Tomatoes love the sun, warmth and fertile soil. So choose a place that meets these conditions.

If you want to grow tomatoes outside, make sure that the plants are out of the wind and preferably facing south. Under shelter is even better, so that the plants stay dry if it rains.

The position doesn’t matter in a greenhouse, as long as the plants are in the sun.

The standard plant distance is 50 cm between the plants and 80 cm between the rows. But actually, the planting distance variesaccording to the tomato variety. Roma cherry tomato varieties often have an open leaf structure and short leaves.

I plant this type 35 cm away from each other. In the autumn you will have to cut back a few more leaves, but you get a bumper crop of tomatoes. 😊

My advice is to start sowing at 50 cm and see if the different varieties can be planted closer together the following year.

Tomato plants can best be tied to a stake. The easiest one to use at home is a bamboo pole.The stake must be about 2.50 meters high and pushed firmly into the ground. 

Bind the vinesto the stake, underneath each bunch, with ties or handy clips. Clustersof tomatoes get heavy, especially in the case of beef tomatoes, so providing extra support for them doesn’t do any harm.

I grow tomatoes in a greenhouse. In there I have stretched a long wire at a height of 2 meters. Suspended from thewire are jute strings, one for every plant. I attach the bottom of the string to the stem of the plant and every week I wind the growing vine around the rope.

Binding only needs to be done with Indeterminate tomato varieties. Determinate tomatoes varieties (patio and bushes tomato varieties) stay small so you don’t have to bind them or pinch off the side shoots.

If you want a big crop of tomatoes, make sure that the plants are in nutritious soil. The plant draws nutrients from the soil in order to grow. If you never feed the tomato plant, then the soil gets depleted and it won’t grow so well. That’s why fertilizing your tomato plants is important. Want to know more about feeding tomatoes? Read the article: “Good soil and compost give the tastiest tomatoes.”