Tomato Growing Tips

The tomato growing tips below cover a wide range of growing advice but if you have any questions, contact me here

• Sow seeds indoors for quickest germination.
• Use a propagator so seed shells do not stick to the seed leaves.
• Keep tomato seedlings and young plants in as light an area as possible so they don’t become leggy.

Q. Which bush – cherry variety would you recommend for beginners?

A. Tumbling Tom is excellent because it does not become leggy, it flowers early and as a bush type, does not require its side shoots removed.

Leggy means that their main stem becomes too tall too quickly because they are searching for light.

Don’t over-water seedlings … compost should be just moist – not wet.

Watering plants from below (in saucers etc.) is a good idea as it prevents the compost from becoming compacted from the weight of water from above.

• Pot seedlings into their own 3” pots at around three weeks after germination.
• Always use fresh compost because used compost may contain disease.
• Always sterilise pots and equipment that have come into contact with soil used to grow tomato plants in previous seasons – to avoid disease.

Plants cannot be left outside overnight until after your estimated last frost date.

New compost already contains food for growth, so feeding is unnecessary until all the food in the compost has been used-up by a plant.

Q. When do I feed my plants with tomato food?
A. No need to feed with tomato food until the first pea-like fruit appears (as below).

• Overfeeding young plants may cause root burn.
• N P K stands for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and are the three main ingredients (minerals) of plant food.

Sometimes, plants suffer from mineral deficiency because their roots are too cold to absorb the food they need, even though the compost they are in contains plenty of food. This happens mainly in the cold springtime.

A tomato plant has three stages of growth: leaf, flower and fruit. Each stage requires a different approach.

Tall plants are called cordon or indeterminate. These require their side shoots removed.

Bush plants are also called determinate and don’t require the removal of their side shoots.

Safety is an issue when using support canes. Attach a piece of heavy duty tape to the top of canes in order to see them more easily. Canes around three feet are the most dangerous … you bend down to look at your plants more closely and you could lose an eye if you don’t see the end of the cane!

Keep the compost in grow bags completely covered in order to reduce moisture evaporation.

Make holes with a pencil at both ends of your grow bag. If you make holes in the middle of a grow bag, the water runs out before it has had a chance to moisten all the compost.

Try to provide some shelter from the rain even if you grow outside because tomato plants hate their leaves constantly wet. Wet leaves in cold conditions for more than a couple of days equals tomato blight.

In the pic left, I have protected my plants with green garden refuse bags – not pretty but works well!
Cut the bottom off and slit down the side to produce a good size sheet.

Tomato blight is a fungal disease which is very destructive to plants and fruit.

Spraying with Dithane 945 at the first sign of blight is an option if you aren’t growing organically.

Blossom End Rot (BER) effects medium and large size tomatoes. Brown leathery patches form at the bottom of fruit because not enough calcium has been absorbed when the fruit was swelling.

One way to help avoid blossom end rot is to apply Chempac calcium. However, if you use good quality compost, water correctly and grow when the temperatures are suitable for tomato plants, you probably won’t need it.

The time that you may need extra calcium is when the weather is cold for a long period just before fruiting, or when the weather is very warm and your containers are drying out too quickly making it difficult to keep your compost moist.

Choose short season varieties if you live in a cool area such as Red Alert.

Q. When should I plant into a large container or grow bag when growing outside?
A. After the last frost in your area and preferably when the flower buds begin to open.

Some varieties are also cold tolerant such as Glacier. However, no tomato plant that I know of, is able to grow well if night temperatures drop below around 5 or 6°C.

Hybrid F1 varieties are first generation crosses of two other varieties.

Open-pollinated varieties grow “true to type” which means that they produce the same variety as their parent … tomato plants are self-pollinating.

You can save the seeds from open-pollinated varieties and grow the same tomatoes the following season. If you sow the seeds from a Hybrid F1, the seeds produce tomatoes with seeds that are F2’s. Unfortunately, these seeds are genetically unstable … they won’t produce tomatoes that are the same as their parents and you never know what you are going to get!

• French Marigolds and other bright blooms attract bees into the garden which help pollinate the the tomato flowers.
• Spraying with a mist of water and shaking the flowers gently also helps to encourage pollination.

De-leafing is the removal of lower leaves that are diseased or no longer of benefit to the well-being of a plant. Traditionally, it is common to remove leaves up to the truss that has ripened. So when the first truss has ripened the leaves below can be removed and so on.

The health of a tomato plant is usually displayed in its leaves. Mineral deficiencies, fungal diseases and viruses are usually shown in leaves.

To speed ripening, put tomatoes in a bowl with a ripe banana. Ripe fruit – especially a banana – gives off a gas which encourages toms to ripen.

Another consideration is soil PH – the acid to alkaline balance.
Tomato plants like this to be on the acid side at about 5.5 to 6.5 (neutral is 7.0). The important thing about soil ph is that if it’s right, it will help plants absorb nutrients, if it’s wrong, it will prevent plants from absorbing food.

It is possible to learn a lot about tomato plants and growing tomatoes but you can be very successful with just a little knowledge if you follow a few basic tomato growing tips this summer.

Sow seeds indoors in March or April.
Plant seedlings into 3” pots three weeks after germination.
Pot on to larger pots to prevent young plants from becoming root-bound.

Use fresh multi-purpose compost to fill containers or use grow bags.
Plant outside after last frost in your area.

Do not feed with tomato food until pea-like fruit appear.
If you grow tall varieties outdoors, pinch out main stem above fourth truss.

If you grow bush varieties, just leave them to do their thing!

Q. How many trusses should I have before I stop my plants?
A. The more trusses you have, the longer your tomatoes will take to mature.

If you are growing three cordon (tall) plants of the same variety, allow three trusses on one, four trusses on the second and five trusses on the third. This will mean that you will get an early harvest from the plant of three trusses and (weather permitting) get a larger harvest from the plant of five trusses later in the season.