Growing Your Own Tomatoes
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Growing your own Tomatoes
Tomatoes originate from a fairly hot dry climate and as frost. They will grow in just about any reasonably rich soil, but don’t worry if your soil isn’t that good it is still possible to grow your own tomatoes as long as plenty of fertiliser is supplied during the growing season.
When growing your own tomatoes in a small garden and only growing 2 or 3 plants, it is not worth trying to grow from seed as the packet will contain many more seeds than will be needed. In this case it is better to buy the plants from a nursery, this is a little more expensive and does remove one of the joys of growing your own tomatoes, in that you will not get that joy of seeing the seed germinate.
How many plants will you need?
A well grown tomato plant will give you about 3.5 to 5.5 Kg of tomatoes over the growing season.
Location Type of container. For the small garden either clay pots with a 12 inch diameter top or grow bags. The easiest is the grow bag which will hold three plants, and in general the soil in these bags has been formulated for growing your own tomatoes.
Variety
Choose a variety that will grow outdoors, some examples are; Alicante which is early fruiting, Gardeners delight which has long trusses of small and very sweet tomatoes, Sub Artic Plenty which has sweet bit sized fruit. And moneymaker good shaped medium sized fruit but can have a bland taste.
Planting
If growing your own tomatoes in pots fill the container with compost to within an inch of the top and water. If growing your own tomatoes in growbags follow the instructions on the bag. Now in both cases make a hole in the compost about the same size as the pot that the plant is in, then carefully remove the plant from its pot ensuring that the soil around the roots is not disturbed. You may find that watering the plants firsts helps keep the soil in place. Put the plant into the hole and firm the compost around the plant.
Support
As each plant can produce 3.5 to 5.5 kg of fruit they will need supporting this is done best by carefully placing a cane into the pot or bag near each plant without damaging the roots. This is best done straight after planting, as each plant grows gently tie the plant to the cane.
Watering and Feeding
The one downside to growing your own tomatoes is that they need a regular supply of water and the soil should never be let dry out and neither should the soil become saturated. Growing your own tomatoes in containers will require daily watering (twice a day in hot weather). They will also need a regular application of fertiliser, there are plenty of proprietary tomato fertilisers on the market, it is important that the instructions are followed carefully.
Sideshooting
As the plant grows in will produce shoots between the leaf and the stem, these shoots need to be remove so that the plant will generate good sized tomatoes, this is done by pinching the out with the thumb and finger as soon as they are seen and should be done every two to three days.
Harvesting
To pick your tomatoes sever the stalk just above what looks like a knuckle. This should be done when the fruits a nice and red but not over ripe they should still be firm.
This is a brief introduction, but has given enough information to try growing your own tomatoes.
Other pages about tomatoes on this site
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