Planting out tomatoes

If you are growing tomatoes it is a good time to plant out your plants to their final position if you have not done so yet. Generally it is not recommended to plant out your tomatoes earlier than the very end of May. From a late March sowings mine were just ready to go out (read almost pot bound) from 15 cm tall pots.

As the tomatoes are hungry creatures and love water I would suggest you dig 3 times bigger whole than the pot the plants are in and add 1 or 2 spadefuls of homemade compost. If you don’t have compost don’t worry you can always give your plants a good homemade nettle and comfrey feed. I don’t always have compost and find that feeding the plants with nettle feed really helps them grow and given that the summer weather is well, summery I always have bumper crops even on heavy, clay soil. Feed the plants once a week during the growing season after planting out, dilute your feed until it is light green in colour.

If you live in the north part of the UK you could experience that tomatoes don’t grow well outside as the summers are cool and cloudy, so if you serious about growing tomatoes and peppers it is well worth to invest in a small greenhouse or polytunnel, in the long term you will enjoy it a lot I promise. I know many people afraid to make that investment as it could cost quite a bit of money but if you can I encourage you to get one. A greenhouse is essential for chillies and sweet peppers too, hmm imagine making your own chilli sauce and dip.

Growing bags are a good option for your tomatoes too if you don’t have space for them in the garden, but you will still have to feed them as I found that there is not enough food for the plants in the bags for the whole growing season to have a successful harvest. If you added lots of compost or planted the tomatoes in growing bags then no need for feeding for at least a month.

Pinch out the sideshoots of the indeterminate varieties as they appear and support the plants with canes. After the plants developed 4 trusses of flowers if you are up north or 5 if you down south, pinch out the growing tips of the plants so they will use all their energy growing fruits instead of developing more foliage. Remove the yellowing lower leaves from the plants too, this will help air circulation around the plants which is essential in humid weather as the dreadful blight loves wet conditions.

See also  Saving Seeds - Peas and Beans
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