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As a child, growing large tomatoes was a family undertaking that was both fun and delicious. Having tasty, garden fresh tomatoes to eat at the end of each summer and early fall was a real treat for us. My mom would can the surplus, even though I didn't really like eating them that way. 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!

When starting your tomato plants, you can either choose to use the starter plants most people enjoy, or you could begin growing good tomatoes early inside your home. Growing from seed may be rewarding, but it is a difficult way to go about it and choosing to use starter plants instead would be much easier. Wait until they are the right size before planting them outside or else they will not grow properly. These plants can be transplanted with little difficulty, but make sure that they have plenty of space in their new location. A tomato plant will require room to spread out and collect lots of sunlight.

Tomatoes thrive in window boxes just as well as they do in expansive gardens, so don't let your lack of yard space stop you from growing large tomatoes. You'll have to stick to 1 or 2 plants but those should produce plenty for the dinner table. Growing good tomatoes is not something that can be done on autopilot, however. You must stake the tomato plant if it starts to bend to prevent breakage. If you want to buy a round wire frame from a garden store you can, but it works just as well to put a stake or fence next to the plant. This method ensures that your tomatoes will stay off the soil.

Find a good fertilizer for your garden, for that will help you in growing large tomatoes as well as maintaining healthy plants. Like most kinds of plants, tomatoes have to be in an area away from weeds and must be watered if they are particularly dry. Since tomatoes ripen after picking, it's perfectly fine to pick them before they are red and fully ripe. Whether a tomato is still green, yellow or orange, it will continue to ripen if put on a counter or windowsill. Tomatoes taste best when stored in a dry, cool place but not the refrigerator. If you want to enjoy tomatoes for longer, pick some while they are still green and store them in paper bags. They will last for a few months like this, and you can remove them and place them on the windowsill to ripen well into autumn.