Grow Your Own Tomatoes - National Children's Gardening Week

Grow Your Own Tomatoes

Everyone’s got room for a tomato plant or two in their garden – easy to grow, healthy and so exciting when the fruits ripen!

Growing tomatoes can be both fun and rewarding for your little ones. As well as being better than any you can buy in the shops, growing your own is a great way to create something fresh and nutritious. 

There are two main growing types of tomato: determinate (bushy) and indeterminate (cordon). Determinate types are trailing whereas, indeterminate tomatoes grow tall and therefore need support. Ultimately, all tomatoes are versatile and for that reason can be grown in the ground, in growing bags or in pots. 

 Here is our handy guide to help you start growing tomato plants with your little ones:

1. Tomatoes come in all colours and sizes – choose from little cherry red bite-sized fruits to huge beefsteak types. There are even yellow and dark purple tomato varieties

2. Plant in the sunniest place in your garden or in a growbag or patio pot. You could try tumbling types in hanging baskets

3. Water well, then keep watered regularly every few days to help the plants grow best

4. You will soon see little yellow flowers appear, which will be pollinated by the wind (or sometimes bees) and grow into tomato fruits

5. Add tomato fertiliser to the watering can once a week to feed your plants and make the tomatoes grow sweet and juicy

6. You can carefully pick the fruit once it has ripened and fully coloured all over (if you pick red tomatoes when they’re still green they won’t taste very nice!)

7. Enjoy yummy fresh tomatoes all summer long!

Top tip! Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They won’t bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant.