Difficulty:
From seed: Easy, but requires attention to detail
From young plants: Very easy, suitable for beginners
From grafted plants: Very easy, suitable for beginners
Why grow tomatoes?
Growing your own tomatoes is easy and very rewarding. Tomatoes aren’t cheap in the supermarket, but when you grow your own, you can get a whole season’s worth of tomatoes from just one or two standard-size plants, and sometimes too many to eat in one season! Not only does it work out cheaper, but they taste so much better than any you could buy in the supermarket too.
All tomatoes do well in a greenhouse but there are plenty of varieties that are suitable for growing outside in the UK climate, so a greenhouse or polytunnel isn’t always necessary. Likewise, a large space isn’t necessarily required, as there are all sorts of compact, dwarf varieties available too.
There’s such a wide variety of different tomato types to choose from and they all have different flavours. For example, there’s plum, cherry, beefsteak, standard, marmande and cherry-plum.
There are many different types of tomato available so you can choose the most appropriate type for your garden:
· Tall or ‘indeterminate’: The main shoots grow up to 2m tall naturally. To encourage the stems to branch out and produce more fruit, you cut the growing tips off the plants, which keeps them a manageable height as well.
· Bush or ‘determinate’: Side branches develop instead of tall main stems. These tend to spread rather than grow upwards, they don’t require any support and they’re great for growing outside.
· Dwarf: Very small, compact bush-types that often only grow to no more than 20cm tall. Ideal for growing in containers.
Our top varieties
For growing in a greenhouse: Shirley, Premio, Golden Cherry
For growing indoors or outdoors: Gardener’s Delight, Ailsa Craig, Sweet Million
For growing outdoors: Tomatoberry, Roma, Super Mamande
For containers: Garden Pearl, Tumbling Tom, Red Alert
When to sow
Sow indoors: February – April
Plant young plants: May
Plant grafted plants: May
Harvest time
July - October
Site and soil
When growing outside, tomatoes are best situated in a sunny position, which is ideally next to a wall or fence so it’s sheltered from wind. To get the best out of your tomatoes, dig the ground you’re going to plant them in before-hand. Digging in a bit of well-rotted manure or Organic Extra will improve the soil quality and fertility, making the plants produce more tomatoes.
Alternatively, tomatoes do very well in grow bags or large containers filled with multipurpose compost.
How to grow tomatoes from seeds
Sowing
All types of tomatoes need to be sown indoors either in a greenhouse, propagator or windowsill. Sow seeds singly in modules or 1” apart and a depth of 2cm in seed trays and allow to soak by sitting it in a tray of water for a couple of hours. Alternatively you can sow 2 or 3 seeds at a depth of 2cm into standard-size (9cm) pots.
Once the seeds have reached seedling stage, prick them out from the seed tray (or remove from modules) and replant singly in 9cm pots. For seeds that were originally sown in 9cm pots, remove the weakest seedling to just leave one or two growing.
After a few weeks the plants will have grown into their pots and will be ready for final planting (either indoors or outdoors depending on variety) once the roots have begin to poke out the bottom of the pot. For outdoor varieties, leave them in the pots for a little longer and gradually harden them off by leaving them outside during the day and bringing them back inside at night, until late May when they can be planted out.
Plant either in large (30cm) pots, 3 plants per growbag or 30cmapart in the ground.
How to grow tomatoes from young/grafted plants
Planting
Your young or grafted plants will be delivered at ‘ready-to-plant’ stage in late May. This saves on all of the work involved with sowing and propagation. It’s advisable to let them rest in the trays/pots they arrive in for up to a week before planting, especially if planting outside. The young plants may require a small amount of hardening off before planting outside. Do this by leaving them outside during the day and bringing in a night time for two weeks before planting out. Simply plant the tomato plants out in their final growing positions, around 30cm apart, and water them in.
Further growing information for tomatoes
Growing
Tall tomato varieties require support. This can be in the form of bamboo canes, netting, string or specially designed growing supports. It’s best to provide the support as soon as they’re planted so the plant can be secured to it (with string or wire-tie) as it grows, rather than picking them up and staking them once they’ve already become too heavy.
Around mid – late summer, tall varieties will need to be ‘stopped’ which is simply done by snipping off the top growing tips. This encourages the plant to branch out and produce lots more tomato trusses. Outdoor varieties don’t require as much watering as indoor varieties, but in very dry spells they will benefit from a good soak once a week. Indoor varieties should ideally be watered daily.
During the summer, feed the plants with a good quality tomato food, such as Nutri Tomato Plant Food, once a week.
Harvesting
During summer tomatoes can be picked as frequently as every day. Simply pick the tomatoes, or entire trusses, as they ripen.
Storing
Tomatoes don’t store for fresh use, apart from up to a week in the fridge, but there are a number of ways to make use of a harvest that’s been too much to eat all in one go:
· Turn into chutney
· Make tomato sauce
· Make tomato soup and freeze
Health benefits of Tomatoes
Tomatoes are incredibly good for you. They contain vitamin C which boosts the immune system and they’re full of powerful antioxidants and carotenoids. One in particular, lycopene, may help prevent certain types of cancer.
Tomato pests and diseases
Tomato Blight – This happens mainly with outdoor varieties. Edges of leaves become browned and the fruits develop blackened patches. Unfortunately there isn’t a remedy for attacked plants, but the air-borne disease can be delayed by covering the plants with polythene or growing inside a greenhouse.
Greenhouse pests – Plants can be attacked by aphids, whitefly and red spider mite. Using a control, such as Plant Rescue Bug Killer will prevent damage from any of the above pests.
For best results
If aphids become a problem in your greenhouse, use Plant Rescue fruit and vegetable bug killer. This concentrated liquid is effective at killing many types of vegetable pest.
Feed your tomato plants regularly with Nutri Tomato Plant Food to get the most out of your plants.
You may also need
For great results, grow your tomato plants in grow bags with our specially designed Tomato Grow Pots, which make watering easier and offers support at the base of your plants.
The Big Drippa Watering Kit is a gravity-fed watering system, not electronics required and keeps your plants watered for up to a week!
