Planting Tomato Plants in the UK
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.
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