Experts suggest replanting your tomato plants if they’re suffering this year

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Are your tomatoes dying? Do you feel like you've done everything for them? The problem actually might be when you planted them.

We took some of your most popular tomato questions to Wallitsch Gardens to get them answered.

I’ve replaced four of my tomato plants. They keep turning brown. Any advice?

"Just make sure that you plant your tomatoes not too early. We say Derby Day here, but this year I’ve pushed everyone back. Memorial Day was a great time to plant your tomatoes because it's just been so wet and cold and they're just going to kind of sit there," Jeff Wallitsch said. "If you planted your tomatoes really early this year, that could probably be a lot of the issues. So always wait until it's hot and dry to plant your tomato plants."

There’s not much heat in the ground. My vegetables are suffering this year. What can I do? Should I replant?

"So if you can find new tomato plants, you can go ahead and replace if you want to. You don’t have to, but your plants might be a little stunted, so it might be a little bit later harvest," said Wallitsch. "With a new plant it will probably produce quicker and grow quicker and faster than the ones that you put in in late April or early May."

I’m doing four tomato plants for the first time. When do I water them? At night or in the morning?

"For watering, typically the best time to do it would be in the morning. When you're watering in the morning, it's not as hot, the water isn't going to evaporate as quick. And then you can kind of cut down on some disease and fungus," Wallitsch said. "It’s always a good idea to water the same amount and try to water at the same time of day that you are watering. It’s going to help reduce the cracking and not have misshapen and different sizes of tomatoes."

I’ve grown tomatoes in large pots, but last year was a bust. What’s the best tomato to grow in a pot?

"Any of your tomatoes are fine to grow in pots. The one thing that you want to make sure that you have is really good drainage," said Wallitsch. "Also your soil mixture. A lot of people will just grow the tomatoes in straight peat moss and it doesn’t have that good tomato taste. So you want to do about half peat moss and half something where it's going to be like a compost or some type of actual earth that comes from the ground."

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