Growing Home Garden Tomatoes Denny Schrock Department of Horticulture, University of Missouri-Columbia Tomatoes are a popular home garden crop. They require a small area, bear repeatedly, are widely adapted and easy to grow, and have many culinary uses.
Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and low in calories.
There are many excellent tomato varieties available to home gardeners, both new and old. Selection should consider productivity, freedom from fruit splitting and disease resistance. Fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt are two common problems that can be overcome by selecting wilt-resistant varieties and rotating the planting so that these organisms are not able to build up in the soil. Leaf diseases such as early blight cause substantial leaf damage in many home gardens. Although high-quality fruit varieties with resistance to this disease are not generally available, they exist and may soon become more common.