Are your tomato plants looking a little fruitless? Here are the three rules to follow for a plentiful summer harvest

Growing your own veggies this year, but not impressed with how your tomato plants are performing so far? Here's some expert guidance on the three things you should be doing to ensure an impressive harvest.

Even when you know how often you should water your tomato plants, they can be particularly stubborn about providing you with fruit. Whether you're a vegetable gardening beginner or not, it can be really confusing watching the plant itself thrive but not produce any actual tomatoes.

Luckily, gardening expert and influencer Ish (@gardening.with.ish on Instagram) has shared the three rules to follow to make sure your tomato plant is full to the brim of delicious tomatoes this summer.

When you've made sure to plant out your tomato plants at the right time and done all you can to keep them growing, it's frustrating to see they're not producing fruit. This can be down to various reasons, and luckily, all are easily fixed.

"If your tomato plants are thriving but not growing any tomatoes, then there are a few things you can do to remedy this, because chances are it's just one simple mistake that's stopping them from growing. So let's delve into at least three of them," starts Ish.

"First of all, make sure they're well watered, you want to keep the ground fairly moist and don't let it go wet, dry, wet, dry. This will stress it out, so it won't grow any tomatoes, and if it does, they'll split. So, you don't want that," he adds.

Watering your garden plants properly is absolutely key this time of year, but it's especially important for your plants that produce food, as they need that extra hydration.

"The second option is making sure you get a good tomato feed. Now you want to do this every week or two when it comes to summertime, and it really is super simple," continues Ish.

There are heaps of different ways you can use tomato feed; it's not just tomato plants that reap the benefits from this nutrient-dense food.

"Just a cap full in about four or five litres of water, in it goes there. Give it a good shake and then stir it directly into the compost, and that should give it a high potassium feed, which again, should encourage it to grow more tomatoes," he explains.

If you've not been pruning your tomato plants correctly, then this can have a significant impact on how well they produce fruit.

"The third thing is actually pinching out excess stems. Now, what you might not be able to see, we'll close up, is that this will produce a shoot here and then a side shoot. And these side shoots want to grow and grow, which is fantastic, but it's taking all the nutrients for growing and not focusing on growing any tomatoes," he says.

"So, all you want to do is take your fingers or some secateurs and pinch them off. By doing all three of these, the chances are you're going to have the best tomatoes this year," Ish finishes.

Simply follow these three rules, and you'll have an endless supply of ruby red tomatoes in no time.

Struggling with your tomatoes not ripening? There are a few ways you can ripen green tomatoes so that they're ready to be added to your salads, sandwiches and salsas!