This is a blog post on growing harvesting tomatoes. After growing my own food I just now realize that I have got round to write much about growing basic vegetables and fruit. The day to day staple which seems to be very much now what everybody is trying to achieve. Staples that are easy to grow and produce in abundance. Tomatoes can do that if given the right varieties and conditions. There is plenty of varieties to choose from I must say.
Try searching for popular varieties of tomato seeds you come to a stumbling block as it’s hard to find it now. Even if you find one just buy it I would say. As tomato is incredibly good for you. Even if the delivery is going to take longer.
Growing and harvesting tomatoes
If you are planning to grow tomatoes for the first choose varieties that produce tomatoes quickly and lots. I love Sungold tomato variety. I have been growing it for 2 years straight in a row and it never fails me produce lots of tomatoes. What variety you choose to go for cherry tomatoes. You don’t need to wait till August to see the harvest. Yup, August’s imagine having them in your garden from April till then.
Once you have the seeds then it’s time to sow. Sow them indoors to cover them with a plastic bag over the radiator or a propagator. Once germinate take them off the covers and continue to grow them indoors. In the sunniest spot that you can find. It is possible to grow tomatoes indoors in a pot. Do feel them regularly with some tomato feed. Grow them in some manure compost. In the pots or ground, they need the same type of compost. Perhaps a bit more tomato feed when they are grown in pots. When the plants mature give some support using cranes, post or fence. Always grow tomatoes in the sunniest spot you can find. South facing as they say after all it’s the Mediterranean vegetable.
If sowing tomato seeds fails fret not as there should be plenty available at garden centres. They are normally available for sale in garden centres from late March.
Tomato plants do throw up young offspring when they are growing if they are roots attached you can divide the plant. This is when you can get more yield as there are now more plants. If there are no flowers seen stalk then. This is to encourage the tomato plant to focus its energy on producing tomatoes rather than growing. I find that I tend to do it only with bigger tomato variety like San Marzano than cherry tomatoes.
Diseases in tomato plants
Tomatoes do get lots of diseases as well. Like tomato blossom rot, when the tomatoes are brown on the end. This means the whole tomato fruit is gone. Tomatoes need regular watering, some say it’s lack of calcium. Sow your seeds too late come early autumn the plants will be full of diseases. Like leaves starts to turn into unhealthy shape. Tomato also needs to grow in well-drained soil it will not grow well in clay soil. That is why I make raised beds just to grow tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits. On the raised beds I fill just with manure compost and this makes a big difference. Here is how to make raised beds out of pellets.
Everyone knows when to harvest tomatoes they are ready when the tomatoes ripen to red. One of the ways I found to ripen tomatoes to harvest them just when they are about turn red then leave them in my fruit bowl to mature. Otherwise, I might just end up with lots of green tomatoes. It is a common probelm growing tomatoes in a climate like the UK.
I have also tried seed saving tomato seeds but it only works if the tomato is not F1 variety. More about what is F1 variety is on that blog post.
Thank you for reading and dropping by.
