Terrifically tasty tomatoes encapsulate the
pure joy of Summer in a sweet and juicy package. They are a must grow for any gardener because
of the delicious taste when freshly picked. But whether you're coming
at this for the first time or here for a few tips to up your gardening game, I've got you covered. Today we'll be lifting the lid on all you need to
know to get your tomatoes off to a flying start. Welcome to our tomato planting masterclass. I reckon tomatoes give us the biggest
range of varieties of any crop we can grow, testament to our love affair
with this stunning plant. You've got cherry types, varieties for salads, great big beef tomatoes the size of an ox's heart and paste tomatoes with
lots of fine flavored flesh for transforming into the most delicious sauces. Some varieties are best suited for growing
in warmer climates or in a greenhouse, while others will cope just fine outside,
even in notoriously fickle climates like mine. My advice is just to read the
variety descriptions with care to make sure it's suitable for your
intended growing space and use. Then there's the growing habit. Whether your tomatoes are sturdy bush types
officially known as determinate tomatoes or lanky vining types, the indeterminates. More on the difference shortly. But first, let's sow. Tomatoes are tender souls. As a warm season crop they prefer
to not tolerate chilly weather and they certainly can't be doing with frosts, so my advice is to start them 6 to
8 weeks before your last frost date so they remain manageable sized
plants right up till planting time. And you can find out when your last frost date is by just entering in your postcode
or zip code into the Garden Planner and you can take advantage of our free trial
which I will link to in the description below. It's getting a little bit late
in the day to be sowing tomatoes, but I thought I'd make just one last sowing and I've chosen a really prolific
hanging basket tomato here claims to produce hundreds to
thousands of tomatoes over the summer. So let's put it to the test shall we? So I'm just going to use a normal
all-purpose potting mix here but because it's a little bit lumpy in places, just going to pass it through
this little sieve or screen here just to kind of get a nice smooth
kind of end result to sow into. There we are. Probably actually
just fill it up most of the way and finish with the fine mix. That's
a bit more efficient isn't it. There we go and then pat it down and then I'm just going to spread the individual
seeds nice and evenly over the surface. So I'm going to sow about, I don't
know, six or seven seeds here these are fresh, so they'll definitely come up, most of them will come up, there we go and and then take the time
to pick one individually and just space them half an inch or
so, or 1cm across the surface like this and then we'll just lightly
cover them over once we're done. Then once you've spread your seeds over, just a tiny bit more of the potting
mix, like that, over the top. Now, being warm seasoned plants, tomatoes like
a nice warm and cozy environment to germinate we're looking for an ideal temperature
of 70 fahrenheit or 21 celsius. So the best place for that for me is indoors. Now you can, sorry Rosie, just
out the way darling, good girl. Well I'll bring this up. You can put this
inside like a little humidity dome like this to keep things nice and cozy like that and that will create a nice
kind of warm micro environment . Or, if it's just one individual pot, I just
prefer to take a clear bit of plastic like this over the top and then secure that in place
with an elastic or rubber band like that. Now this will go on a warm window sill indoors. If you've got a heat mat that little bit of
bottom heat will really get things going faster but that's really not essential. Warm
sunny window sill would do just fine. Once the seedlings are up, keep them
in a warm bright position to grow on. Earlier in the season, in late winter, that might
mean putting your seedlings under grow lights but as spring progresses any
bright window sill will do. That's great for about a week or so,
but as they get a little bit bigger try to move them somewhere that gets
more even light, from all sides. It'll stop the seedlings leaning to one side. Now you can always rotate the pots to
keep the seedlings growing more straight, but for me that means moving my little
tomato seedlings out here as soon as possible once it's warm and safe to do so. So I've just made made some sowings and I've got these guys here that
we're going to plant out shortly. I want to show you the next stage
though of what to do with the seedlings. Haven't got any that I've sown, but
these guys have cropped up here, popped up from last year, they're volunteer tomatoes that have
just come where the tomatoes have sown. So well, these will do just
the job to demonstrate with. Now I could actually use these,
these are of a cherry variety and well they'd be just as strong
and good as the ones I've sown. So let me show you. So I've got the seedlings out
and then I just carefully, really carefully kind of
tease them apart like that. Look at that, there's the actual
old tomato skin on the bottom. Anyway, then I'm using a little stick
or chopstick or whatever to make a hole then always handle the seedling by
its leaf, never the delicate stem and then just pop it in and go right
up to the lowest leaves like that. Now I've got my pots already
pre-filled with potting mix that means that there's no delay in
getting the seedlings into their new homes there's no risk of them drying out or whatever. And I like to transfer my seedlings like this, as soon as possible, while they're
still very small as you can see here. They're pretty good at just being
transferred while they're young. There's no advantage to letting them get bigger, because as they're smaller they're
easier to get into the holes. Now I'm setting these seedlings quite a bit
lower as I said right up to the lowest leaves and that's because tomatoes
have an amazing ability to produce new roots right the
way up the length of their stem and so by setting them a little bit
lower, you're going to get more roots which will create a stockier, sturdier plant. It also means if you've got really lanky
seedlings, you can kind of correct it by setting them lower and
getting them back on track. Tomato seedlings are very forgiving like that. Come on darling, this way. Good girl. There we are, they're all pricked out
or transferred into their own pots. The last thing to do is
give them a bit of a drink. Now don't worry, they might look a bit
bedraggled but they'll soon perk up. Now these can be kept anywhere
sheltered from the cold so a greenhouse, cold frame, plant house
even outdoors in a warm and sheltered spot so long as they're brought
indoors on chilly nights. But now, at this time of year for
me, they're absolutely fine out here. I find that tomatoes are surprisingly resilient
and will put up with a little bit of chill but don't push your luck. You definitely
don't want them to get frosted. And here are some that I transplanted into their
own pots about sort of four to six weeks ago and you can see they're
coming along really nicely. Just different varieties,
hence the different sizes. But they're all growing incredibly
fast now it's finally warmed up. It's been a bit cooler out
here than inside the house, but I find that the extra light
more than compensates for that. Now, if you're not quite ready to
plant them into their final positions then you can just pot them
on and it's very simple. Take the tomato out of its pot. Get a bigger
pot, and then set it right at the bottom. Now remember I said that they produce
roots all the way along the stem well you can set them again quite deep like this just nick off these little seedling leaves and that'll just help us to create
that stockier, sturdier plant. And you can do this at every stage of
the potting on or planting out process, just set your tomatoes nice and deep. However the rest of them are good to
plant, so let's get on and do that now. If you are planting your tomatoes outside, then
you'll need to harden them off before planting. That just means getting them used to,
aclimatizing them to the outdoor conditions. They hate being in a cold chilly draft and we need to get them toughened
up, ready for the big outdoors. Now, the way to do that, is simply, on a
mild day like today, bring them outside. Leave them outside for as long as it's
mild and then bring them inside at night and then the next day, leave them
out for a little bit longer and so on over the course of around a week. These guys here are going to stay in the
greenhouse so there's no hardening off necessary and I'm going to be planting three types today. I've got a cherry tomato, a
paste or Plum tomato for sauces, and then a really good general tomato for
slicing that's also really blight resistant. Let me show you how I'm going to grow them though. I'm going to plant them into
the greenhouse beds here and I'm going to use these
simple string supports here which I've tied onto a horizontal wire up here. Now this is really, really
tough stuff and that's important because it's got to support
the weight of our tomatoes. Now at this point I should
probably explain the difference between indeterminate or vining tomatoes
and bush or determinate tomatoes. All of the tomatoes I'm going to grow in the
greenhouse are indeterminate or vining tomatoes. That means they don't grow
to a predetermined height, they just carry on growing up and up until
cold weather ends play later on in the Autumn. Now because they keep on
growing they keep on flowering and producing fruits in a more
continuous and steady flow. So you'll always have something
to pick once they get started. Now they do need good supports. In the wild
they just kind of trail along the ground but by growing them up supports
we'll get a much better crop. I'm going to plant my tomatoes
about 45cm or 18in apart and I'm just going to dig
a nice hole for them here, pop it out and then I'm going to thread
the string underneath the root ball so that's going to get planted as well. There we go, that just secures
it in place, pop that in and then remember to feed it in so
we're burying some of the stem as well so we get another chance of
creating that really strong plant. Now you might notice I've got
some salad leaves in front here. They won't interfere, they'll grow nice and low, they're only going to be in here
for another kind of six weeks or so and this will grow up, so they're
not going to get in each other's way. Now I should tell you how
I prepared the soil here. I just added some really well rotted manure, in
fact, at the end of winter, just dumped it on and spread it out to about
an inch, inch and a half or 3 to 5cm deep and then that's done the job. Now if you haven't had a chance to
spread organic matter yet onto your soil don't worry, just get it on now and
just make sure it's well rotted. Garden compost would be ideal and that'll just give a really good
strong basis to start fueling that growth. I also like to grow cucumbers
against string supports like this and if you missed last week's Cucumber Growing
Masterclass Video which shows all of that then I will link to that down below. Now I've also had really great fun
growing tomatoes in straw bales. It was like alchemy, transforming a crispy
dry bale into the perfect raised bed and that had all sorts of fruiting crops in it. So if you'd like to see that video
too, I'll also link to that one. Another option is hanging baskets of course. Now they dry out really quickly so you'll
need to watch them really, really carefully. You can mix in water retaining gel
to hang on to moisture for longer or pop a saucer into the bottom of the basket
to help trap some of that excess water. However if you're in a very hot, dry or windy
climate they may be more effort than they're worth and you may want to avoid them. Staking or supporting plants is essential. It
keeps plants upright making the best use of space. It'll dramatically reduce the chances of soil
born diseases or fruits rotting on damp ground. There'll be fewer pests and looking
after the plants is so much easier because everything's elevated and you can
see what you are up to as you tend your crop. I'm using string supports in here
because, well it's very convenient and they're very quick to set up. But like I've said, just make
sure it's nice and strong. Outside you could use strong posts or battens. You could also use bamboo canes, but do be mindful that plants can get
really heavy under the weight of fruit so there's a risk of them
snapping, so proceed with caution. Whatever you're using, definitely tie
your plants in at regular intervals right the way along the length of the stem. This reduces the risk of any weak spots
and plants snapping under the weight. Another option is a tomato cage
and I've made this one very simply using stock fencing or
cattle fencing you could use and I've just cut it down to the right width and then use the ends of the
wire to weave it all together. Now I've given myself a final diameter
of around 18 to 24in which is 45 to 60cm. That should support your plants nicely. And then to help pin it to the ground I've
weaved in these lovely uprights of hazel, just woven them in and out and then
got them protruding at the ground, so I'll stab these into
the ground once we're done. But first we need to plant and for
that I'm going to use an outdoor tomato that also happens to be blight
resistant and that's really important cuz my tomatoes always get
clobbered with blight out here. So this way I'll get something
even when it does strike. But before I plant come here, I've got
something pretty interesting to show you. What we've got here are grafted plants you can
see that the bottom is different from the top. Well the bottom is a really vigorous root stock, it confers a lot of energy and growth and vim
to the variety which has been joined onto it. We've essentially got two plants in one. I've got a really strong powerful plant here, it's kind of like the high performance
supercar of the plant world. I'm not into my fast cars
but I am into my fast plants. They're a little bit more expensive but the extra energy you'll get and the
bigger harvest makes it well worth it. Tomato cages are perfect for
growing determinate or bush tomatoes and these types of tomatoes are ideal
for those people just starting out. Now unlike indeterminate tomatoes, determinate ones have a predetermined
height that they grow to, hence the name. Now because of that, they make much more compact
plants and are a lot easier to look after. They grow to a height of maybe 3
foot maximum which is about a meter so kind of waist height and that means
they need less in the way of support. Because they grow to a predetermined height they
naturally bush out so they don't need any pruning. You just plant them and
leave them to do their thing. This makes them more manageable and
ideal for gardeners with a limited space. Determinate plants also
tend to produce their fruits in more of a concentrated period all at once. This is great if you want a sudden glut of
fruits that you can then process in a batch for example to make sauces. I should just add that with these
grafted plants here I'm taking great care not to cover the union where they're
joined otherwise the variety might root and then that will override the root
stock and we we don't want that. I reckon these tomato cages don't look too
bad actually and you can buy these of course but this is a lot cheaper and you know a fraction
of the price and they do the job just as well. Now it will work really well because
it'll hem the plant in as it grows so if it did flop to one side, then it's
nicely supported here by the walls of our cage. There we are. With their demand for a warm sunny
position and well-drained soil met you can bet your bottom tomato
that they'll soon rapidly grow. Now from experience I can find that
recent transplants can sometimes sulk. The leaves may roll up and the leaves can even
turn purple in color when it's a little bit chilly but as soon as it's a little bit
balmier, well they'll be off. Recently planted tomatoes need a really
thorough soaking to settle them in. Then as they start to grow on, well it's
important to keep them well watered. What we're aiming for here is consistency, so when it starts to get dry
just stick a finger into the soil an inch or two deep and check how moist it is if it's dry give it a really good
soaking. Don't just wet the surface, really puddle it in so the
water gets down nice and deep. Once plants begin to flower
I will start feeding them with an organic liquid tomato feed
applied according to the instructions and I'll water it at the base of the
plant to avoid wetting the leaves. We'll be revisiting these
tomatoes in another 4 weeks when I'll be bringing you our
next tomato growing masterclass. In it we'll be covering more on
watering, lots on how to prune tomatoes and lots of clever tips to dodge pests and how
to get superior tasting tomatoes every time. But if you just can't wait,
well check out this video next. I'll catch you next time.
