How to Measure the Growth of Tomatoes

Sketch a small diagram to show a bird's-eye view of your garden area or container garden and where each tomato plant is. Number the tomato plants you have on the diagram to make recording the information about them simple and consistent.

Prepare one piece of notebook paper for each numbered plant to keep the data you record separated. Label each piece of paper with the plant number and variety of the tomato plant.

Make any notes at the top of each sheet about the growing conditions for that plant, such as in shade or sun; planted into clay, sand or compost; and any other physical aspects that differ between the plants, which may include the fertilizing or watering schedule planned if they differ.

Decide how regularly you're going to check the plants, and list these dates in a column down the left side of each page. Trends in growth will be shown best with frequent checks. While daily checks may not be possible, plan to check weekly at the very least.

Create columns for the height of the plants' main stems, their width at the widest point, the number of growing fruits and/or flowers, as well as the size of ripe fruits when they are picked and the number of ripe fruits harvested. You should also include any signs of disease or insect damage and infestation in order to see how damage impacts growth.

Measure each plant on the points you intend to check on the dates you listed, and record the information on the appropriate page and column for that plant. Use inches or centimeters as preferred. Continue to measure your plants throughout the growing season to get a full set of data to analyze.

Chart a graph based on date and growth to visually see the changes that occurred for your tomato plants over time, and note spikes and depressions in growth.

Compare the different plants' results to see how conditional differences affected their growth.