Gardening: Homebase shares tips to help grow tomatoes
There’s nothing better than enjoying a sweet, juicy tomato in the summer months either served in a salad or blended up into a soup or passata sauce. While growing tomatoes is more effort than buying shop-bought ones, they do often taste better as they benefit from more time in the sun.
Homegrown tomatoes also have the chance to ripen fully on the vine before being picked off to eat.
Just growing a couple of tomato plants can reward gardeners with lots of fresh fruit.
However, it’s hard to know exactly which variety is the best to grow.
With this in mind, Daniel Carruthers, from Cultivar Greenhouses, has shared how to choose which tomato varieties to grow.
There are actually more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes grown and consumed around the world so it can be tricky to know which ones are best to grow.
Daniel continued: “A good place to start is to think about what types you actually enjoy eating and what dishes you’ll be using them for.
“Will you be tossing your tomatoes in a salad, snacking on them throughout the day or slicing them for sandwiches?
“Choose a variety you love and you’ll enjoy growing them even more. Popular varieties to try include Brandywine tomatoes, known for their large, beefsteak-shaped fruit and delicious taste, and Tigerella (AGM) is a firm favourite for growing which has a beautiful red and orange striped skin.
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“These are just two that you have difficulty finding in your average supermarket.
“Smaller varieties, like cherry tomatoes, may work best in a hanging basket and don’t need much space, whereas meaty beefsteaks will require much more space support as they grow.”
Professional gardeners usually grow their tomatoes up a string that has been secured to a greenhouse roof.
Those planting outside should consider planting varieties that are “disease-resistant” and more “hardy”.
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Daniel recommended Fandango or Red Alert which are also “quick to come to fruition”.
He continued: “You could of course opt for a tomato bush variety over cordon tomatoes, as these are generally easier to maintain.
“When choosing seeds look for seed packets marked with AGM which stands for Award of Garden Merit. These have been specifically selected by the RHS as being of a good constitution and are generally easier to look after and grow.”
Unfortunately, tomato plants are prone to pests such as aphids. These pesky pests are destructive as they feed on the sap of the plants by sucking out the juice.
This can damage the plant and the fruit and can even eventually kill the tomato plant.
While aphids can be picked off and deterred using natural pesticides, Annelise Brilli, a horticultural expert at Thompson & Morgan said “underplanting” tomatoes with certain plants can actually repel pests.
She exclusively told Express.co.uk: “Underplant your tomatoes with a range of pest-repelling companion plants.
“Combine herbs such as chives, basil and thyme with colourful annuals such as calendula and marigolds.”
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