There is much joy to be had in picking sun-ripened, richly flavoured sweet tomatoes from your own garden.
Linda Ross shares her tried and trusted tips and techniques.
Tomato tips
Prepare the soil well before planting. Try our Power Soil recipe and give the warm season vegetable patch a big boost before seedlings go in. For every
square metre of your kitchen garden mix up the following: one handful of blood and bone, one handful of potash, half a bag of cow manure, one shovel
of homemade compost, one handful of Dynamic Lifter, a sprinkle of dolomite or garden lime, rock minerals as per packet directions, and Eco-hydrate
or Wettasoil as per packet directions.
Dig in then get ready for take off!
Allow a day to build the growing frame. Set stakes at least 50cm into the soil and anchor to star pickets in high wind areas. Insert a 75cm length of agline
pipe, on an angle, at each planting spot. This will allow for effective watering of the root system.
Water regularly. Add seaweed solution once a fortnight until flowering, then switch to either homemade comfrey tea, or a commercial liquid fertiliser.
Both will promote flowering and fruiting.
Photo - Shebeko/Shutterstock.com
Tomato techniques
Teepee: tie 6 x 3m stakes at the top to make a wigwam. Plant up with tomatoes, beans and cucumbers, which all grow harmoniously together. Use the central
shaded area in the middle for summer lettuce.
Boxed up: make 1m x 1m squares of bamboo with four corner posts and four horizontal rails to help support the fruit-laden branches of bush tomatoes.
Flat out: make 2.5m high tepee tunnel with tomato stakes. Plant with climbing beans on one side and climbing tomatoes on the other. Plant tomatoes at 1.5m
centres and train them horizontally for maximum sun exposure. Plant the inside of the tunnel with salad greens.
Beat fruit fly
For pest exclusion use netting draped over rounded pvc pipes.
Alternatively, use fruit fly lures such as Eco-Naturalure, following directions closely.
Tomato types
Introduced to Seed Savers in 1994 from the mountains of West Virginia, 'Hillbilly' tomato, a peach-streaked tom is big - 500-900gm!- and is great on sandwiches.
Cherry tomatoes colour up salads. Try ‘Black Cherry’, ‘Tommy Toe’, ‘Red Pear’ and ‘Yellow Pear’. When well fed they grow 2m high and wide so allow room.
Harvest 7-11kg per plant over 3 months.
Sandwich tomatoes are big and juicy. Try ‘Black Krim’, 'Costoluto Fiorentino' and ‘Oxheart’. Fruit (8-12kg per plant) ripens at once.
Egg-shaped tomatoes are best for cooking. ‘San Marzano’ is longer and sweeter than ‘Roma’.
Text: Linda Ross