Gardening: Homebase shares tips to help grow tomatoes
Tomato plants should be in their final position by now, growing in either containers, grow bags, hanging baskets or in the ground.
As well as providing them with lots of sun, they also need to be fed using a specialist fertiliser as the leaves and fruits consume a lot of nutrients.
The Royal Horticultural Society said: “To boost fruiting, especially with plants in containers, feed every 10 to 14 days with a high potassium liquid fertiliser once the fruits start to swell.”
Potassium deficiency causes the margins of new leaves to turn yellow so make sure to look out for this as it can prevent fruit from ripening.
There are lots of different brands of tomato food on the market including Phostrogen’s Organic Tomato Feed, Levington Tomorite and Doff’s Tomato Feed.
Whichever one is used should be given to the plants according to the instructions to make sure the feed is given correctly.
Phostrogen said their feed is available in a concentrated liquid, which can be added to water for feeding tomato plants weekly.
However, be sure not to give too much fertiliser as this can also result in poor fruit production, according to the experts.
Gardeners can also make their own organic, nutrient-rich feed using comfrey leaves which takes about four weeks to rot down so is best started before the growing season starts.
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As well as feeding, tomatoes are extremely thirsty plants and will need to be watered regularly throughout the summer months.
It is important to keep the soil consistently moist, making sure it doesn’t dry out too much or isn’t completely soaked at the bottom which causes rot.
Make sure not to wet the leaves either as this can encourage disease such as blight to spread, and soil too dry can cause blossom end rot.
Fluctuating levels of moisture can cause “stunted growth” and encourage “diseases” to spread.
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Gardeners should also remove any side shoots to promote a healthy plant which can put all of its energy into growing nice and tall with lots of fruit.
If the side shoots are not removed, they will form a mass of long, scrambling, leafy stems which can be hard to support, producing fewer fruits.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) recommended checking for side shoots every time you water tomato plants.
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