Timing

Wait for the cold weather to pass and the soil to warm up. Traditionally Labour Weekend is normal planting time – but this varies between islands. In parts of the North island tomatoes can be planted as early as September, but in the South island you’re best to wait until October.

Location

To make sure you get sweet, ripe tomatoes – look to plant them in a warm, sheltered, well drained area, with full sun for most of the day.

Plant Type

The easiest thing to do is to choose a grafted plant. This means that each variety has been joined, or grafted, onto a healthy set of roots. They’re more disease-resistant, and will give you a much bigger yield.

There’s many types of tomatoes you can grow, so decide what you want to be eating and choose your variety accordingly:

• Cocktail tomatoes
  • Sweet 100 grow in long trusses and produce up to 100 of the most well known sweet cherry tomato.
  • Sunshine 100 produce clusters of small yellow bite sized fruit that are low in acid.
     
• Medium size tomatoes
  • Early Girl produces a heavy crop of tomatoes with excellent colour and flavour.
  • Moneymaker one of the most popular for home gardeners produces a flavoursome tomato ideal for relishes and sauces.
  • Russian Red tolerant to cooler temperatures produces a very hardy bright red round tomato.
     
• Big tomatoes
  • Big Beef a high yielding plant, produces big and tasty tomatoes.
  • Grosse Lisse is popular for home gardens producing fleshy smooth tomatoes.
  • Beefsteak needs plenty of room to produce tasty tomatoes that are ideal for salads and sandwiches.

Planting

• Good soil with some extra Potassium (K) will encourage fruiting.
• Add some specially formulated tomato mix to your garden bed, and dig it through ready for planting.
• Lay out your plants about 50cm apart but always check the recommended spacing on the back of the tag.
• Soak each plant in a bucket of seaweed-based plant tonic before planting, and allow to drain. This helps prevent stress and transplant shock. Soak them until all the air bubbles have risen to the top.
• Dig a hole for the plant.
• Gently ease the plant out of the pot and place it in the hole.
• Backfill the hole with the soil, and press the soil around the plant. Make sure the soil is no higher than the stem.
• Stake the plant. Place the stake a few inches away from the bottom of the plant to ensure you are not damaging any of the roots of the plant. This will give the plant some structure to grow up around.
• Water each plant.
• If you have chosen a non-grafted plant you will need to pinch off any laterals as it grows to encourage fruiting.
• Tie any new stem growth to the stakes for support.

Watering

Tomatoes grow rapidly and are both thirsty and hungry. Water daily, and twice daily in hot dry weather – don’t let them dry out. But be careful – they don’t like wet feet, so make sure the water doesn’t lie around becoming stagnant. Avoid watering the leaves, as this can increase your risk of fungal diseases.

Feeding

Feed monthly with Tomato Food. It’s specially formulated with the right NPK ratio. That’s Nitrogen (N) for foliage, Phosphorous (P) for root growth, and Potassium (K) to help fruiting. If fed regularly, with the right mix, your plants will produce more fruit, and be more disease resistant.

Pests & Disease

Grafted tomatoes have a higher disease resistance than standard tomatoes – however, keep an eye out for the pests and diseases below. If you spot any of these just head in store and we’ll sort you out with the right product. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at – just take a photo, and bring it in.

Harvesting

Once the tomatoes have ripened, pick the fruit daily so the birds don’t get at them. Use a pair of sharp secateurs and snip the stalk – don’t pull them off. And don’t store them in the fridge, as they’ll lose their flavour.