TERRIFICALLY TASTY TOMS
It’s time to sow tomato seeds for a juicy crop this summer
Want to grow greenhouse tomatoes from seed? then start soon, as they are best sown between now and mid-March. Seed for outdoor plants can be sown from late March to mid-april. If scattered in a propagator, heated at 18c to 20c, they could germinate within a week. Just transfer seedlings to small pots or cell trays as soon as they’re big enough to handle.
You could have ripe tomatoes by July if you sow now — but there’s a cost. Young plants need temperatures at or above 13c. You can keep them in the propagator while small, but when they’ve outgrown it, greenhouse heating costs will be higher with these early crops.
Sow sparsely in a small pot or set seeds into mini- cell trays filled with fresh, sterile potting compost. to avoid damping-off disease, use clean water from the tap, which is not too cold.
When pricking out into spotlessly clean pots or cell trays, handle plants by their cotyledons — the paired, simple leaves which appear first.
If growth slows or the plants look stressed, night temperatures are too low. turn up the heat, or protect the plants at night with horticultural fleece.
If your greenhouse has a natural soil floor, you can grow tomatoes in the ground. But after a couple of years, pathogens build up in the soil and crops become less successful.
RING CULTURE
AN ALTERNATIVE is to grow tomatoes in large pots or growing bags. this works well, but plants can become root-bound, making watering and feeding hard.
avoid that with a simple ring culture technique. In large-scale operations, crops grow in bottomless containers standing on a gravel over a water-retentive membrane. Feed is applied to the pots and roots also get water from the aggregate.
that’s too complicated for small-scale gardening, but ring culture can work well with growing bags.
Specially designed bottomless pots are pushed into holes, cut in the bags. a second, outer ring surrounds the pot to make watering easier. liquid feed is poured into the pots, while water is poured into the outer rings, which goes directly into the growing bags. ring culture reduces water waste and makes better use of fertilisers. Suppliers include unwins. co.uk and sarahraven.com. You could even make your own.
CHOOSE BEST VARIETY
TOMATOES have two growth types. Determinate varieties, are best for outdoors. these flower at the stem tips and grow as multi-branched bushes.
Indeterminate varieties flower and fruit along the stems, but not at the tips. Best for greenhouse culture, they are often grown as single-stem cordons.
varietal choice is huge. F1 hybrids produce the most uniform crops. try Shirley F1 for reliability and good flavour.
among cherry tomatoes I love sweet-tasting orange-fruited F1 Sungold. Open-pollinated and heritage or heirloom varieties are interesting, but can be variable. last summer, four Gardeners Delight plants bought from my local garden centre were all different. Only one was tasty.
large tomatoes include the beefsteak variety Super Marmande and mid-size Orkado. Both are excellent for taste.
among oddities, Black russian grows vigorously and bears delicious beetroot-hued fruit. there are also tomatoes which ripen green, such as Green Zebra and F1 variety Green envy. But is green a desirable colour? Or is that intense red essential?