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My mother always had a lot of success with growing good tomatoes. Having tasty, garden fresh tomatoes to eat at the end of each summer and early fall was a real treat for us. Most years, the leftovers would be canned by my mother, though I wasn't particularly fond of the taste. While I'll pass on stewed tomatoes, I still love to eat good tomatoes. If you love fresh tomatoes, you don't have to deprive yourself because growing tomatoes is quite easy!

While most people prefer to growing good tomatoes from starter plants, you can also start them early inside the house. Growing from seed will work, but it is a more difficult way to go about something that would be made much easier by simply buying the starter plants from your local garden center. For correct growth, the tomatoes should not be transplanted to outdoors until they are the right size. Transplanting these plants is easy, just make sure that they have enough space for themselves wherever you put them. When you plant your tomatoes, make sure to give each seedling extra room for growth, and to put it in a sunny area.

A big backyard garden isn't necessary for growing large tomatoes; a window box does the trick quite nicely. This might mean only planting one or two plants, but they can still produce a good number of tomatoes for personal use. Remember that growing good tomatoes does require a bit of care. You must stake the tomato plant if it starts to bend to prevent breakage. You must provide something for the tomato plant to grow around, so either buy a specialty round wire frame for tomato plants or simply place a stake in the ground next to your plant. This will make sure the tomatoes stay out of the dirt.

If you want to be growing large tomatoes, try spreading a quality fertilizer to protect the health of your plants and maximize the growth of your fruits. As is the case with most other plants, they need to be weeded and watered when necessary. Although some people prefer to let tomatoes fully ripen on the vine, you don't have to do that. Tomatoes can be picked early and ripened on the counter or windowsill. Fresh tomatoes taste better if you don't refrigerate them. If you enjoy fresh tomatoes, try plucking some still green ones from the vine and storing them in your basement in paper bags. Done this way, they will last well for eight to 12 weeks; simply take them out and set them on the window ledge to get ripe during the autumn months.