2024 is around the corner, and as the house is still covered in gold, red, and green with all the Christmas decorations, and so to the vines at home are starting to produce fruit. I can’t wait for the RED jewel off the garden to ripen.
Nothing screams summer for me than vines full of red tomatoes.
Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow and return a high value for their growing space.
No store-bought tomato will ever taste like a freshly picked tomato that ripened on the vine.
They are sweeter, juicier, and have a more intense flavour. Cocktail tomatoes hardly ever make it into the kitchen with the kids playing in the garden. Those little tomatoes are powerhouses packed with flavour.
Freshly grown tomatoes are packed with nutrients and antioxidants essential for good health. They are rich in vitamin C, potassium, and fiber.
When planning your season and your garden, tomatoes are divided into two groups according to their growth. This will determine where you will plant your tomato and what support you will have ready.
Indeterminate tomatoes
- Have a vining habit that continues growing throughout the growing season and can become very tall,
- Start forming fruit later in the season, but the fruit will ripen steadily and continuously through the season.
- These tomatoes will need taller, sturdier supports and stakes.
- Popular larger varieties, Floradade, Moneymakers, and Oxhearts, are Indeterminates.
Determinate tomatoes
- Have a bushier habit and will grow to a fixed mature size,
- Start forming fruit earlier in the season, and all fruit ripens within about two weeks, after which the plant will die off.
- Need support in the form of lower stakes or cages. These are good to grow in confined spaces and containers.
- Roma and most cherry tomatoes are determinates.
Growing requirements
Tomatoes prefer full sun and well-drained, fertile soil. Large tomato varieties require more sunlight than smaller cherry tomatoes. Eight hours or more of sunlight is the perfect sweet spot for growing your large variety of tomatoes.
When watering, note that tomatoes prefer their roots to be watered and not overhead watering. Wet leaves invite fungal disease, and in the heat of the day, droplets on the leaves will amplify the sunlight and can cause the leaves to burn.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders and need a good amount of compost and other organic matter in their soil. Once you see the flowers on your tomato plant, it’s time to give them a good dose of Comfrey tea, which is rich in potassium. Comfrey tea is good for fruit setting, encourages strong growth, and prevents diseases. To see how we make comfrey tea, click here [1].
In addition to rich, fertile soil, your plants need good airflow to prevent disease. Once the tomatoes had grown their 6th branch, I cut all the branches below that branch. This will prevent soil from splashing up on the leaves and assist with airflow between your plants.
As the days are getting warmer and longer, your tomatoes will explode with growth. Keeping the tomato suckers under control will help the plant with fruit setting.
A tomato sucker is essentially a tiny shoot that begins growing in the spot where a branch meets the stem of the tomato plant.
If you leave these suckers untouched, they will grow into much larger branches, which in turn become sprawling, bushy tomato plants. Your plant will not die if you do not cut the suckers, but here are some benefits why you should cut the suckers off.
- The plants use their energy to produce fruit and not to grow branches – giving you sooner ripe fruits.
- Having fewer branches on your tomato plant means less competition between the fruits for nutrients.
- Suckers will make for a bushier plant that might bring disease to your plants.
Companion planting
Good companions: Basil, marigolds, borage, chives, garlic, onions, beans, nasturtiums, parsley, carrots, celery, sage, asparagus, gooseberries and marjoram.
- Basil – This vibrant, aromatic herb repels insects, specifically flies and hornworms, and is believed to improve the yield and taste of your tomatoes.
- Borage – It is said that borage deters the tomato hornworm. There are many opinions about this. In my experience, I always had a borage plant next to my tomatoes, but not this year, and this year is the first year I found a hornworm.
Bad companions: Potatoes, Brassicas, fennel, kohlrabi, beetroot, rosemary and sweetcorn.
Your local nurseries will often stock these seedlings.
- Cherry Tomatoes. These are great for smaller kitchen gardens.
- Roma tomato. Ideal for making stew, sauces, or tomato paste.
- Oxheart tomatoes. Oxhearts have been commonly used for canning and sauce for generations.
- Moneymaker’ tomatoes. These are best eaten fresh. They also work well in soups and in sauces.
- Floradade. Due to their round and meaty nature, these tomatoes are great for sandwiches, burgers, and fresh salads.
The tomatoes are looking good this season, and all the hard work to preserve the bounty is about to start.
Happy Tomato-growing friends
Tash and Family
Videos on how we grow tomatoes
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