Index

• Sowing Instructions
• How to Transplant
• Crop Maintenance
• How to Harvest

Tomatoes are mostly grown in a greenhouse. It is warmth and not direct sunlight which promotes fruit ripening. Tomato plants can be grown from plants bought from garden centres in May or raised from seed in February.

Sowing Instructions

• Sowing Time: Sow indoors in February
• Sowing location:  Sow in 24 cell trays or 9cm pot indoors, under cover
• Sow 3 seeds in each pot & thin out later
• Or sow 1 seed per cell
• Sow seed 0.1cm deep in 3 inch pots using potting compost
• Place in propagator

How to Transplant

• Prick out into 9cm pots once large enough
• April / May transplant again into larger, 1ltr pots using potting compost & place in greenhouse
• Some varieties can be grown outdoors in May
• These include Sungold F1 & Alicante

Growing outdoors 

• Transplant seedlings in late May
• Position in a warm, sheltered & south facing sunny location
• Plant into soil which is fertile, moist and drains well
• Add well rotted farm-yard manure to soil before planting
• Keep soil moist throughout growing season
• A regular water supply is essential for a successful crop

Crop Maintenance

• Feeding
  • Use a liquid feed. Once first flowers appear, use tomato feed, or fertilizer high in Potash
  • Read instructions provided on fertilizer label
  • Feed once each week 
• Watering
  • Avoid irregular watering: If plants dry out, fruits can shrink leading to splitting
  • If over watered, tomatoes can develop ‘blossom end rot’, a black mould on base of fruits
  • Keep soil moist, water once a week 
• Supporting
  • Tie main stem to a cane or support plants by tying them to greenhouse crossbars over head
  • Do not tie twine too tight around stem
    
• Pruning
  • Reduce the number of fruiting stems to speed up ripening
  • Plants can be pruned so that only the main stem and 4 or 5 side shoots remain
  • Remove any remaining side shoots as they appear (from the base of every leaf), this is known as pinching out
  • Cut off yellowing leaves and those shading lower ‘trusses’ of fruit

How to Harvest

• Harvest after 25 weeks 
• Tomatoes require heat for fruit to ripen
• Maintain regular watering at time of harvest
• If fruits are still green, ripen indoors
• Placing tomatoes in a warm location next to bananas helps speed up ripening process