How to Grow Early Girl
Solanum lycopersicum
Early Girl tomatoes deliver a reliable harvest just sixty days after transplanting, making them ideal for short growing seasons. Gardeners prize this easy-to-grow variety for its disease resistance against Fusarium and Verticillium wilts, ensuring robust fruit production even in challenging conditions.
📷 Wikipedia: TomatoStarting Early Girl: indoors or direct sow?
🌾 Sow directly in the garden — Early Girl is not usually started indoors.
Direct sow seeds outdoors only after the last frost date has passed and soil temperatures have warmed sufficiently for this frost-sensitive warm-season crop.
Soil, care & harvest
Prepare loose, fertile soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.8 to encourage healthy root development. As a warm-season crop, you must wait until after the last spring frost when the soil is thoroughly warm before planting outdoors; do not sow indoors earlier as seedlings are sensitive to cold. Sow seeds about 1/4 inch deep in full sun, expecting germination within five to ten days.
Space plants 24 to 36 inches apart and provide sturdy support or a trellis since heights vary from one to ten feet. Maintain consistent moisture by watering deeply at the base, avoiding wetting foliage to prevent disease. Apply mulch around the base to retain soil moisture and feed the plant regularly with balanced fertilizer throughout the season.
Watch for tomato hornworms, aphids, cutworms, and spider mites; inspect leaves frequently and remove pests manually or use organic controls. Prevent early blight, late blight, bacterial speck, and blossom end rot by ensuring good air circulation and avoiding overhead watering. Harvest ripe fruit roughly sixty days after transplanting when the color is fully developed.
When to Plant Early Girl
Planting windows vary by USDA hardiness zone. Look up yours by ZIP code.
| Zone | Start Indoors | Direct Sow | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | May | — | September – August |
| Zone 2 | April – May | — | September |
| Zone 3 | April | — | August – October |
| Zone 4 | March – April | — | August – October |
| Zone 5 | March | — | July – September |
| Zone 6 | March | — | July – September |
| Zone 7 | February – March | — | July – September |
| Zone 8 | February | — | June – August |
| Zone 9 | January | — | May – July |
| Zone 10 | January | — | May – July |
| Zone 11 | January | — | April – June |
| Zone 12 | January | — | April – June |
| Zone 13 | January | — | April – June |
Companion Plants for Early Girl
✓ Good companions
Repels aphids and whiteflies, may improve tomato flavor
Repels tomato hornworms and attracts pollinators
Loosens soil for tomato roots, doesn't compete for space
Repels aphids and may reduce fungal diseases
Benefits from tomato shade, efficient use of garden space
Deters nematodes and aphids with natural compounds
Acts as trap crop for aphids and cucumber beetles
Attracts beneficial insects like hoverflies and parasitic wasps
✗ Keep away from
Produces juglone toxin that causes tomato wilt and stunting
Compete for nutrients and may stunt tomato growth
Both attract corn earworms and tomato hornworms
Inhibits growth through allelopathic compounds
Nutrition Facts
Per 100g serving (USDA FoodData Central)
