Tips On How To Grow Tomatoes

A good tomato doesn’t just happen. 

Growing tomatoes isn’t hard if you have a bit of knowledge about the process first.

I had great success the first time around. Here are some of my tips on how to grow tomatoes:

1. Dig the soil over and sprinkle it with water and some blood and bone fertiliser mix.

2. The rule of thumb is to plant the seed twice as deep as it’s diameter

Two days later, I watered the soil then planted 3 or 4 seeds per hole, but only very shallow.  So just below the surface, water daily until tiny seedlings appeared. Once they reached 5 centimetres, you pinch out the smaller seedlings and leave the strongest.

3. Making a mulch using sugar cane

This compost will keep the snails away. I watered them every day and every few weeks I would liquid fertilize with thrive or the equivalent.

Blossom End Rot

The first problem I came across was blossom end rot. As the fruit ripens and turns red, there is what appears to be dry rot from the blossom end. After doing some online research, I’ve known that this is due to lack of calcium in the soil. This can simply be fixed by scattering crushed egg shells around the base of the plant and it will leach into the soil to feed the plant. It worked like a charm and I never had another problem again

At the end of the growing season, my tomatoes soldiered on until the first frost hit them. When I pulled them up there was about a kilo of small green fruit on them still. So these didn’t go to waste I put them in a brown paper bag in the cupboard. They ripen up nicely and can be eaten. Every other days I checked to get the ripe ones.

One last rule, never ever put tomatoes in the fridge. This disrupts the natural acids of the tomatoes.

Do you know other tips for growing tomatoes? Share them with us. 

Clare Whitfield Chief Editor

Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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