Top tips for major toms
There’s a tomato for everyone, all you need is a pot or grow bags
GROWING your own food from seed is probably one of the most rewarding acts of gardening. It’s exciting to watch tiny seeds develop into plants, it’s fun to nurture their growth, and then the best bit is that you get to eat them!
Home-grown food always tastes far better than anything you can buy, mainly because it’s so fresh, but the enjoyment is also enhanced by a sense of accomplishment.
So the good news is that it’s time to get sowing some seeds, namely tomatoes. These are started now so the fruit will be ready to absorb as much summer sunshine as possible to grow and ripen to their best. You can sow a bit earlier but this can often result in leggy seedlings which simply do not flourish in the low light of January and early February.
First think about what type you’d like to grow and what space you have available.
There are indoor and outdoor varieties so your choice will depend on whether you have a polytunnel, glasshouse or conservatory, or none of the above.
Where space is limited, you can grow bushy varieties in pots or grow cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets.
If you don’t have soil and your growing space is a patio or balcony, grow bags will be sufficient to accommodate two tomato plants.
Growing from seed will allow you a huge choice in terms of varieties available or you can plump for popular reliables such as ‘Sungold’, ‘Moneymaker’ and ‘Tumbling Tom.’ If you’re going for outdoor, delay sowing seed for around another month.
For a tomato seed to germinate, it needs heat. A heated greenhouse is perfect but you can also use a small heated propagator or a sunny windowsill so long as a minimum of 18C is obtained.
The seed is small so either sow them shallowly or surface sow and cover with some sieved compost or a scattering of vermiculite and water in.
Once leaves develop, prick them out and pot individually – a small yoghurt pot would be around the right size. As the plant gets bigger, you can pot on or into a grow bag.
You will need to harden off before planting outside. If your plant has become a bit leggy by the time it comes to planting out in the polytunnel or garden, you can plunge the plant in a bit deeper, burying some of the stem which will produce roots.
Cordon plants can be quite rampant when they get going and it’s for this reason you keep them in check by pinching out side shoots. The aim is to confine the growth to a single stem and direct the plant’s energy into flower and fruit production. Once you have six trusses or bunches of flowers, you pinch off the top of the cordon to stop more growth.
For outdoor varieties, you leave just four trusses.
Cordons need support such as bamboo cane, or you can grow up a string support – use twine as hessian string can rot over the growing season. If you’re a beginner, start
so the plant on fruit
with bushy varieties which don’t need support or pinching out. So what’s the secret to great tomatoes? First, plenty of food – they are hungry and as soon as they put on roots, start using tomato feed and increase to a fortnightly feed when the flowers emerge. Secondly, maximum heat and sunshine. Remember they are tender plants so if you’re growing them outdoors, they can’t go outside until after frost has gone in May or even later depending where you are. And thirdly, you need to provide consistent watering for plump, juicy fruits.
If this has whetted your appetite for veg growing, it’s also time now to start sowing seeds of chilli peppers, aubergines and peppers, all of which require a warm environment to get going.