Planting Tomtoes: How To Grow And Care For Tomato Plants
All you need to know about growing tomatoes in your garden plus our top tips and recipes for this delicious fruit (yes, it’s a fruit)
Tomatoes are one of the easiest and most rewarding vegetables to grow in your garden. They are also good for you. Whether planted indoors or out on the tiniest of terraces, nothing beats the flavour of your own home-grown varieties and you need only one or two plants to get a good crop. They grow quickly too and are cheaper than shop bought.
Growing Bush or Cordon Tomatoes?
Tomatoes come in two ways - either determinate (bush) or indeterminate (cordon/vine).
Bush Tomatoes
Bush tomatoes are variable in sizes, from dwarf (up to 2-3ft) or standard (up to 5ft) at which point they stop growing, unlike vine tomatoes, which continue up to greater heights. They are ideal for containers and therefore make good patio plants and the smaller varieties can work in hanging baskets or window boxes. They are also easier to grow though they may need staking if they are heavy with fruit.
Cordon Tomatoes
These grow tall - up to about 6ft plus. They will therefore need support. We recommend staking them with long bamboo canes or a string attached to a vertical support from the greenhouse roof which is another method we find works well. They will need attaching regularly to their support as they grow. They also require more maintenance than the bush varieties, but they are good in narrow spaces because they grow up as opposed to out. They can be grown in containers but make sure they are large ones and placed in sheltered sunny spots.
Pinch the top of the plant after the first eight leaf-nodes appear, roughly at 6ft. They will also need their side shoots (between the stem and the main branches) pinching out regularly to encourage the goodness to reach the fruit, not the leaves.
Growing tomatoes outdoors
It is slightly more challenging to grow tomatoes outside than undercover in a greenhouse as they can be more susceptible to blight, a disease which is brought on in rainy conditions. Tomatoes don’t like having wet leaves or stems so make sure they are somewhere that is as sheltered as possible and have lots of sun. The fruit of the tomatoes grown outside are a little tougher than those grown indoors; we recommend peeling them before using them in recipes. A good mulch is required to keep the soil moist and make sure they are planted in a good quality compost either shop bought or from one you’ve created in your own garden.
Growing Tomatoes in Greenhouses
Greenhouse-grown tomatoes benefit from having a longer growing season. The same rules apply to feeding, mulching and watering outdoors, though you will need to water more often in the heat of the greenhouse and avoid letting the greenhouse get too hot by opening windows on steamy days. They may require shade from really hot sun as it can toughen their skins and blotch their leaves.
Watering Tomato Plants
Water wisely: the trick being little and often and water the soil, not the plant itself, to maintain an even moisture. They do not like being drowned or dried out. Over-watering will make the fruit split and under-watering will encourage the plant to put the nutrients back in itself and not the fruit. To help hold the moisture in the soil, lay a good much around the base of the plant.
Feeding Tomato Plants
Start feeding regularly from flowering. This promotes the growth and boosts the size of the plant. A good seaweed or comfrey-based feed will give the soil a potassium boost. Do this roughly once a week. For a good feed, we recommend and supply Organic Tomato Feed by Neudorff.
When do Tomato Fruits Appear?
Depending on how much sun they get and where they are, the first fruit should appear after four to six weeks. Those grown outdoors take longer to mature than those indoors. A neat trick for both is to pinch the leaves around the fruit once they are at full size so the sun reaches the tomato with greater ease. At the end of the summer if there are still a few fruits that need ripening, bring them indoors and place them next door to bananas.
Tomato Companion Plants
Give tomatoes a few friends to boost flavour and draw pests away from them such as aphids. Tomatoes work beautifully, with basil, parsley, borage, marigolds and nasturtiums. All can be paired together in salads and nasturtium leaves make a good alternative to pesto, a natural recipe pairing for tomatoes. [link to recipe]
Popular Types of Tomato Plants
The most googled tomato plants are Moneymaker and the aptly-named Gardeners Delight. That’s not surprising given these are the most reliable and easiest to grow of the tomato plants. Gardeners Delight are a cordon variety and are best grown in the greenhouse. They have lovely-flavoured, cherry-sized fruit. The Moneymaker has been grown for more than 100 years and is noted for its reliability. It’s a cordon type and yes, it makes money in that it saves it, as your own home-grown tomatoes are so much cheaper and tastier than the shop bought. They produce about 200 tomatoes per season. No wonder they are so popular.
Browse our tomato range. We have selected the easiest, tastiest and most rewarding to grow.
Ashridge top tips and facts about tomatoes
Tomatoes are related to the nightshade family, which includes aubergines, peppers and potatoes
Their official name is Solanum lycopersicum
They originate from South America, more specifically Peru and Ecuador. The Aztecs gave them a name which literally translates as “plump thing with navel”
There are 10,000 varieties of tomatoes
They are technically a fruit, the smallest being the cherry tomato, the largest being beefsteak
They can come in a range of colours including purple, green and orange
Never put tomatoes in the fridge - it kills their flavour
Store cheap supermarket-bought tomatoes in a bowl in the kitchen for a few days before eating to enhance their taste. These are great baked in the low temperature oven with seasoning and whizzed up for a soup
A banana placed alongside an unripe tomato indoors will help ripen it
To peel tomatoes (good for outdoor grown tomatoes), nick the shape of a cross in the skin of the tomato with a sharp knife and drop in boiling water for a minute or two. The skin should become loose and be much easier to remove.
Health Benefits of Tomatoes
Tomatoes contain vitamin C, potassium, fibre, folate and vitamin K. They are a source of lycopene, an antioxidant which helps prevent cancer, is good for the heart and the eyes, as well as the skin. The carotenoids in them are considered to help against the sun’s UV rays although that is not to say you should avoid using sun cream.
* We will always supply tomato plants in pots, so our growing methods apply to that.