22 May 2010 | BrianRS
I am writing this article about when to plant tomatoes in the UK on the 22nd May and the time to plant tomatoes in the UK is right now. No chance of growing from seed at this time of year because you would have to add a further 4 to 6 weeks onto the schedule and you just haven’t got enough time left to do that.
So if you haven’t already cultivated your tomato plants from seed you will have to go and buy some tomato plants and quickly. Because they need to be in the ground, a growbag or a 12″ plant pot this week or certainly no later than next week.
You also need to consider how long the tomato plants take to mature, they tend to come in 3 groups
- early season varieties, no more than 60 days
- mid season varieties, no more than 75 days
- late season varieties, no more than 90 days
It is the size of the tomatoes that primarily dictates how long they take to mature, cherry tomatoes generally slot into the early season variety, mid size such as plum tomatoes tend to go in the mid season grouping and larger tomatoes like beefsteak fit in the late season group. It’s a good idea to have plants from the different varieties to ensure that you have tomatoes maturing throughout the whole season.
Taking into account when you are likely to see the last frost of the winter, you can actually stagger when you get your plants into their final spot to further extend the season. Realistically you are probably only going to be able to steal another month because even after April has passed there is still a bit of a chance of a late frost.
We actually saw snow this year in the South of France during the first week of May, a bit of a disaster from the tomato growing perspective, especially if you are planting straight into the ground. So as they say in Yorkshire, ‘ner cast a clout till May is out’ which means don’t remove any clothes until May is out (out meaning arrived) so literally you need May to have arrived before you can consider the cold weather has completely finished. this year being an exception to that rule; so much for global warming.
So in summary the time to plant tomatoes in the UK is during the month of May, but taking care not to be caught by a late frost at the beginning of May. Seeds need to be being cultivated around 4 weeks to 6 weeks before that, depending on variety which puts you at the middle of to the end of March. In the UK that might mean you need to start your seeds indoors or in a heated greenhouse to get the ideal germination temperature of 16C (61F), but hopefully by then you will be OK.
Of course if you have the facilities available such as a heated greenhouse, you can start seeds much earlier perhaps around the end of January, but you will need to be able to protect the subsequent plants from frost as they are likely to be ready at the beginning or middle of March. They will also need some reasonable periods of sun, ideally at least 6 to 7 hours a day, not always easy to come by during March, but still feasible although they may be a little slower maturing.
24 April 2010 | BrianRS
If you are based in the UK and you don’t have a greenhouse then it will have been a long wait for you to be able to finally get around to planting tomato plants. The reason is that should you put your plants out too early, and there is a late frost then all your work will have been in vain, because frost is the tomato plant’s biggest enemy.
Even now you will need to be vigilant, but as we are rapidly approaching May, then there is a good chance that all the spring frosts are behind us. If you want to be ultra careful, what you can do is to plant your tomatoes in pots (12″ diameter is the best size for tomatoes) and if there does happen to be a warning of a frosty morning, you can bring the plants indoors overnight and protect them. Bit of a pain, but better than losing them all to our chilly friend.
If you haven’t grown your own plants from seed, it’s not too late but with an average time of 6 to 8 weeks from seed to plants large enough to plant out, and a short season in the UK, it is getting pretty close to the time when you will have no option but to go and buy your tomatoes in plant form. Choosing smaller varieties will help you in this direction because they don’t take as long to ripen as the larger beefsteak varieties.
When you do plant them out, make sure you pick the best location for your tomatoes and take care of the basic needs. You can remind yourself of what you need to do when planting tomato plants using the link provided.
It has seemed like the longest winter ever this year but April going into May really is the best time for planting tomato plants in the UK. Good luck.
17 January 2010 | BrianRS
To get you started on tomato growing you can download this free eBook ‘A Rough Guide to Tomato Growing’ which provides the basic steps required to start growing tomatoes.
All you need to do is to click on the eBook image and you will open a PDF file, save a copy to your computer if it doesn’t automatically download it for you.
In return I would ask you to subscribe to this blog which you can do easily using the ‘Get RSS updates via email’ option at the top right of the blog. Alternatively you can subscribe through ‘FeedCat’ by hovering over the FeedCat icon with your mouse and selecting your favorite reader.
That way every time a new post is published you will be the first to get the update and you will make sure you don’t miss any of the new information being posted.
Subscribing isn’t mandatory, it is up to you and if you decide you prefer not to then that is fine. You are also free to share the eBook in any way you like as long as the content is not changed.
14 January 2010 | BrianRS
There really isn’t a lot to do in the garden in January for a tomato garden. You can select some tomato seed and if you have a heated greenhouse you can start to sow your tomatoes during January. But for most people it will be better to wait until early March when the weather warms. Ideally, if you haven’t got a heated greenhouse, you should be looking to have your plants available and ready for planting out around early April once the risk of frost has subsided. You would normally expect the tomato plants to be ready from seed after about 4 – 6 weeks, this is type dependent but usually you can get a better idea from the packet.
Meanwhile you could just spend some time researching and reading up on the different tomato plant varieties and selecting the ones best suited to your needs, irrespective of whether you have decided to grow from seed or purchase the plants ready to go.
There are always some general maintenance jobs you can do in preparation for the growing season. Greenhouses in particular generally need a bit of sorting out.
Wash down the glass to get rid of any accumulated grime, clear out the gutters and replace any damaged panes of glass if required. This is also a good time to sort out your water butts if you have them, just empty them out and give them a good clean inside, use a dilute solution of disinfectant and if you are feeling industrious its always a good idea to give the inside of your greenhouse a wipe down with disinfectant as well to ensure you get rid of any contaminants.
If you are going to be planting outside and have some clear areas, these can be dug over in preparation and a good mix of compost and well rotted manure can be dug in to put some richness back into the soil. A good tip is to cover the ground with plastic sheeting if you find that the soil is too wet to dig, once protected from the rain it will soon dry out enough for rough digging.
Gardening isn’t all about tomatoes and at this time of year there are other gardening jobs in January that need to be done, a bit of pruning or general maintenance of your gardening equipment. Just take some time to have a look around and you will find plenty of little jobs to keep you occupied.
That said there will be some days when it is better just to put a log on the fire, sit with your feet up and watch a bit of TV. Then before long the weather will warm the sun will shine and you will be off on another year of cultivating your own crops.
8 January 2010 | BrianRS
There are 2 choices to make when deciding on where and how you are going to plant your tomatoes with respect to soil preparation.
- Planting directly in the soil
- Planting in a pre-prepared container
Planting Tomatoes Directly in the Soil
For the best results consider preparing the soil by digging a trench about 18″ deep and long enough to accommodate your tomato plants. The plants will normally require to be spaced about 18″ apart.
To help with water retention you can place a thin layer of a suitable mulch in the bottom of the trench, something like a layer of newspaper would be a suitable choice. Then fill the trench with a mixture of nitrogen rich compost and top soil. The all purpose compost should be well rotted and matured to ensure an adequate supply of nitrogen to the plants.
It is also a good idea to warm the soil slightly for tomato growing, this can be achieved by placing a dark layer over the ground that absorbs the heat from the sun and transfers it into the ground. Once the soil has warmed a little the plants can be put in; typically in the UK this would be in the early part of April, assuming there is no further risk of frost.
Once the plants are in, many people like to add a further layer of mulch over the top of the soil. There are advantages for doing this, but also disadvantages. The advantages are, that depending on the mulch selected, not only will the mulch prevent proliferation of weeds but can also supplement the plant feed if a nitrogen rich mulch is selected.
A disadvantage is that certain mulch types can keep the soil from being warmed, so look for a suitable compromise. You can visit Tomato Mulches for more detailed information.
Planting Tomatoes in Containers
The term containers has been used loosely here, because it refers to both pots and growbags. If you use a plant pot then ideally it will be around 12″ in diameter. Growbags tend to come in 35 or 40 liter sizes and the recommendation is that you would put 2 to 3 plants per growbag ideally. Visit Tomato Containers for a range of options.
Before using a plant pot you should clean the inside with a dilute solution of disinfectant, Jeyes fluid would be a good choice. Then fill the pots with a good quality, well mature, nitrogen rich compost to about an inch from the rim of the pot. Once the plant is established, you may find that you need to top up the compost a little as time goes on.
The main source of contaminants to a tomato plant is from the soil it is planted in, particularly after several seasons. That is why using containers is a good option and also why digging a trench and then renewing the soil in a trench can save you quite a lot of grief. You could probably get by with renewing the trench perhaps every 2 or 3 seasons, unless of course you have experienced any problems.
6 January 2010 | BrianRS
Tomato seeds can be sown from January onwards but need temperatures of around 16 to 18 degrees C, so if you are in the UK you will need a heated greenhouse for the early part of the year. If you don’t have a heated greenhouse wait until around March time before sowing to ensure you get healthy plants.
You should transplant into small pots once the tomato plants are large enough to handle and then finally plant out into large pots of around 12″ diameter, growbags or in soil about 18″ apart for final planting.
You should also note that the hybrid F1 plants are a little more difficult to grow from seeds, so if you prefer to err on the side of caution select an alternative variety for an easier time.
If you like to buy your tomatoes in plant form rather than as tomato seeds, you will find a range of Tomato Plants suitable for the UK climate using this link.
Includes Alicante, Apero, Beefeater and Cherry Belle tomato plants plus many more.
You should be looking to get these planted out around the beginning of April having ensured that there is no risk of a further frost. Frost will see off the hardiest tomato plant over night so make sure you do not risk losing your plants unnecessarily by keeping them sheltered until the weather forecast is favorable. Better a little late than not at all.
22 December 2009 | BrianRS
Tomatoes rely heavily on regular and frequent watering to produce healthy well developed fruit. The recommendation is that you should water 2 or 3 times a day to ensure that you maintain a moist but not saturated soil condition. It really is better to water tomato plants regularly and often rather than trying to provide the whole days watering in one visit or missing the odd day completely.
Many of the problems people encounter with their tomato crops arise from irregular watering and or extremes of temperature. These include blossom end rot, split skins, flower shedding and ripening problems but there are more.
Many people these days can lead very hectic lifestyles and are constantly under time pressure to get everything done, so taking care of the garden can sometimes drop down the list of priorities. For those people I would say that considering an automatic garden watering system of some sort is a good way of making sure that you address at least one of the tomato care factors that is very important for ensuring a full and healthy crop of tomatoes.
There are a number of options available that vary in both price and efficiency to suit your budget and the level of assistance you need. These can range from a simple roll mat that sits under your plant pots to a full blown Micro Water Irrigation System.
Two of my favorites are the ‘Big Drippa Watering System’ and the simple water spike which you just fill and leave, topping up periodically as and when you get the chance, just make sure they don’t run dry. You can purchase the water spikes ready made as below or you can adapt your own version, maybe from an old lemonade bottle which you puncture to allow the water to leak out into the surrounding soil. There are obvious benefits to using something designed for the job, but as long as you take a little care there is no reason why you cannot get your own self fashioned version to work equally as well.
I have included a couple of the better automated systems in the options available, one that runs off a large storage tank for longer periods of watering and the other that runs off your tap for a fully automated system that really does take the pain out of watering if you do have one of those very busy lifestyles.
A word of warning before we finish this post, there are other factors to consider when growing tomatoes, such as pest control, pruning etc. If you do decide on a fully automatic system don’t forget that you will still need to check your plants for other problems so that you can nip them in the bud, so to speak. Sorry about the pun.
19 August 2009 | BrianRS
Around the end of the growing season for your region with the colder nights coming in and perhaps a possibility of frost on the horizon, you need to start thinking about how to ripen tomatoes that are still green before you loose them completely.
One of the ways of ensuring that your tomatoes ripen is to continuously harvest your tomatoes as they become ready for picking, this releases energy to the tomatoes that are not quite ready and will encourage them to ripen.
Another general suggestion is that if you note that your night time temperatures are dropping below 70F then there is little to no chance of any new blossoms becoming fruit, so pinch these out and direct the energy they would otherwise have taken to your fruit that still needs to ripen.
Another handy way of turning tomatoes that are in a greenhouse is to hang a bunch of bananas in the greenhouse with the tomatoes, the ripening bananas will give out ethylene gas, which is the gas that causes fruit to ripen and bananas give it out in abundance, even after they have been picked. Why this works in a greenhouse is because its an enclosed environment which allows the gas to be effective.
Removing large fruit that is still green will give the smaller fruit more of a chance of getting the energy needed to ripen and if you select them correctly you may be able to place the removed tomatoes somewhere dark and dry to ripen them off, just check them every few days to make sure there is nothing going wrong or to see if they are ready to use.
If all else fails you can ripen tomatoes indoors but you have to get them off the vine before a heavy frost gets them, they can be protected up to a point by covering for light frosts but this is a little risky.
One method of ripening indoors is to take each tomato and wrap it in newspaper, place the wrapped tomatoes in a cardboard box up to 2 layers deep, any more and the tomatoes on the bottom layer will tend to get bruised and damaged as they ripen so stick to the 2 layer rule to be safe.
You can place a banana on the top to aid ripening if you want to, the tomatoes will produce their own ethylene gas as they ripen but a banana will add additional quantities of gas which is actually a ripening hormone. Place the box in a dark dry place, avoid high humidity as this will tend to cause rotting of the fruit and check periodically for progress. Make sure any fruit that is showing signs of a problem is removed and disposed of.
Temperature plays a part in the ripening process and the minimum temperature should be 55F for reasonable results, any lower and you will have tasteless, bland fruit. The ideal is between 65F to 70F for a speedy ripening period (2 to 3 weeks) and tasty fruit.
Things that prevent tomatoes ripening: -
- insufficient sun light
- extreme temperatures cold or hot
- if the tomato is large in size, just needs more time
- erratic watering schedule, tomatoes like consistently damp soil that is neither dried out or saturated, although you can back off on the watering a little as they start to ripen
- not picking off the ripe fruit
- allowing too many blossoms especially late in the season
- over fertilizing
6 August 2009 | BrianRS
A very common tomato pest is the aphid, on their own these little beasties look fairly innocuous and harmless, unfortunately they are not stone kickers and when they arrive, seemingly out of thin air, they arrive by the droves.There are also hundreds of different species of aphids.
There are loads of different ways to treat aphids and if applied at the right time they will work pretty effectively. A small but significant problem however is their ability to multiply, without having to mate and their persistence.
They see out the winter as eggs which hatch in the spring to turn into the winged females that go looking for nice juicy sap filled plants where they can lay their eggs. The eggs once laid only take about a week to hatch and the resulting aphids, which have a piercing bite will start to feed off the plant and produce young of their own and so the cycle begins.
Each aphid can produce up to 100 offspring so its not hard to imagine that within a very short time frame you could be faced with dealing with several thousands of these little creatures. When the food supply starts to get exhausted the young then start to appear with wings ready to fly off looking for fresh plants and food but by that time it is likely that their relentless feeding on the sap of your tomato plant will have killed off the plant and any chance of tomato fruit.
The symptoms – leaves start to curl up an turn brown, there will be secretions of honeydew which will tend to foster fungus which often looks sooty and black in colour.
Prevention – use Aphid Traps
, they should be placed in position in your garden early in the spring ready for the aphids winter eggs hatching and probably before you have actually planted tomatoes. Aphids are more resilient to the cold than tomatoes are and will happily feed off any plant that will provide sap while they are waiting for the nice tasty tomato plants to arrive.
Treatment – aphids can be killed using a similar method to the ones used for whitefly, Savona is a safe alternative to chemical insecticides and which I have provided a link to above or you can use a mix of 1 part insecticidal soap with 4 parts of water applied using a spray gun, this will generally see them off.
Like whitefly they hide on the underside of leaves so make sure you lift the leaves up and give the underside a good soaking. They also gather near the base of the plant so don’t forget to get right down to spray around the base. The soap mix unfortunately doesn’t last too long so will have to be re-applied quite regularly until you are sure they are completely eradicated.
If the Savona or the soap solution doesn’t work you could try something a little more drastic, use either a deltamethrin dust or permethrin dust.
19 July 2009 | BrianRS
This is a short video that discusses which are the best tomatoes to grow in your garden and giving the reasons why, some of the suggestions include cherry tomatoes (sweet one hundred), patio type tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes like Brandywine or Cherokee Purple.
For best flavor choose Heirloom they don’t travel well but it shouldn’t be too far from your garden to your table so that doesn’t really matter and don’t worry what they look like if you are after flavour.
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