Growing Tomatoes With Taste

Welcome to Growing Tomatoes With Taste.

So you’ve chosen to try your hand at growing tomatoes!  What a great decision!  You will be rewarded far beyond your expectations with your results.  It is easy, irrespective of how you do it – whether it be in a big garden bed or in pots in limited space.

Here are the possibilities we cover in this website – growing tomatoes in pots, growing tomatoes in containers, growing tomatoes indoors, growing tomatoes upside down, growing tomatoes from seed, growing organic tomatoes, growing all sorts of tomato varieties, heirloom tomatoes, celebrity tomatoes, tomatoes for every purpose.

We cover tomato fertilizer, tomato soil, watering tomatoes and everything you need to know. If you want more, purchase our inexpensive e-book – Your Guide To Growing Big Juicy Tomatoes.

There are some simple rules to follow and you will be rewarded with delicious, tasty tomatoes which not only make your salads, pastas and winter casseroles the envy of your friends but also give you great pleasure and enjoyment tending them and watching them grow.

Tomatoes are choc-full of nutrients like lycopene, an anti-oxidant which helps neutralize free radicals and aids in the fight against cancer, heart disease, macular degeneration amongst other diseases.

What’s there to NOT like about tomatoes!  They are such a versatile fruit and mixed with your favorite herbs, basil and oregano make mouth-watering salads and pasta and other dishes.

Tomatoes Making A Comeback

There is a primal pleasure about growing your own vegetables.  It keeps one in touch one’s roots with Mother Earth, a link which many urbanites lose from living in the city.

Native tribes developed it and it was part of their culture, but sadly it is lost in most urban communities today with a resultant loss of the appreciation of Mother Earth who provides us with sustainable food sources.

Happily, many urban communities are rediscovering the pleasure and joy of growing and eating home grown vegetables through community-established urban gardens.

There Is A Tomato Variety For Every Situation

You might want to grow cherry tomatoes or the Roma bush tomato because of lack of space or you might want early  or late maturing varieties to eke out the season for as long as possible.

To cultivate a good crop you need to follow certain rules and the first one relates to temperature.  Tomatoes like warm temperatures for optimum growth, so once the temperatures are constantly above 60 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) it is safe to plant outdoors.

Ensure the danger of frost has passed.  This usually means May in the northern hemisphere and September in the southern but it really depends on your latitude and altitude.  Tomatoes enjoy temperatures up to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (or roughly 30 degrees Celsius).

I have nursed them successfully through a three to four week heatwave of 100 degrees plus (42 to 45 degrees Celsius!).  Measures have to be taken to prevent scorching, though.  So your tomatoes can be very forgiving as far as temperature is concerned!

Tomato Plants Need Room To Grow

If you are planting in a garden bed you need to allow 12 to 36 inches (30 to 90 cms) between plants, depending on variety.  If you are trellising, allow even more.  Plants which are too close together may promote disease and limit fruit production because of too much shade from too many leaves.

Air needs to circulate in and around your plant to prevent fungal diseases from developing.  Trellising and/or staking provide support for indeterminate (tall) varieties and help to keep fruit off the ground.  Any fruit which either falls off the vine or is in contact with the ground on the vine is inviting disease.  Remove any such fruit.

Tomatoes, Sun & Soil

Tomatoes love sunlight and as a rule of thumb should receive about 6 to 8 hours a day.  They also need watering constantly and a good liquid fertilizer about every fortnight.  One rich in potash is ideal as this strengthens the cell walls.

Soil should be well drained and aerated.  If you have clay soil add lots of compost and gypsum to break the clay down.

Prune For A Healthy Plant

Tomatoes also need to be “pruned” during the growing season.  The old rule of thumb is “pinch out the laterals”.  These are the secondary branches which grow out between the main stem and a leaf.

If you leave them you will get a bushier plant with plenty of tomatoes and also plenty of shade for those really hot days but you run a greater risk of fungal diseases by cutting down on air circulation.  If you do pinch out the laterals you will have a more manageable plant still with plenty of tomatoes (and easier to stake).

That’s really all you need to do!  Simple, isn’t it!  Tomato plants are hardy and can withstand even the most ignorant of gardeners but it’s nice to know the science of growing excellent tomatoes and the pride it engenders.

If you want to start growing tomatoes with taste then let’s get started. Click here for our guide to growing tomatoes

Happy gardening,

Fred Duncan