Tomatoes are a joy to grow in the garden but have a reputation for being tricky. The truth is you can easily grow a bumper crop of tomatoes as long as you stick to a few simple rules.
And this is true even if like me you are growing in a cooler climate - I'm in London - without a greenhouse.
So in this guide I'll share my top tips for growing tomatoes easily including :
- Top Tomato Varieties
- Best Tomato Planting Time
- Starting Tomatoes Inside
- What To Grow Tomatoes In
- How To Plant Out Tomatoes
- Cool Tomato Trellis Ideas
- Ripening Tomatoes Quickly
PLUS these key gardening secrets :
- Pinching Out Tomato Vines
- Preventing Blight
Do save the guide for quick reference.
Table of Contents
Top Tomato Varieties
There are two main types of tomato plants you can choose to grow :
- Vines (indeterminate)
- Bush (determinate).
Vine Tomatoes
Vines give the biggest and longest harvest BUT grow over 6 foot and need:
- Trellis or support structures
- At least 2 foot of space per plant
- Pinching out & pruning.
Bush Tomatoes
Bush tomatoes thrive better in pots and containers than vines. Some bush tomatoes e.g. Tumbling Tom are cascading varieties that can be grown in hanging baskets.
There are all sorts of fancy tomato varieties but if you are a beginner growing in cooler climates without a greenhouse I would always recommend focusing on cherry tomatoes.
Reliable Cherry Tomato Varieties
Popular cherry tomato varieties for bumper harvests include :
- Red Alert
- Bite Size
- Sungold
- Tiny Tim
- Gardener's Delight
- Supersweet
Best Tomato Planting Time
The right time to plant tomatoes is a balancing act : if too early they'll struggle in the cold, if too late, you'll be left with loads of green tomatoes ...
To grow a bumper crop of tomatoes in cooler climates you need to sow seeds indoors so plants will be ready to go out as soon as the average temperature is reliably over :
- 60f/16c during the day
- 50f/10c at night.
Find out when temperatures typically hit this in your area and work backwards allowing :
- 1-2 weeks for germination
- 4-5 weeks for seedling growth.
Which means sowing seeds 5-7 weeks before you will plant them out.
If like me you've got limited space indoors sow 5 weeks before - one year I planted early, May was freezing and I ended up with triffid-like tomatoes taking over the kitchen!!
Starting Tomato Seeds Inside
It is easy to start tomato seeds inside.
Just fill a DIY seed tray with sowing compost and plant tomato seeds :
- ¼ inch deep
- with one seed per module.
Ideal germination temperature is over 68f/20c so put tray in a sunny window and if your home is cooler cover with clear plastic. Seeds typically germinate in 5-14 days, taking longer if cooler.
Keep compost moist but not soggy to aid germination. As soon as seeds germinate, rotate your tray daily to prevent thin leggy growth.
When seedlings are roughly 3 inches transfer to pots 4-5 inches wide. If roots start escaping the pot before warm enough to plant out you may need to repot again to a 6 inch pot.
What To Grow Tomatoes In
You can grow tomatoes easily in :
- Grow Bags
- Pots & Containers
- Raised Beds.
Or in fact in any random bit of soil as long as it is in a sunny spot!!
Grow Bags
You wouldn't think you'd get a bumper crop of tomatoes from a plant grown in a bag but you can. Tomatoes have broad rather than deep roots which help keep them upright so a flattish grow bag can be perfect.
Pots & Containers
Tomatoes can grow well in pots but tall vines prefer more horizontal space for their roots so containers can be a better choice for bush tomatoes.
If you do plant tomatoes out in a pot make sure it has good drainage holes and scrub it well with hot soapy water pre-planting to reduce risk of disease.
Raised Beds
Raised beds give tall tomato vines plenty of space for spreading roots. Just don't cram them in too close. Healthy plants need more space underground than they do above!
The only issue with raised beds is the risk of blight from planting your tomatoes in the same spot every year.
If like me you have limited options in a small garden rotate tomatoes with soil feeding and healing crops e.g. :
How To Plant Out Tomatoes
You need to start hardening off tomatoes 10 days before planting out. Put them out in a sunny but not scorching spot for an hour on day one, two hours on day two etc.
After a week the plants can stay out all day but they will need bringing in at night for a few more days.
Your tomatoes are then ready to be planted out into a container, grow bag, raised bed or other sunny spot.
Plant your seedlings deeply - almost right up to first leaves - which will encourage more root growth and help strengthen and balance the vine.
Sadly slugs and snails love to eat young tomato plants so protect them with copper rings and use these other tips to control slugs & snails.
Cool Tomato Trellis Ideas
Vine tomatoes do need a support trellis and sadly a few bean pole tripods won't - I have learned the hard way - cut it!!
The good news is, there are lots of easy ways to make your own DIY tomato trellis including :
- Tomato Cages
- T-Post Tomato Stakes
- A-Frame Tomato Trellis
- String Training Tomatoes
- Florida Weaving Tomatoes
Tomato Cage
The simplest way to trellis tomatoes is almost certainly a tomato cage.
Many of the tomato cages you can buy are - frankly - rubbish. They are too short and not strong enough to keep your tomatoes upright.
But you can easily make a big, strong DIY tomato cage with concrete reinforcing mesh from a DIY store ...
You can easily train your vines within the tomato cage to grow where you want them for easy harvesting.
If you are growing tomatoes on a patio and have some carpentry skills - I don't!! - you could make a super stylish wooden tomato cage as below ...
One disadvantage of tomato cages is that they squash up foliage which can make tomatoes more vulnerable to blight. If you do opt for cages makes sure there is ventilation between them.
T-Post Tomato Stakes
Another simple strong way to support tall tomato vines is with individual T-post tomato stakes.
You basically just knock the t-posts into the ground and tie tomatoes into them as they grow. T-posts can be a good option if your site isn't well sheltered.
However, it's an expensive option per plant and on their own they don't provide support for tomato trusses.
A-Frame
A simple A-frame tomato trellis can be made cheaply with sticks and wire and is a good option for a few, shorter vines in a small, sheltered vegetable garden.
A-Frame With T-Posts
For taller heavier vines you can strengthen a basic A-frame tomato trellis with a couple of T-posts at either end that will give extra support without busting your gardening budget.
String Training
Some gardeners swear by string training tomatoes for good support and healthy plants with very high quality fruit. The basic idea is you focus on growing the central stem as tall as possible up a string by pinching out most of the side truss and suckers.
The string training method lets you grow more plants in a smaller space. You can support string trained tomatoes on a T-post frame or with a DIY PVC tubing trellis as below ...
Florida Weave
The Florida weave tomato trellis technique is an easy alternative to string training tomatoes. You simply :
- Tie rows of string between A-frame or T-post supports at both ends.
- Weave your central vine either side of the string as they grow.
- Weave each adjacent plant in the opposite direction to it's neighbour.
Growing in different directions the vines all support each other.
Pinching Out Tomato Vines
Tomato vines are triffid like!! They can grow to 10 foot and will keep putting out more and more new suckers.
This means your vines can easily get out of control and put all their energy into new shoots and foliage rather than producing flowers and fruit.
So make sure you pinch out new shoots on your vine tomatoes regularly.
It's very simple, you just :
- Pinch off the top leaf shoots once your vine has reached the top of the trellis or support structure.
- Pinch off new shoots that start growing between the main stem and the horizontal trusses.
Ripening Tomatoes Quickly
A cold, wet, grey June can feel like a disaster for your tomato crop.
Fruit when they finally appear stay resolutely green and as they're not being harvested the vine doesn't produce more flowers and fruit.
But you can break this vicious circle and trigger a bumper harvest.
I simply give my tomatoes 4-5 weeks on the vine after flowering and then start picking them even if they are green. I leave the tomatoes to ripen on a plate on the kitchen table.
In my experience, this first early harvest kick starts more fruit and faster ripening. From then on, I pick tomatoes at the first sign of redness and finish ripening them in the kitchen.
This method gives me tomatoes all summer through and doesn't leave me with a huge harvest of green tomatoes at the end of the season.
It also seems - touch wood - to help to prevent the horror of tomato blight.
Preventing Tomato Blight
Tomato blight is a dismal experience!
One day you are admiring your almost ripe red tomatoes only to be confronted the next day with rapidly blackening fruit, leaves and vine stems.
My top tips for preventing blight are :
- Look out for blight resistant seeds.
- Give plants plenty of space.
- Don't over water.
- Don't water foliage.
- Pinch out side growth.
- Promptly cut away any leaves which start to brown or yellow.
- Harvest green tomatoes in cool, wet summers to reduce stress.
- Towards the end of the season cut away foliage and trusses that have finished fruiting.
In wet summers tomatoes may start splitting but this isn't typically blight.
Why Are My Tomatoes Splitting?
Ugly splits in the precious fruit of your tomato crop can induce blind panic!
But splitting isn't usually a sign of disease. It is typically a result of too much liquid from over watering, prolonged rain or storms.
The skin of fully grown but unripe tomatoes can't expand further to hold the extra liquid and splits.
Once the protective skin is split the tomato is vulnerable to disease and diseased fruit can if you are unlucky infect the rest of the plant so do remove split fruit promptly.
Even better ripen your fully grown but slow ripening tomatoes indoors.
And there you go, everything you need to know to start growing tomatoes easily for a bumper harvest. Shout with questions and let me know how you get on.
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