For many gardeners, growing tomatoes is the main event. It’s easy to see why. It’s hard to beat the flavour of a fresh, homegrown tomato warm off the vine.
It’s always a beautiful moment biting into your first tomato of the year, and the superior flavour when compared to the rubber bullets you find in the supermarket makes the elbow grease that goes into growing them all worthwhile.
Tomatoes are pretty rough and tumble plants, and will often produce a crop even when grown in less than ideal conditions. However, there are some tricks and techniques that will ensure your next crop is reliably heavy, and take your tomato growing to the next level.
Timing and varieties
A lot of successful tomato growing comes down to timing. Tomatoes are a warm season annual. There are many urban legends about when you should put your tomato seedlings in the ground, including Melbourne Cup Day in Victoria and Hobart Show Day in Tasmania. Ultimately, it all comes down to temperature. Ideally, tomatoes should not be planted out into the garden until the soil temperature reaches a minimum of 16 degrees, and 18-20 degrees is even better. Make sure you plant after the latest chance of frost, as this will rapidly kill any seedlings.
In subtropical areas like Brisbane the classic tomato season gets flipped. The weather is too warm for them in spring and summer, and fungal diseases abound in the humid air over these seasons. Instead, the season to sow or plant tomatoes in the subtropics is autumn; sow seeds in March, and plant out in April-May. There’s also less chance of fruit fly until the end of September.
Tomato varieties are divided into two categories. ‘Indeterminate’ varieties grow on long, tall vines and will fruit continuously through the season. They need some form of support like a frame, and can’t really hold themselves up.
In contrast ‘determinate’ tomatoes grow as a bush to a set size. All the season’s fruit will form and ripen around the same time. They’re a perfect choice for pots.
If you’ve struggled with growing tomatoes before, try picking up a few cherry tomato cultivars. In general, they’re more vigorous plants, closer to the wild type of the original tomato species. The smaller fruit are also less likely to succumb to diseases, pests and weather induced ailments like splitting before they end up on your plate.
Position and ongoing care
When planting, put seedlings into raised ridges of soil. This will allow water to shed downwards from the plant in heavy rainfall. Generally speaking, tomatoes are fairly adaptable to soil conditions, so amend the soil with some well-rotted compost as a general preparation technique.
Tomatoes need at least six hours of full, direct sun to grow well and fruit heavily. Anything less will set them back, reduce the amount of fruit and it’s chances of ripening.
Spacing your plants correctly is vital to prevent diseases down the track and ensure good harvests. For smaller cultivars aim for at least 60cm apart, for larger varieties give at least 1 metre. Such space provides for adequate air movement, which will help lessen the threat of fungal diseases that spoil fruit and thrive in damp, still air.
Fertilising your tomatoes will increase growth and fruit, but it’s important not to give too much of a good thing. Avoid applying fertilisers heavy in nitrogen as these will prompt the plant to put on heaps of foliage at the expense of flowers and fruit. A general fertiliser to use are ones labelled for ‘fruit and flower’ that have a lower ratio of nitrogen. Apply a small amount once a fortnight over the growing season.
Pots
If you don’t have a lot of growing space, tomatoes will grow quite happily in containers. Choose a pot at least 30cm in size per tomato plant, and look for a smaller or ‘dwarf’ varieties.
The key to successfully growing tomatoes in pots is to make sure the pots aren’t heating up too much and drying out. Thicker pots will take longer to absorb radiant heat from the sun, or you can cluster your pot amongst other plants to hide it from the strongest sun. Expect to water your pots every day if it hasn’t rained heavily.
Mulching the top of the pots is a handy trick that’s often overlooked. Applying a thing layer of something like coconut fibre or gravel will help slow the evaporation of water out of the pots by the sun, meaning the plants take longer to dry out.
Do you have any tips to add? Why not share your experience in the comments section below?
Also read: The best ways to eat tomatoes, from tasty tarts to simple salads
