Top Tips for Growing Tempting Tomato Varieties

Now that we are nearly through the other side of winter we can start to look forward to spring and summertime gardening tasks such as collecting the fruits of one of our favourite plants, the tomato. February may seem like an odd time to think about starting these plants. However, gardeners with greenhouses or polytunnels can sow tomatoes this month for growing under cover. For other growers wishing to keep their edibles outside, they can be started off in late March or April as long as you place your pot of seeds on a sunny windowsill to give them a warm environment for germination.

Tomato Varieties

There are many varieties of tomato plants to choose from, depending on your individual tastes. For those of you who enjoy large yields for versatility in your cooking, a beefsteak type such as ‘Marmande’ is worth a try. Other tomatoes are perfect for salads, including the red cherry tomato variety ‘Sweet Million’, and the yellow crops ‘Gold Nugget’ and ‘Yellow Pear’. The diverse shapes and colours of the tomatoes provide interest to summer meals. The ‘Sweet Million’ variety produces uniformly round, reliable fruits, while the yellow fruits are very sweet, and almost completely lack the acidity found in most red tomatoes. Growing the ‘Yellow Pear’ variety is a joy: as they develop their pear shape they resemble small bells, declaring their eagerness to be picked.

Another consideration to bear in mind when choosing your tomatoes is the level of resistance to diseases offered by certain varieties. ‘Losetto’ and ‘Ferline’ appear to be somewhat resistant to blight, whilst ‘Shirley’ has some resistance to tomato leaf mould.

Top Tips for Success

When bush/tumble varieties supply six or seven flower trusses, pinch out the tip growing at the top of the main stem. Cordon varieties can be stopped after producing four trusses.

Keep compost evenly moist when growing tomatoes: fluctuations in watering can lead to cracked fruits or blossom end rot.

To protect your plants against blight, consider growing them under cover. This protects them from water droplets carrying the spores.

When growing indoor crops, misting flowers with water can encourage pollination and fruit set. Shaking the plants gently may also help.

Putting green tomatoes in a drawer with a banana at the end of the season can encourage the fruits to ripen, as bananas release ethylene gas. Alternatively, your under-ripe yields can be used to make a delicious chutney.

Enjoy growing your tomatoes!

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