First Tomatoes of the Season

We have just started to harvest our first tomatoes of the season and realised this is actually the time that you should remember to be extra vigilant.

Having taken the trouble to select the right plants, popped them into the ground in the right location, maybe done a bit of pruning to top them out and prevent them contacting the ground; where they can pick up contamination. The watering program is clearly working and the fruit is coming and ripening nicely.

So what can go wrong? Well actually now, as suggested,  is the time to be extra vigilant against pests, blight and blossom end rot; to name a few of the potential problems you could possibly encounter. That would be a real shame at this stage of proceedings just when you are starting to reap the rewards of your toils.

All is not lost however, a few simple precautions and everything will be fine. Here are a few suggestions to ensure you can continue harvesting  tomatoes for the rest of the tomato season:

• Pollination, when there are flowers on the plant, just give them a gentle shake to help them pollinate. This is especially important in greenhouses where there is no natural breeze.
• Watering, make sure you keep up a consistent and regular watering regime of moist soil, not dry or water logged. Also try and water at the base of the plants so that blight is not encouraged through the foliage being damp.
• Pests, check under the leaves to make sure there are no hidden pests which need to be dealt with and take action as necessary and dependent on what you find.
• Feeding, don’t over feed, if the plant looks healthy and vibrant then you don’t need to feed at this stage. Just keep an eye on things and if it changes then just provide a light feed to perk them up again. Go by the instructions on the feed you choose.
• Harvesting, once your fruit has ripened then harvest it. This helps the rest of the plant by redirecting much needed energy to the other fruit to help it ripen. As a secondary benefit bird attack is less likely, birds only really like the fruit when it is ripe.

By taking these few simple precautions you will ensure that you benefit from a plentiful crop of lovely, ripe juicy tomatoes right through the season.

Assuming you have got your plants planted, whether that is in the soil or in some sort of container, and remembering to make sure that you do not put them in too early which would risk exposure to frost (not good), you will need to start thinking about ongoing care.

Bush type tomatoes (determinate tomato plants) grow to a set size and don’t really need any staking or pruning.

Vine plants (indeterminate tomato plants) on the other hand will need support and there are many ways of supporting them. A popular method is to use tomato cages, but using stakes or string is equally effective. Whatever way you choose make sure that the individual trusses are properly supported as the plant grows and take off any side shoots that appear, especially near the ground, to keep the growth under control and direct all the nutrients and water to the fruit bearing trusses.

Once the plant has developed 4 to 6 trusses the main stem should be pinched off about 2 leaves above the top truss. The 4 to 6 rule really depends on your available growing season and type of plant. For example in the UK you should probably only allow 4 trusses if planting outdoors but you will probably be OK with 6 trusses if greenhouse growing. Elsewhere in the world where you potentially have a better climate you may get away with more trusses outdoors, this is really a judgment call which needs to made based on climate and the length of your growing season.

Watering is very important, you need to set up a regime that ensures your plants are never dried out but equally important they should not be saturated either. Pots and or growbags tend to need more watering as they can dry out more quickly than if you have planted in the ground, 2 or 3 times a day is recommended or you can make use of an automatic watering system.

Feeding tomatoes is less important for plants in the soil, especially if the ground has been properly prepared but again if the plants are in pots or growbags they will benefit from regular feeding.

Its best to use a formulated tomato feed and to work with the instructions on the bottle for feeding. As a rule of thumb once or twice a week is good depending on the feed you use. If you prefer to feed twice a week and this contradicts the instructions on your chosen feed you can, for example, half the dose and deliver the same amount of feed but applying it twice instead of once. It’s really up to you and you will see from the results whether that works better in your environment, remembering of course not to exceed the recommended amount on the instructions.

If you are just starting don’t be scared to experiment and treat 1/2 your crop one way and the other 1/2 another way to find out what works best. As soon as you notice a difference you can adjust your regime to the best method.

A final tip on how to pollinate tomatoes, when the flowers are on the plants they tend to pollinate themselves with no problem, but it doesn’t hurt to help them along with a little bit of gentle shaking to dislodge the pollen, particularly if they are inside a greenhouse.