There’s nothing that compares to the burst of flavour you get when biting into a home-grown tomato, with the sun’s warmth still in the skin
Words by Sally Nex
The best thing about these delicious fruits is anyone can grow them! They’re great if you’re just starting out, as they’re such vigorous plants it’s hard to go wrong. What’s more, there are so many varieties available to the home gardener you’ll find one to fit your way of growing whether you can provide a state-of-the art greenhouse, a roomy pot or just a spot on a sunny windowsill.
Sowing from seed
Tomato seeds germinate enthusiastically as long as you remember they’re South American and need plenty of warmth from the start.
Sow early, in February or March, to give plants time to mature by summer. Fill 10cm pots with seed compost, water, then place five or six seeds on the surface. Cover with more compost or vermiculite.
Tuck your just-sown pots into a propagator heated to 25°C or set them on your warmest, sunniest windowsill. You should see seedlings within 10-14 days. Keep them warm and damp and once they put out a second pair of leaves, they’re grown up enough to move to their own container.
Handling them gently by the leaves, carefully ease the seedlings out using a pencil. Replant each one in its own 10cm pot of multipurpose compost, planting deep so leaves sit just above compost level. Water and return to the propagator or windowsill to begin growing in earnest.
Starting with plug plants
If you’re short of space and time or don’t want the faff of sowing seed, though, there is a short cut.
Pick up ready-grown plug plants at the garden centre from late March, or order online, and you can bypass seed-sowing altogether. They’re pricier, and you won’t get the same choice of varieties, but they’re fuss-free. It’s also the only way of getting your hands on grafted tomatoes, grown on another, more vigorous plant’s roots so they’re stronger and earlier to mature, so is well worth considering.
Planting out and growing on
Keep your youngsters warm and watered and by the time they’re a few weeks old, your baby plants will have turned into hefty young bruisers, growing so fast you can almost watch.
It’s easy to let the roots get too cramped at this point, checking growth, so turn pots upside down regularly and look for roots trying to escape through the drainage holes. Once you see this, repot the plant into the next pot size up. Larger varieties often fill two or even three litre pots before it’s warm enough to plant them.
After the last frost, in mid-May or June, you can pla
