Growing tomatoes made easy

The Secret to Success:
Ensure the soil is warm. Warm up your soil by covering it with black plastic a few weeks prior to planting. Those extra degrees will translate into earlier tomatoes.

If you are planting in a pot or growbag, put a sheet of aeroboard/polystyrene underneath. This is a much warmer environment for the root system by creating a barrier between cold soil and roots (and also a great way to re-use aeroboard).

An exception to the rule, tomatoes can be buried deeper than they come in the pot – all the way up to the first few leaves. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. If you can't dig a deeper hole, simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow towards the light!

Pinch and side shoot tomatoes regularly. Remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches (picture)

Mulch your tomatoes after the soil has had a chance to warm up.  As tomatoes love heat. Mulching conserves moisture and prevents soil and soil-borne diseases from splashing up on to the plants.

If planting in a pot, Place pot near warm wall as the heat is reflected from this

Remove leaves from the bottom 1ft of the stem. These are usually the first leaves to get disease and fungus problems.
Water regularly to keep the soil/compost evenly moist. Feed every 10-14 days with a good organic tomato feed , changing to feeding every 5-7 days once the first fruits start to set.

Grow Basil at the base of your tomato plant! This will act as a mulch, and is naturally a great combination plant for tomatoes. A few marigolds planted in close proximity will help keep your tomatoes free from insects.

Greenfly & Whitefly
If you do happen to get a few insects on your plants, you can boil up some garlic from your kitchen in water, allow to cool and use this as a spray.

Growbags can be difficult
I'm not a big fan of growbags for the growing of tomatoes, especially when the growbag is left flat and is planted with three tomatoes. To me, it's far too shallow and plants are difficult to maintain from the point of view of watering. A far better idea is to grow the tomato plant in a pot, approx 50cm in diameter, and use John Innes multipurpose compost. For better depth, cut growbags in half and you have two upright plastic pots.

Sungold - yellow fruit, medium sized, fantastic flavour!
Alicante - medium sized, good old fashioned flavour!
Money Maker - red medium sized, very hardy!
Shirley - medium sized with a great taste!
Tumbling Tom - trailing variety, great for containers!
Try a hanging basket of tumbling toms. A great way to grow this little beautys

Top Tip
 Great for an experiment .
String the root ball of the tomato plant to support the plant as it grows

Lightly tie on end of the string at the base of the plant. Then wrap around the Root ball of the plant 2 or 3 times with the string .  As the plant grows . Support the plant as seen in image below. The string will help support the weight of the plant.