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  • Cover your tomatoes with breathing plastic for a mini-greenhouse effect.
     

  • Water the roots, not the plant.
     

  • Tomatoes are sun-lovers!
     

  • Experiment with different breeds and colours.

Tomato Tips:

Tomatoes

Although they are actually very hardy plants, tomatoes are the divas of any vegetable garden.

 

They like it warm but not too hot, they want a lot of watering, but don’t you dare wet their leaves.

 

Still, if you pick your own home-grown jewels, you know all the work was worth it. Nothing beats the flavour that is packed in a home-grown tomato.

Pick a spot that gets enough sunshine and is protected from the wind. Tomatoes require a rich, well-drained soil, so you might want to add some compost or organic fertilizer to your tomato patch.

 

You start your tomatoes from seed, about six to eight weeks before the frost-free date in your area. Use a pottery soil to seed in and give your containers a warm place that gets lots of daylight. A window still is often ideal. As your seedlings grow, move them to larger containers, burying the stem below the first leaves as you do. This will develop a strong root structure.


Move your seedlings outdoors for a few hours each afternoon to get them hardened-off, before actually planting them in the garden. Make sure you give each plant enough space and if need be, tie the stems to a thin pole to guide them.

 

 

Tomatoes like warmth, so they welcome a layer of mulch to keep soil temperature up. Water them often, but be careful to water near the roots. Tomatoes don’t like wet leaves, which tend to turn brown and whither;

Once your plants start flowering, pinch out buds that are too close to one another. You want to keep one or two instead of a bundle, so you have larger fruits. You can start harvesting from the moment they start colouring, and leave them on the window still to ripen further, away from pests.

 

Frankly, once you have mastered the art of tomato growing, it will be quickly become a favourite crop to plant. There are many varieties of tomatoes, even in different colours, all with their unique flavour. Let your tomato dreams go wild and research some of these beautiful breeds (like the firm Coeur de Boeuf, or the dark Kumato).

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