I probably am not doing it right, but I have gotten over two hundred pounds of growth since August 5th when I pollinated mine (yeah, I know I am very late) I have been fertilizing with everything mixed together. If you add the numbers together of what I fertilize with it looks something like: 27-85-43, and I do this twice a week. They are water soluble so I just water the plant. I am kind of behind the curve. My plant got some kind of vine borer that set it back a month and then the deer cut it down so that it didn't get a good start. I also only started fertilizing the second to last week of July in which I was using somehting like a 30-10-10 to get some foliage growth going. I then went to the superbloom stuff (12-55-6)after pollinating the pumpkin to strengthen the roots for the long haul. Realizing the pumpkin would never have a chance I decided to mix all of the fertilizers together and go for it. Suprisingly the pumpkin has been doing some incredible growth. I would have to estimate it is 250 pounds now in a little over a months time. The roots are incredible though, they look like something I would use to tie a boat to a dock. I may do the same type of fertilizing next year midway in the season. From what I have read it seems once the fruit is set you want to go for something high in Potassium. Good luck and have fun.

Glad you've joined us, gayled, welcome to the NE forum! My DH and I are retired. We work together in the gardens... our spring techniques are pretty simple. 1. Clean up dead leaves and foliage and weed underneath plants... but not as early as we'd like this year. Probably not until April .... if we get more snow this week. 2. One of our earliest tasks every spring.... amend the soil. I think that's the best thing you can do for the gardens. We get free compost from our town.... dig it and take it. We've done this for the last eight years and it's really helped improve the gardens. While it's not exactly "organic" because the compost is made from garden waste that people bag and the city picks up, "free" makes it worthwhile. 3. We like to use bark mulch and I use cocoa mulch in a few special areas, but this has gotten expensive as our gardens have grown. We've found that the compost works like mulch by breaking down over the season. So we mulch every other year. 3. Fertilize? No, not even our roses. I think good soil is better than chemical applications. I learned about composting from my mother who was a wonderful gardener. Mom collected coffee grounds in one container (for her Mt. Laurels and rhododendrons) and egg shells & other wastes that she'd spread around her flower beds. Over 40 years of this gave her a yard with deep, dark soil and lots of worms. 4. My DH put in an irrigation system several years ago and he checks this early in the spring. We have a long yard with gardens down one side and around a garden shed. The days of dragging the hose around are gone for us. Molie

As Andrew has suggested, they seem to like food and plenty of it. I give mine Organic Extra, but I'm not completely sure that it has enough nitrogen. Cant beat homegrown compost with plenty of animal manure IMO, and that applies to most plants.

Rooting a cutting is a good way to go or.......just plant your large plant very deeply. Either straight down if the soil has warmed up for the season or lay the tomato plant sideways in a small shallow trench and cover with your garden soil. Roots will form all along the stem underground and give you a larger root system to support the plant better. I ALWAYS start tomatoes early and plant them deep. I have multiple light indoors to support their needs before I bring them outside though.