What Your Tomatoes Need in June – 5 Quick Tasks for Better Plants, Bigger Harvests and Tastier Tomatoes

Planting tomatoes in spring is important, but don’t underestimate the importance of caring for your plants in June. If you start good tomato-care habits now, you’ll get better quality fruit more fruit, and a plant that lives longer.

When you are growing tomatoes, you can’t rest on your laurels in June. Early summer is a critical period for tomato plants as they develop from green leaves into summer fruits. Don’t worry – the tasks are not complex.

The top five things you need to do for tomatoes in June are simple actions like giving them water, fertilizer, a support system, mulch and a haircut.

What Tomatoes Need in June

For tomatoes to be happy campers, they need a proper growing location where they get at least 6 hours a day of direct sunlight each day and moist, well-draining soil. If you planted in May, upkeep starts in June. Here are the five most important tasks to keep those plants healthy and growing.

1. Provide Support for Tomato Plants

If you have young kids, you know that sense of shock when you see how fast they grow. One minute they are babes in arms; the next minute, it seems, they are riding a bike. The same is true for your tomato plants in June.

Tomato plants shoot up amazingly fast. In early June, it’s time to set up a support system for them. By late June, the plants are too heavy and tangled to move them around. What happens if you don’t support them? They can drag on the ground, bend, develop disease, and even snap. Great support options include modular tomato cages, stakes, and trellises.

This snap-together system, available from Amazon, is a personal favorite of Gardening Know How Senior Editor Liz Baessler. If you have waited too long to install a traditional cage, you can just build this modular system around your plants with no fuss!

2. Water Deeply and Regularly

Think of cutting into a big ripe tomato; it’s full of juice! That suggests that you can’t grow tomatoes without regular water. While all young tomato plants need moist soil, tomatoes require even more water in June as temperatures rise.

For June irrigation, regular deep watering is the rule. It encourages deeper, stronger root systems and better drought resistance. Water slowly and deeply, putting the water around the roots of the plants, never overhead. Installing a drip irrigation system like this Rain Bird watering kit from Amazon is easy to do and will keep your tomatoes perfectly watered, even while you're on vacation. Watering early in the morning is ideal so that the leaves will be dry well before nightfall. Wet foliage at night is a recipe for fungal issues.

How often should you water? You want to irrigate at least once a week, but you might need to water more frequently if the weather is hot and dry. The idea is to keep the soil consistently moist. Going from very dry to very wet will cause your fruits to crack.

3. Add Mulch Around the Base of Plants

One way to help tomatoes hold moisture in the soil is to apply mulch. This is particularly important as summer temperatures rise. Spreading a few inches of mulch around the base of each tomato plant will also suppress weeds and keep the roots cooler.

Mulching also prevents soil from “bouncing” up onto foliage when it rains, an event that results in soil-borne diseases to spread to the lower leaves.

When mulching in June, remember to keep the mulch an inch or so from the main stem. What to use for mulch? Some good choices are straw, pine needles, compost, and shredded leaves.

4. Clip Out Lower Leaves to Improve Airflow

It’s hard to imagine when you are planting your crops, but, by June, tomato plants often become thick and crowded. The lush leaves reduce airflow and increase the risk of fungal disease as the weather grows warmer. Fungal diseases spread fast when leaves remain wet for long periods, the air is stagnant, and plants are overcrowded.

So take your snippers and prune your tomatoes in June. Focus on leaves that touch the soil, and leaves that are yellowing. This will allow more air to circulate, reducing humidity around the plant. It also helps prevent soil-borne diseases from splashing into the lower tomato leaves.

5. Monitor for Early Pest and Disease Problems

What happens in June? People get married, we celebrate the summer solstice, and tomato pests and common tomato diseases first begin appearing. With careful monitoring, you can get out ahead of the problems and avoid severe infestations later in the summer.

What are you looking for? Any signs of bug damage, including yellowing or wilting foliage, spots on leaves, or chewed leaves. You should also note any and all bugs, including aphids, hornworms and whiteflies. Treat these critters ASAP with diatomaceous earth. Be sure to only use food-grade diatomaceous earth, which can be found on Amazon, so that you can enjoy your tomatoes safely.

When it comes to diseases, fungal diseases are on the top of the list. Think about early tomato blight and Septoria leaf spot. Treat diseases when spotted, and take steps to prevent diseases in the future, including watering early in the morning, trimming leaves that touch the ground, and spacing the tomatoes appropriately.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders and fast growers. During June, they enter a stage where they need proper support, balanced watering, airflow, and regular maintenance to continue growing strong through the hottest part of summer.