Step One
Set up your arch trellis and plant your tomatoes.
Learn all about setting up your arch trellis in your own kitchen garden and how to plant your tomatoes alongside each side of the arch trellis in order to maximize the growth you can get from a small space in your raised bed.
First, I recommend growing your tomatoes in a raised bed in order to give your plants plenty of space to grow deep roots and firmly establish themselves and grow nice and long along your arch trellis.
Step Two
Prune and tie your tomato vines along your arch trellis
About once a week, it's important to prune and tie your tomato plant along the supports of your arch trellis.
To do this, you'll need:
- Clean Pruners
- Twine
- Scissors
- Alcohol for cleaning your pruners
Get the Book!
Learn the step by step to set up your own raised bed kitchen garden complete with a beautiful trellis in my book, Kitchen Garden Revival.
Step Three
Support your tomato plants as they grow and ripen
Tomatoes take nearly as long to ripen as they do to form in the first place.
So, the key word here is patience.
Learn more about having patience and supporting your tomatoes as they ripen on the vine along your arch trellis.
Step Four
Make Pruning Decisions for Best Tomato Results
Decide if you'll prune the suckers in order to get BIGGER tomatoes or leave the suckers in order to get MORE tomatoes.
Watch the video below to learn the benefits of pruning suckers or leaving them on the vine as you grow them along the arch trellis.
Step Five
Maximize the Number of Tomatoes
See how many tomatoes you can harvest from one tomato plant on your arch trellis.
It's always fun to see just how many tomatoes you can harvest off of one tomato plant. There are all sorts of theories about how many tomatoes you can possibly get from each plant but the video below uncovers some of the myths and shows you how many I harvest from my own plants.
Step Six
Top Off Tomatoes
Top off tomato plants as you get toward the end of the growing season.
As your Warm Season comes to an end, it's important to get your green tomatoes to ripen as quickly as possible on your arch trellis.
You can speed up this process by topping off the vines of your tomato plants.
Learn the process of topping off your tomatoes in this video.
Step Seven
Remove Tomato Vines
Remove your tomato vines from the kitchen garden and prepare to plant the same space with sugar snap peas, fava beans, or runner beans for the Cool Season.
After tomatoes have enjoyed 90-120 days growing over an arch trellis, they're usually past their optimal time of growth and your garden will do better if you remove the tired vines and begin growing plants that thrive in cooler weather.
Leaving tomato vines on the arch trellis beyond their optimal growing period often welcomes pests and disease into your kitchen garden. So, watch the video below and make a plan for when you'll remove your existing tomato vines and start again with the next season's plants.
