Ruud Kleinpaste: Time to plant tomatoes

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Tomatoes on track Now’s a good time to start sowing your tomatoes in little pots, inside, so you can release them into the garden when it gets a bit warmer and when frost dangers have disappeared. You can also grow some suitable varieties in large pots or sizeable containers on the north-facing balcony. Tomatoes come in many varieties and in two distinct growth strategies: The Indeterminate varieties keep on growing to become long, long climbers… meters long, sometimes! In commercial glass houses, these vines are carefully “trained” to keep on growing on extensive support structures. Indeterminate tomatoes are usually grown in good garden soil and tied to climbing frames The Determinate varieties do not become long vines, but are more like a bush that grows no higher than 50 centimeters and flops all over the place; they do not tend to need staking at all and are good for growing in large containers or patio pots Some are adaptable to growing in hanging baskets, as their short-ish vines can simply hang down and produce their tomatoes on the vertical vine-lets. A few things to be aware of when growing tomatoes in pots, containers or hanging baskets: 1) they use a heap of water (transpiration is key to good photosynthesis and production of sugars for the fruit. 2) Never let them dry out, because the root systems do not re-store themselves easily once they were allowed to dry out. 3) Use fruit/flowering fertiliser sparingly and perhaps best as a liquid fertiliser. “Small doses and often” is the key; do not use high-Nitrogen fertiliser as it will only promote a lot of leaf material and not much fruit! 4) keep the plants in good day light. Eight or more hours of sunlight per day is very good! (works on 6-10 hrs per day) 5) Use the best tub and container mix you can get: nice and friable with good drainage. Get your seed sown: get a seed catalogue and select your chosen varieties to grow this year. Germination of seeds are best in temperatures of 21-24 degrees during the day (16 degrees at night) and don’t “bury” the seeds. Keep them in moist (not wet) seed raising mix, just below the surface of the soil. THEY WILL GERMINATE IN THE DARK! Here are some cracker determinate varieties to look for: * Window box red specially bred for pots/containers; cherry tomato size * Baxter’s Early Bush is very compact too * Container Choice Red grows up to 60 cm and is a larger “beefsteak”-sized tomato * Patio Choice yellow F1 hybrid is a yellow cherry tomato: heaps of fruit on short, hanging branches; ideal for hanging baskets! * Best Boy Bush is something that keeps low and sprawls all over the ground. Should be good in large tubs. Produces red, medium sized tomatoes * Two rather cold-hardy varieties that would grow well in cooler climes: Oregon Spring is parthenocarpic and can self-pollinate when a short season doesn’t allow for many pollinators and Sub-Arctic Plenty was allegedly bred for the US military base in Greenland; very small plant, but tough as heck! And some indeterminate varieties: * Artisan Blush did well for me, last year: stunning yellow/orange smallish fruit with a grand taste. * Chef’s Choice yellow is a nice, large yellow fruit – fabulous taste. Its stable mate Chef’s * Choice Green is brilliant too – you’ll quickly learn to tell when it’s ripe – green tomatoes can be a trick for young players! * My absolute all-time favourite and totally versatile variety is Tigerella. It ends up in salads and as the bulk of all my frozen tomato sauce packets * Andiamo is low acid and apparently great for Bolognes * A good, meaty and slice-able variety (large and ribbed) is Thessaloniki. My good friend Mike usually ends up with 80% of them for his Scottish tomato sandwiches. * If you are after smaller cocktail tomatoes (cherry tomatoes) try the standard F100 hybrid which seems to be a bit variable, sometimes. Mind you, on the other hand I have been getting some fabulous miracle off-spring from these cherry tomatoes and I w...

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