Tomatoes are a must-have vegetable – easy to grow, juicy and delicious. Grow them outdoors or in, and harvest from July to October.
There’s a wide diversity of varieties available, so choose according to taste, intended use, the space you have to grow the plants, and the shape of fruit required – from plum tomatoes to beefsteak, from cherry to yellow. Here are our tips for how to grow tomatoes.
Where to plant tomatoes
When your plug plants arrive, carefully unpack them from their transit boxes. Water the root ball if necessary and leave it to drain for 24 hours in a shaded place. Then plant in their final growing position in your garden pots, greenhouse or a sheltered, warm location.
All that tomatoes require is a warm spot out of the wind. Many people grow them in containers on their patio, or in a bed in a greenhouse. Each plant requires a small space, as you are looking for a single stem upwards unless you’ve chosen a bush or tumbling variety. For the longest summer harvest, grow your tomatoes in the greenhouse, though outdoor ripening will carry its own flavour.
Ensure that your tomatoes are well fed and watered, and train any trailing varieties against a support cane. One option is to plant your tomatoes into growing bags. It’s important to do this at the right time – not straight away, but when the first truss of flowers has grown.
Knead the growing bag and form it into a mounded shape. Puncture drainage holes into the bottom, and cut out planting squares at the top.
Make holes for the roots balls to be planted deep enough to be lightly covered. Then water and firm in. Use growing bag frames, and don’t forget the support cane for each plant, secured to the frame.
If you are planting out your tomato seed in late February, fill a small 7-8cm pot with compost. Firm this lightly down and water. Scatter thin sowing of seeds, then leave them on a windowsill to germinate. If you are growing several varieties of tomatoes, don’t forget to label each pot!
Seedlings will grow up within 14 days, and in two months it will be time to pot in. This should be done gently and carefully, potting one plant into a 7 to 8 cm pot. It is time to plant on again when you spot the roots extending out from the drainage holes. When you observe this, pot each plant on into a larger 12 to 13 cm pot.
Harvesting tomatoes
There’s nothing like the taste of tomatoes that have ripened on the vine. For the optimum flavour, pick either at or just before the height of redness – the fruit of some varieties will tend to crack at the point of maximum ripeness.
Store on a windowsill or kitchen counter. Storage in the fridge will reduce flavour and cause the texture of the fruit to become mushy.
Through the year
To ensure the growth of a single-stemmed tomato plant, snap out any shoots which grow in leaf joints. When a plant has grown four or five sets of flowering trusses, pinch out the growing tip. Ideally, you want the plant’s energy to go into producing fruit. Use a specialist tomato fertiliser every week after the plants have begun to flower.
Ready to plant your own vegetables now you know how to grow tomatoes? Take a look at our vegetable seed collection.