The Easy Planting Method That Helps Keep Pests Away From Your Tomatoes

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are a culinary staple, and for good reason. A tomato offers nearly 20% of your daily vitamin C allotment, as well as potassium and antioxidants like beta carotene. Meanwhile, eating them can help lower your blood pressure. It makes sense to find tomatoes in so many gardens given these benefits and more, but to get a healthy harvest you'll want to make sure your yard isn't swarmed by garden pests that you'll want to banish immediately. TikTok user @nettlesandpetals — Jamie Walton — offers up an easy, low-cost planting method that preps the soil and includes complementary plants to help your tomatoes thrive pest-free.

As a crop, tomatoes grow quickly but are pretty high maintenance, requiring full sun, a growing medium that has good drainage and a more acidic pH level, as well as often needing cages or stakes to support the weight of their edible produce. This is one place where Walton's easy tomato planting method comes in handy, as it strings up your tomatoes to a clothesline with twine once they begin fruiting to support their growth. The method also involves wrapping a hoop made out of twine underneath the tomato's root ball, digging a deep hole to fill with fertilizer before you bury your tomatoes as a way to prevent transplant shock. This helps deter pests by keeping your tomatoes away from the soil surface, and you'll also grow companion plants for pest reduction.

The best time to start planting tomatoes in loamy soil will be around May or June, when soil begins to warm up in the transition from spring to summer. Aim to grow each tomato plant around 3 or 4 feet apart. If you let your tomato fruits become so heavy that they touch the ground, it's likely they're going to be affected by soil rot. Applying a ring of mulch around the base of the plant offers some protection, while also helping retain water and control soil temperature. However, following Walton's advice by tying the plant up to a clothesline above will support its growth akin to a trellis, all without needing to stake anything permanent in your garden if you decide to rotate your crops. Wrapping the tomato plant's root ball in twine at the same time helps it stay anchored as you refill the dirt.

Burying stems deep in the soil is a technique for healthier tomato plants in the garden. Dig enough of a hole that your pot is completely buried, with room for one additional inch of soil above. Before you transplant your tomatoes, add a layer of compost or fertilizer at the bottom of the hole (mixing in two or three inches should suffice) so roots get direct access to the nutrients that composting offers. Fertilizers that augment the soil with elemental sulfur or compounds like ammonium sulfate will lower its pH to make a more suitable growing medium for tomatoes, whereas phosphorus-rich fertilizers will help reduce transplant shock. Walton also recommends watering the dug-out soil to try and tackle transplant shock at the root.

Walton's easy tomato planting method doesn't just combat pests by helping you tie up your crop further from the soil — it also includes a number of complementary plants between those 3-ish foot gaps that will repel pests and encourage healthy growths. For example, marigolds and alyssum attract insects so they'll skip the tomatoes, whereas plants like chives grown at the edge of a garden can repel aphids, spider mites, slugs, and more. Planting basil near your tomatoes can also protect their roots while they attract pollinators, as bees are hugely beneficial for your tomato ambitions.

One of the most important steps when prepping your tomatoes to plant is cutting away lower sets of leaves. Leaves that are directly in contact with the dirt might contract fungal infections like rhizoctonia, causing infected areas to decay — this is just one of many reasons your tomato plants are wilting. Insect pests like springtails are also commonly found in soil, and might crawl onto leaves from there. In fact, pests like mealybugs are known to latch onto leaves and leave behind sticky honeydew, which can develop into sooty mold that impacts a plant's ability to photosynthesize. Any leaves left on your tomato plant can also be held further from the soil by wrapping the plant in more twine to keep your tomatoes upright. Following some of Walton's planting methods is a great start toward happier, healthy tomatoes filling your garden and, ultimately, your salads.