautiful but producing on an extreme level. Thx so much man!

Hi guys. When I first started watching your videos I was blown away by your garden production. My Roma Tomatoes are starting to get light in color. You are adding nutrients now. I was about to make a mistake and not give my Roma's and peppers a boost. Thank you James and hugs for Tuck. ❤❤❤❤

Love Tuck and the tomatoes are beautiful.

Thank you. Never saw a dog who ate so many veggies. Good boy, Tuck. I think I have to wait another season before I can set up a garden as we have remodeling to do.

What herbs are you growing? I feel theyre one of the best gardening investments because of high prices in grocery stores and ease of growth. Also added bonus of strong aromas. Would love a video on just herbs in the food forest.

Great inspiration and ideas! ❤❤❤❤❤ for Tuck and a great tomato harvest!

I love the knowledge and how you appreciate your little doggy❤

Wonderful tomatoes!! I wish I had a list of your best varieties so I can grow them too!!

I’m growing two 2 cherry tomatoes and 3 beefsteaks up a sting trellis this year because of your videos I saw from your “Tomato tree” video and as long as you have height to do so it’s awesome. I have so many fruits that are already getting close to harvest down low while there is still more then enough fruit getting bigger up top. On the cherries I let some suckers grow strategically and top them so they don’t get to big while letting the main stem grow. This way also seems to be really good agains pests.

Hi James and Tuck. We watch from Northwest Missouri. We love your videos... They are very informative and have really helped us and... "we always get something out of it!". I'm sure you've been asked a number of times but who is behind the camera? Just curious. Keep them coming! Give Tuck a scratch and a rub from us.

TOTALLY love this gardening community youve built!!! I'm learning so much...thank you!!!

Tuck is adorable ❤

My tomatoes are growing like crazy thanks to your pruning advice, thanks James!! 💖💖💖

Hello James and tuck ,❤I saw your brads atomic grape tomatoes win a taste test in the UK on a u tube video ,I'm about to grow it ,I'm excited!

WOW dude. All different varieties too. 😩suuuper jelly

This is heaven !! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Tuck is on his Lunch Break ❤❤❤❤❤

James, thank you for this! I don't think I ever really considered sterilizing the pruners. Will do so from now on! Blessings and love to you and Tuck.

Thank you James! You are so good, knowledgeable and a great teacher! I appreciate you and what your doing for the gardening community! Sweet Tuck too!🥰

Love that you are so enthusiastic about your garden! Hope you and Tucker enjoy your cucumbers and tomatoes!😀😎

I am learning a lot and my garden is getting much better. I will apply the lessons I am getting about the varieties for my next season. I believe the climate here in MD is similar to yours, so I am benefiting from your videos greatly, thank you.

Love this channel! Triple digits here and I am really looking forward to the fall so I can apply all this great info.

Thanks for the shearing 💪💡🏆

Wow!!! I have never ever had production like that on my plants

Thanks James 🎉

Love your videos. Love Tuck.

Thank you for this excellent demonstration and explanation!

Your little helper Tucker is adorable 😍

We’re having a weird summer in Western PA, followed all your advice but tomatoes took forever to flower & just now starting to produce fruit.

Would love to see some grafting of heirloom tomato scions onto disease-resistant rootstock.

Always learning so much from you! Thanks for your dedication to us novice growers!

Thanks for the info James Good job 👍

I get so many tomatoes but I struggle with getting them to ripen, even with early varieties. I will try to start top dressing with tomato fertilizer. Hope it works 🤞🏼

For the past two years I have been planting the tomatoes with a lime slurry and occasional lime watering to eliminate BER. Prior to the lime, I would lose two dozen tomatoes every season.

Love your channel GREAT GARDENER 👑

Wow beautiful video🌹🌹