Choose the perfect tomato
It’s time to start your seed sowing now, so why not try a new variety for super summer crops?
After weeks of winter it’s finally time to start growing the crop that will provide some of the year’s biggest harvests and most satisfying results. Yes, it’s time for tomato growing to begin!
It might be the end of February but maybe gardeners should wish each other a happy new year now, when they’ve sown the first tomato seeds of the year. For many of us, it’s the act that marks the beginning of the growing season. And surely there’s no aspect of gardening that gardeners get more fanatical about than growing tomatoes?
Tomatoes are one of our biggest talking points. Are they as good as last year’s? Did the neighbour water them well enough when we were away? Should we have fed them more? Was that new compost we grew them in for the first time any good? To make even more talking points, try growing a whole range of different varieties of tomato this year because there are dozens to choose from, each with their own quirks and qualities. Us gardeners tend to be creatures of habit and just ‘grow what we know’ but we’re missing out if we opt for the same varieties every year. Whichever ones you plump for, get your seed and start sowing now, to make sure you have strong and well-developed plants to plant out at the end of May. Once your tomato plants have started flowering, feed the plants each time you water them, feeding at half the strength stated on the manufacturer’s bo le.
To grow tomatoes in pots for the whole growing season, use a mix of equal parts topsoil or John Innes compost to multi-purpose and mix this together for their final po ing. This mixture won’t be as prone to drying out as multipurpose compost on its own, and will provide a long-term supply of nutrients, as well as being a ‘heavy’ compost, so pots are unlikely to be blown over.
Add a water-retaining agent to the compost or insert a drip-feed watering system into a hanging basket because tomatoes in baskets will dry out quickest of all. Make sure the final pot for growing a cordon is at least 25cm (10in) wide and the same deep. With regular watering this will accommodate three plants. For bush tomatoes, grow one plant in a 20cm (8in) wide and deep pot.