10 tips for growing Tomato

1. Don't crowd the seedlings

You will be amazed how aggressive the roots are. Follow the seed packet and if you are unable to keep water up to the plants, space them further apart. Some bush tomatoes are fine at 75cm spacings, but many large vines are no closer than 1m spacing. 1.5m is even better.

2. Provide lots of light

Tomato seedlings will need either strong, direct sunlight or 14-18 hours under grow lights. Plant your tomatoes outside in the sunniest part of your vegetable plot.

3. Preheat the soil in your garden

Tomato love heat. Cover the planting area with black or red plastic a couple of weeks before you intend to plant. Those extra degrees of warmth will translate into earlier tomatoes.

4. Plant varieties that suit your region

This seems like a no brainer but many new to gardening do not realise just how many varieties there are out there and that many are not suited to your climate, especially in Tasmania.

5. Bury them and add potash

Bury tomato plants deeper than they come in the pot or in your home raised pots, all the way up to a few top leaves. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. You can either dig a deeper hole or simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow toward the sun. Be careful not to drive your pole or cage into the stem. Add potash to their planting hole for strong fruit and side dress with potash durng growing season.

6. Mulch Later.

Mulch after the ground has had a chance to warm up. Mulching does conserve water and prevents the soil and soil born diseases from splashing up on the plants, but if you put it down too early it will also shade and therefore cool the soil. Try using plastic mulch for heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers if you are in a very cold area or at higher elevation..

7. Remove the Bottom Leaves.

Once the tomato plants are about 10cm tall, remove the leaves from the bottom 1/3 of stem. These are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems. They get the least amount of sun and soil born pathogens can be unintentionally splashed up onto them. Spraying weekly with compost tea also seems to be effective at warding off fungus diseases.

8. Pinch & Prune for More Tomatoes

Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They won’t bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant. But go easy on pruning the rest of the plant. You can thin leaves to allow the sun to reach the ripening fruit, but it’s the leaves that are photosynthesizing and creating the sugars that give flavor to your tomatoes.

9. Water the Tomato Plants Regularly.

Water deeply and regularly while the plants are developing. Irregular watering, (missing a week and trying to make up for it), leads to blossom end rot and cracking. Once the fruit begins to ripen, lessening the water will coax the plant into concentrating its sugars. Don’t withhold water so much that the plants wilt and become stressed or they will drop their blossoms and possibly their fruit.

10. Getting Them to Set Tomatoes.

Determinate type tomatoes tend to set and ripen their fruit all at one time, making a large quantity available when you’re ready to make sauce. You can get indeterminate type tomatoes to set fruit earlier by pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer.