Our grower Gaby
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The easiest way to grow tomatoes 😎
Urban tomato farming
Urban tomato farming.
This article is especially for you if you’ve just decided to grow your own tomatoes. You may have little or no experience, but you don’t want to study too deeply or do lots of complicated things or have to buy all kinds of stuff. No, you're just looking for a clear, short no-fuss guide to growing tomatoes.
Sowing tomatoes.
From sowing seed to harvesting the first crop takes quite a while. That’s why we start sowing early in the season. If you are going to grow tomatoes outside, you can start sowingin mid-March.
Materials
- A plastic tray without holes (for example,a plastic meat trayfrom the supermarket)
- A tasty tomato.A cherry is the easiest for starters (bought in the supermarket is no problem)
- Earth
- Fill the plastic tray with 1 to 2 cm of earth. Use sowing or potting soil, but you can also take soil from the garden.
- Cut the tomato in half. Separate the seeds from the tomato and strew the seeds so that they fall onto the soil.
- Distribute the seeds evenly in the tray and press the seeds lightly into the soil.
- Lightly coat the seeds with 0.5 cm fine soil. DO NOT PRESS!
- Spray the soil well with a watering spray.
- Cover the tray with plastic cling film and pierce 4 breathing holes. Set the plastic tray in a warm and light place indoors, but not in direct sunlight.
Regularly check that the soil is still damp and if necessary, spray extra moisture. After 7 to 10 days, the first seedlings will emerge. Then you can remove the plastic cling film. Regularly check whether the plants need watering and if so, spray them.
Potting the seedlings.
When the seedlings are 2 cm in size, they can be transplanted. You will probably have lots of young plants. First think about how many adult tomato plants you want. Before you get carried away growing 20 plants, remember that each adult will need 50 x 50 cm of space. Most people have enough tomatoes when they grow 3 to 4 plants.
Materials
- 4 plastic containers with holes in the bottom and a diameter of 12 cm at the top
- Earth
- Fill the 4 pots with soil (preferably potting soil, butyou can also take soil from the garden).
- With your index finger, pokea hole 3 cm deep in the middle of each pot.
- Selectthe nicest, biggest and strongest seedlings.Carefully grasp the seedling with your thumb and forefinger and loosen the earth around it so that you can carefully pull it out.
- Plant the seedling in the hole you just made in the pot and press the earth carefully around the stem. Do this with the other 3 pots.
- Set the pots on a saucer in a sunny spot in the house and give them water. When the tomato plants get bigger, add a stick for some extra support.
Transplanting outside.
The tomato plants can be moved outdoors at the end of April. Make sure the spot is sunny and warm, alongside a fence and facing south is ideal. Plant the tomatoes 50 cm apart in the ground with a 2 meter tall stick pushed firmly in the ground beside each plant.
Pruning and watering tomatoplants
Tie the tomato plants to the stick at regular intervals. This is best done beneatheachcluster of flowers, because when they grow the tomatoes will always be heavy.
Removing side shoots is important. If you don’t do it, you will get huge bunchesof leaves and side shoots and you will hardly be able to harvest the crop. Read the article: “How to prune tomato plants” and then you will know all you need to know.
Tomato plants can withstand a bit of drought. But when it is hot and there has been no rain for several days, make sure to give them extra water.
Your first own harvest.
Finally, after all this time of tender loving care,the first crop will ready for harvest by June / July and you can start enjoying your delicious home-grown tomatoes (which taste much nicer than store bought tomatoes).
Good luck!
Sowing tomatoes.
Growing tomatoes always startswith sowing the seeds.
