The local nursery owner, who also has a farm and a radio show and opines widely on all gardening topics, says that anyone should be able to get 20 pounds per plant without trying hard. He seems to grow mostly hybrids, and mostly for processing into sauce etc.

I don't water my garden nearly as much as he recommends. My primary goal is enough great-tasting tomatoes so that I can have a tomato sandwich (with avocado and red onion) every day or so. I also like a variety of interesting cherry tomatoes, a plant or two that produces red round tomatoes that I mostly give away or process, and enough tomatoes of all colors so I can occasionally share some with friends and neighbors who have probably never seen that color/shape/flavor of tomato. I also like to try out a bunch of new-to-me tomatoes every year (and save seeds!!). Toward the end of the season, I start roasting and dehydrating tomatoes. So I guess I gauge my success each year by "enough" tomato sandwiches and saved seeds, plus new discoveries.

What are your tomato goals and yields?

I believe, in my limited experience, that 20 pounds of yield for an heirloom/open pollinated beefsteak type is certainly well within the doable range. I never quite get there, for various reasons, but have gotten awfully close with various cultivars. Ten pounds is sort of my minimum to get a return invite into the garden and pretty much every tomato I have grown has ten pounds of tomatoes potential.

If I spaced and pruned and protected and timed and fertilized and watered my tomatoes in some sort of near optimal way, I have little doubt most all could achieve 20 or more pounds of production. If the tomatoes were not subject to squirrel attacks, hurricanes, caterpillar infestations, accidents, derechos, untimely heat waves, etc. then the production would be improved.

Until I get all the kinks out with wild cards of weather, my ineptitude, hateful creatures, I’ll settle for my ten pounds of tomatoes plus per plant.