Planting Tomatoes

I planted my tomatoes in the glass house today. I grow lots of tomatoes as they are the only ones that I will eat. I'm sure that anyone who has tasted home grown tomatoes, especially organic ones, will agree that it is impossible to beat the taste.

Newly planted tomatoes

I'm only growing three types this year. Beafsteak tomatoes as they are simply unbeatable in salads or sliced in sandwiches. I'm growing some yellow ones as they add a splash of colour and what I call ordinary tomatoes - the ones that you get in the shop. I mostly freeze the latter ones to use throughout the year in sauces and soups. 

Freezing them is simple. Drop them in boiling water and bring back to the boil. By this time the skin will have started to split and peel away. Remove the tomatoes and drain in a colander. Skin them; remove the core; roughly chop and put them in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes. I give them a blitz with a hand held blender at this stage. Then put them in convenient sized containers - I use 200 ml/ 200g containers. Cool and freeze.

In the greenhouse I plant them 45 cm apart in two staggered rows down either side of the central path. I have support wires running the length of the house and strings tied to these are placed under the root ball as I plant them. This gives a firm support and it is easy to wind the vines up them as they grow.

I plant just as the first flowers are opening having kept them on the dry side to stress them and encourage flowering. It is vital to remove side shoots that appear where the leaf meets the stem. If you don't you get a mass of stems that quickly become a jungle. As the fruit set and swell I remove the lower leaves up to the lowest truss that is starting to ripen.

Water dripper

I have an automated drip system to water the tomatoes. This has several advantages. Firstly, it means that I don't have to spend hours watering 30 tomato plants by hand. It also means that I use a lot less water as the drips place it just where it is needed. This also means that the spaces between the plants are drier and this cuts down on the number of weeds.