Growing Tomatoes | Questions and Answers | Hints and Tips

By far the largest postbag of questions received is about tomatoes. This is not surprising. So many of us have discovered just how much better tasting home grown tomatoes are when picked fresh and fully ripened from the vine rather than picked before they are fully ripe so that they keep on the supermarket shelves. See Gardening Tips | Best Tomatoes - Growing Tips

There are still many more questions in the bag and I will attempt to answer them here, it may take a while to get through them all!

Why Are My Tomato Plants Yellow?

Tomato plants yellow quite often if too much potash rich fertiliser has been fed to a tomato plant.

Tomatoes need potash to help to ripen the fruit but too much can lock up essential minerals in the soil. A good solution is to water with Epson Salts (Magnesium Sulphate) dissolved in water which can also be sprayed onto the leaves.

Do I Need To Plant Tomatoes Every Year

At the need of each season your tomato plants will be exhausted so pull them up and preferably composting them.

It is so easy to grow new tomato plants from seed each year; alternatively they can be bought quite cheaply as small plants.

Do Tomatoes Only Grow One Crop

The answer to do I need to plant tomatoes every year also applies to this question.

Best Tasting Tomato

Best tasting tomato? This is very much a personal thing.

I always favoured Harbinger until I found the seed difficult to come by but now I am very happy with Shirley. Also I grow Gardeners Delight as an alternative to have with a salad and these too I find have an excellent taste.

I have read tasting reviews with comments by chefs and tomato varieties that they like for texture and taste but I have tried and thought them bland.

Best Environment to Grow Tomatoes

The best environment to grow tomatoes personally I have found to be a greenhouse for the main reason that to some degree I can control that growing environment.

Some years tomatoes grown fine outside in the garden soil or growbag with no protection but other years the summer can be cool and sunless and the crop can be poor and / or not ripen.

Best Time to Plant Tomatoes

What is the best time to plant tomatoes is a good question and depends on your growing environment.

Tomatoes are usually grown in 5inch pots until the first flowers have formed. If you are growing them in the greenhouse then this is the time to plant your tomatoes in their final positions. However if you are planting tomatoes outside, hold back until you are sure all danger of frost has passed, plant in the ground once it has warmed up (put your hand into the soil and if you find it too cold then so will your plants) or pots or grow bags and cover over at night with horticultural fleece until the nights warm up.

Missed A Tomato Side Shoot

A reader emailed and admitted that they had missed a tomato side shoot and it was quite large, what should they do?

Firstly if it is really big it can be left and trained, it will produce flowers and fruits. Obviously it will take vigour away from the main stem. Alternatively take it out by using a clean and sharp knife, not the usual finger and thumb method as there is the danger of ripping down the main stem. If this happens early in the season plant the side shoot as you would any other cutting, there is a very good chance that it will root and produce a new plant for you.

Changing Soil When Growing Tomatoes

Another regular question is do I have to change the soil on my tomatoes?

If growing tomatoes in the border soil of your greenhouse then the answer is preferably yes.

When planning a vegetable garden we always plan to rotate the crops so that there is not a build up of disease in the soil. Also some plants are very hungry, hungrier than others, and will deplete the soil of nutrients resulting in poor crops. The same rule applies to the greenhouse, just think of it as another part of the vegetable plot.

Rather than change the soil every year, what you can do is to cut the bottom out of a large plastic pot and place that onto the greenhouse soil. Fill it to about two thirds full with compost of your preference, this could be from a tomato grow bag, and plant your young tomato. The tomato plant will grow away healthy and strong before its roots ever reach the depleted soil beneath. As the plant grows gently top up around the stem of the tomato which will encourage it to form roots higher up the stem, again helping to produce a strong and healthy plant.

Protection for Tomato Plants

The question has been posed do I need to cover my tomato plants?

Some varieties grow well outdoors and others are best in a greenhouse or conservatory.

It also depends upon your geographical location and local weather. If the weather in your location can be cool in summer a greenhouse is a better bet for growing and ripening tomatoes. If you cannot afford or do not have the room for a greenhouse grow them near to a wall that gets plenty of light and some sun during the day and construct a simple cover using clear but strong polythene that can be rolled up on hot days but put down on cool days and nights.

Do tomatoes grow at night?

Plants need light to grow. To continue the growth at night you would need to provide good artificial light.

Is harbinger a bush variety of tomato?

Harbinger is better grown as a cordon, in other words remove (pinch out) any side shoots.

For a tasty tomato harbinger takes some beating in my opinion.

If growing harbinger tomato follow the method illustrated in Gardening Tips | Best Tomatoes - Growing Tips

Potash

I have received the following questions about tomatoes and potash:

do tomatoes need potash to grow
planting tomato's with potash
should I put potash on my tomatoes

Potash helps tomatoes to ripen just like any fruit. Once the first tomatoes have formed dilute a proprietary tomato feed in your watering can. Do not apply to often or too strong a mixture as this can lock up other essential minerals in the soil needed by the tomatoes. Alternatively feed with seaweed based fertiliser and then occasionally sprinkle sulphate of potash over the soil or dilute it in your watering can.

When to Take the Top off Tomatoes

This question has been asked many ways on My Garden is My Space. Apologies to anyone if I have misinterpreted your question!

This is just a selection and from the number it is obviously a dilemma for many people:

how do you pinch out the growing tip of tomatoes
nip out growing tip
nip out growing tip of tomato
nipping out growing tip tomatoes
nip out top of growing tomatoes
pinch out the growing tip
nipping out top of tomatoes
pinching out growing tips on tomatoes
tomato remove growing tips
when to pinch out growing tip on tomatoes
where is the growing tip tomatoes
tomatoes when to nip out
tomato plants nipping out picture
growing tomatoes - when to cut off top
is it good for tomato plant to get very high. should top be cut off
when to nip out tops of tomatoes
nip out tomatoe
growing tomatoes nipping the top

Tomatoes can be stopped after four trusses (or branches of flowers) have formed. This is normally the procedure followed if you are growing your tomatoes by the cordon method.

When growing by the cordon method the main leading stem should be obvious. Nip this back to just above the leaf junction at the height you wish your tomatoes to be. Remember that the plant will attempt to grow side shoots from this joint just as it would lower down when you train as a cordon. Treat the same way and take out resulting side shoots.

By this stage you should have plenty of fruits forming that need to grow and ripen. Let the plant put all its energy into these potentially succulent fruits.

It is very important to keep up a good and regular watering regime. Taking the tip out will result in energy being diverted into the remaining parts of the plant and this surge can result in fruits splitting.

Hopefully this answers all the questions posed above!

Watering Tomatoes

Questions received about watering tomatoes include:

best way to water tomato
best watering method for tomatoes

I have mostly grown my tomatoes in the greenhouse.

In good summers there is always the danger of them drying out and, with an irregular watering regime, splitting.

If you are growing your tomatoes in the greenhouse soil, this also applies to plants grown outside, a good method I have found for watering is to sink a plant pot or a piece of pipe (something like a house downspout) into the soil as you plant out your tomato. Water into the pot or pipe and the water gets down to the roots and encourages a deep root run rather than the roots coming to the surface couple of inches if enough water is not applied. Remember, the surface of the soil may look wet but it may not penetrate very deep.

I also cut the bottom out of a large plant pot and press it just into the greenhouse soil. Then I fill perhaps two thirds of the pot and plant the tomato into that. I do water the soil around the pot but mainly water into the pot and let this soak in and water a few times. Again you are ensuring that the water gets concentrated in the right areas.

Growbags, grow bags, growing bags, soil bags, whatever you call them they may be handy for growing tomatoes but the watering can be a nightmare, as can supporting the plants. Firstly do not be tempted to put too many plants into the bag. It goes without saying that the more plants, the more roots there are demanding water. One problem is that when we cut a hole and plant into the bag the compost surface tends to be raised and hence water runs off as much as in. Luckily there are now gismos available that can be pushed into the bag, or adapt my pot method, to act as a reservoir water feeder.

There are expensive automatic watering systems available, electrically controlled etc. However, most of us home growers are trying to produce good healthy crops at an economic cost. There are available controlled plant watering systems where you fill a large capacity water bag and has a system that allows you to independently regulate water flow to each plant through adjustable drippers, ideal way to solve the drying out problem of growbags.

Another cheap, simple solution is to keep your used 2 litre plastic bottles, cut off the base so that you can top up with water and push them into the soil or compost. You can even buy adjustable drip feeders to attach to the bottles.

Is There a Way to Ripen Green Tomatoes?

The first thing to say is that at sometime we all have a problem getting tomatoes to ripen. There are some years when the weather is against us and the tomatoes grow slowly and become stubborn.

Questions posted include:

ripen green tomatoes?
ripen green tomatos how
tomatoes not ripening
tomatoes+not ripening

So what do you do to get tomatoes to ripen?

Are you and have you been feeding your tomatoes with a proprietary tomato feed that is high in potash? If no, begin now as this will help but do not be tempted to feed at a higher strength than recommended on the bottle or packet as this will tend to tie up other important elements required by your plants.

Another thing to try is to buy a box of Sulphate of Potash. This can be sprinkled on the soil around the tomato plant but do not heap the powder around the plants. An alternative method is to dilute the powder in your watering can and water the solution into the greenhouse soil, this is method I use.

Be patient, after this treatment you will not see the fruits ripening the next day but when one starts others will follow.

If it is right at the end of the season probably there will not be enough daylight hours to get them to ripen. Take the fruits off the plant and put them into a box alongside a banana which will speed up the ripening.

If you have enough green tomatoes, why not use them to make a tomato relish? We do and in fact if we have a great year with a glut of tomatoes we use red tomatoes in a relish.

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