Just getting through this thread. A lot of good advice already. Here are my experiences and advice, but it’s based on just 4 years of trying to grow tomatoes, so take it with a grain of salt.
I would like to emphasize the importance of mulch, it keeps the soil splash up on leaves to a minimum, which can contribute to some diseases. I tried spraying with Bonide copper, but it is time consuming, and will only delay the inevitable a few weeks, especially if it rains a lot, which it does here.
I don’t really pull off suckers, but that results in a sprawling plant, which requires more staking up of those new branches eventually. Usually my plants end up with 5-7 stakes holding them up. On some plants that are more established, I’ll prune off lower branches to minimize any splash up or ground contact.
For planting, I dig a deep hole, put in a few ounces of Tomato-tone fertilizer in the hole first and a bit of Epsom salt, then add a little dirt, then the plant. If the plant’s leggy, I’ll pull off the lower branches and bury it very deep, as the stalk will send out roots while in contact with the soil. Some advocate laying leggy plants in a trench, and just leave the top part above the surface.
After the plants have been in the ground, I give them a liquid fertilizer drench after the plant starts blooming.
As far as varieties are concerned, I’ve stated my best performers are Chocolate Cherry, Orange KY beefsteak, Russian Queen, Siberian Pink, Gordost Sibiri, and Jaune Flammé. Due to disease issues, I don’t grow San Marzano, and due to lack of production, I’ve stopped growing any Brandywine varieties. For whatever reason, we cant get purple tom’s to do well here, but we are going to try Paul Robeson again. We are trying maybe 12 varieties this year, most are some that have done relatively well in past years, as far as production, taste and disease resistance is concerned. We’re also growing a few new (for us) varieties this year.
We are growing three varieties we got from @Drew51, Girl Girl’s and Indian Stripe that did pretty well last year, and Romeo for the first time this year.
Due to all the rain we’ve had, we still haven’t got any of our tomatoes planted out, but hope to this week or next. Most of our plants are still indoors under lights, and the rest are some bought at a nursery.