Tomato techniques
Make sure you get the best tomato bounty this year by following these tried-and-tested tricks, says Bob
VERY few plants are more willing to crop than tomatoes. Yet our plants can give many more fruits with just a little more encouragement from us. First, we get them growing strongly, ideally in the ground – but where space is limited then large tubs or even bags can work just as well. The drawback with containers is they’re hard to keep watered sufficiently when plants are cropping. Any water shortage causes checks, especially if it is hot – this can lead to blossom end rot, when fruits develop with dark inedible bottoms. Planted in the ground, tomato plants seldom suffer this – however, the ground is colder and so slows growth. Make it warmer with a cloche while they establish, and grow through black plastic sheets, which also help to retain moisture and to stop weeds.
It’s sensible to enrich their soil before planting, although you can add liquid feeds to their water later so that’s not essential. More important is to ensure adequate water. Tomatoes are so thirsty in the ground that you cannot really overwater when it’s hot.
Some folk like to nip out side-shoots growing out from every leaf joint. If you do not remove these, your plants may become tangled leafy bushes, though in practice leaving them usually results in more, much smaller fruits. By nipping out all shoots except the main stem, you get fewer trusses so individual toms grow larger; if you grow any huge beefsteak varieties, do thin to one per truss. When you nip out side-shoots, these can be rooted for more plants. Being from flowering plants, these start bearing almost immediately, making bushier specimens that are brilliant for filling gaps in vegetable beds or almost anywhere else you can slip them in. That really increases your total crop!
“Very few plants are more willing to crop”