Recycling garden and kitchen waste is a great way of providing compost in ample supply and making a compost drum to enable you to do this couldn’t be simpler. The video below describes exactly how you can go about making a compost drum for the garden using a plastic trash can as the base.

Preparing your soil for tomatoes is an important aspect of tomato growing and, as I am sure you already know, involves mixing lots of well rotted compost with well rotted manure and good quality top soil to get the best results. So making a compost drum for the garden is a sure way of ensuring that you have at least one of those ingredients in good supply. Of course you don’t have to make your own compost drum, there are plenty of affordable compost bins available on the Internet or from your local garden centre, but it’s always nice to get hands on and save a bit of money doing it.

The main advantages of growing tomatoes in raised beds

• You can more easily control the mix of the soil and utilise compost specifically suited to growing tomatoes
• The plants are generally easier to access for staking, weeding, watering, pruning and pest control
• The soil tends to warm up more quickly than non-raised beds
• Its easier to apply a mulch to aid contamination prevention, supplement feeding and keep weeds down
• You can avoid standing on the soil causing it to compact
• raised beds tend to be free draining and do not get over saturated
• the soil can easily be dug out and replaced should any contamination occur. This should be done on an annual or bi-annual basis in any case
• Feeding the tomato plants is much more targeted and effective, follow the instructions on the feed of choice or as a rule of thumb you can apply a high nitrogen liquid tomato feed around once a fortnight
• Pests are less likely to infiltrate a raised bed but when they do they are easier to deal with

If growing tomatoes in raised beds doesn’t appeal then you might want to take a look at how you can create a lasagne garden which is another option for growing tomatoes.

Ideally you should start caring for your tomatoes early in the season, if you prefer organic methods you should be thinking of getting some companion plants in around your tomatoes that will deter common pests such as greenfly and aphids. Garlic is a good choice for this, or if you prefer flowers then lavender is also a good deterrent. Other choices are herbs such as sage or thyme.

Another organic approach is to encourage predators of the pests, the best known is of course the ladybug or ladybird as it is known in the UK. They are attracted by plants that produce lots of nectar; we have buddleia in our garden because it is really easy to grow and produces lots of flowers.

For treating an infestation of tomato pests, you can try a simple soap and water mix and I have read recently that adding a splash of vinegar will make this even more effective.

Disease Control for Tomatoes

The main source of disease for tomatoes comes from the soil, so keeping lower trusses clear of the ground through pruning will help avoid contact with the ground. Mulching around the bottom of the plant is also a good way of preventing contact with the soil.

Other than that you should have planted your tomatoes at least 18″ apart for good air circulation and when you water don’t pour the water all over the plant, introduce the water to the base of the plant. This will help prevent the build up of moisture on the leaves which can cause mildew or bacterial infection.

Don’t let the weeds around your tomato plants get a good hold, catch them early and clear them away. They will only compete with your plants for nutrients and may transfer problems to your plants if they are allowed to come into contact.

Caring for tomatoes is very often just using common sense and keeping an eye out for problems. If you do find any diseased plants you may be able to cut out the diseased portions for disposal if you catch it early enough. Failing that you may have to remove the whole plant to protect the rest of the crop. Always remember to bag and bin diseased plants as well so that you don’t contaminate compost or reintroduce the problem some other way.

Visit tomato pests and problems for a fuller overview of taking care of tomatoes.

From a temperature perspective the best temperature range for sowing tomato seeds is between 15ºC and 25ºC (60ºF to 77ºF) you could probably get away with 10ºC (50ºF) overnight but you would need to cut back on the watering a little to take account of the lower temperatures.

Equipment
You can either purchase Seed Starting Trays and equipment or alternatively you can use items like yogurt pots or egg cartons to get your tomato seeds under way. If you already have pots or seed trays available and want to reuse them then make sure that you disinfect them first with a mix of 1 part bleach and 10 parts water to ensure that you remove any contamination.

There are a number of useful items that can be purchased specifically for growing tomatoes from seed, but you can provide a similar environment by simply using your initiative. For example placing a seed try in a clear plastic bag will give the same affect as using a seed tray with dome. It really is just up to you whether you want to purchase items for convenience or if you are happy to improvise some solutions yourself.

Sowing Tomato Seeds
If you have purchased seeds to plant then don’t forget to refer to the packet to get additional details on the best way to sow them according to the suppliers instructions. On the other hand for seed you may have collected yourself and as a general guide, seeds should be planted around 4 to 6mm (1/8″ to 1/4″) deep in a general purpose Potting Soil Mix Make sure you don’t overcrowd them, as a general rule if you are using a seed tray with multiple cells you should aim for around 2 seeds per cell and should slightly dampen the mix before pushing the seeds in. The easiest way of pushing the seeds in is to use a pencil or similar to poke them to the required depth.

Cover the tray (or pots) with plastic and leave the seeds to germinate, it is a good idea to label different varieties as they may grow at different rates. Also remember as seeds that they do not need fertiliser, just leave them as is.

Once the tiny plants appear, usually within 5 to 10 days you should place them in a position where they can get plenty of light, remembering that they are still indoors at this stage. If you have too many plants in a cell, select the strongest one to leave and snip the other off close to the soil surface with a pair of sharp scissors. Don’t be tempted to pull it out as this may disturb the roots of the one you want to keep.

Water very lightly at this point, for proper tomato plant care you should never over water at any stage, the plants should be moist but not drenched. For strong plants that are less brittle in the stem it is a good idea to brush the young plants lightly with your hand to flex them slightly once or twice a day.

When the plants are big enough to handle comfortably, usually when the first leaves are formed, you can transplant them to small pots around 3″ to 4″ diameter using a general purpose compost. Fill the pots half full and as the plants grow top them up periodically to encourage a healthy root system.

Now all you need to do is leave them until they are ready to transplant to their final planting position (about another 4 to 6 weeks), but of course watering them as required to keep the compost moist; as you would anyway for tomato plant care in general. If you think they need it you can give them a little bit of a boost with a suitable tomato feed. Although while they are relatively small there should be enough nutrients in the compost to keep them happy.

Tomatoes need plenty of sunshine and a good rule of thumb for ensuring they get enough, is to find a spot in your garden that sees a minimum of 6 hours of sunshine a day. Some will argue that tomatoes need as much as 10 hours of sunshine a day and if you have a spot that can deliver that amount of sunshine then it certainly wouldn’t do any harm; assuming of course you don’t allow the plants to dry out.

The reason for this level of sunshine is of course the ripening process, without the required amount of sunshine it will prove quite difficult to get your tomato fruit to a fully ripened condition.

Other considerations to take into account when selecting a location include the need for watering, somewhere that is relatively sheltered and ultimately the type of tomatoes you want to grow given the space you have available.

So watering first, this is a practical consideration of how often and how much you need to water the plants. It is just common sense to have your tomatoes near a source of water, whether that is a garden tap or a kitchen sink. You will find that life is much easier for you if you can locate the plants closer to your water source and you will also be more likely to provide an adequate amount of water the easier it is. This is no reflection on the individual, many people have a busy lifestyle and find it difficult to assign enough time to tomato care. But watering is another essential aspect of tomato growing and the plants in full sunshine will need plenty of water to ensure they do not dry out.

You can of course opt for automatic watering systems to help manage your watering program if you simply do not have the time to do it manually or have to spend some days away from your garden.

Shelter is another aspect worth thinking about, tomato plants are not known for their robustness and the vine varieties need to be tied to stakes with a soft garden string to avoid bruising of the plants. Even this will not help however if the plants are being buffeted by wind or are exposed too much to the changing elements of extremes of  weather. Placing your plants close to a wall, fence or garden hedge will help provide some shelter.  If the need exists you may want to consider growing  tomatoes in a greenhouse. Certainly in places that have a UK type climate, this could actually prove to be essential.

The final aspect of selecting a suitable location is with regard to available space. So actually it is the other way around, it is not so much choosing the right location as selecting the right kind of tomato variety to suit the space you have available. If you are limited to a patio or a very small garden you may be better placed selecting one of the many dwarf varieties. They still produce lots of lovely tomato fruit but can flourish in small spaces. Or if you fancy going a little more radical you could adopt the topsy turvy tomato planting method; this is where you hang a plant upside down from a stand or rafter. Vine tomatoes are more suited to this approach as they hang down vertically and with a little bit of clever tomato pruning can be constrained into very small spaces.

At the end of the day whatever tomato variety you choose to grow and whatever method you select, to be successful you will need to ensure sufficient sunshine and water. It is worth considering exactly where the best place in your garden is for tomatoes, because the rewards really are worth the effort of getting it right.

• erratic watering
• erratic temperatures

These 2 causes are often responsible for a whole range of problems with tomatoes: -

• Flower shedding
• Blossom end rot
• Immature fruit fall
• Split skins
• Sun scald
• Blotchy ripening
• Tomatoes not ripening

Of course temperature extremes is the most difficult of the 2 causes to manage as you are very much at the mercy of mother nature and what she throws at you, certainly where we are in the South of France, it is not unusual to see temperatures of up to 100F during the summer on occasion which will actually halt the ripening process.

If you have a greenhouse then you do have options for whitening the glass or opening doors and windows when the temperature is very warm, there are automatic window openers available that operate on a temperature basis to make this easier to manage, other than that you just have to do things manually.

Ideally you want to keep your temperatures constant and somewhere between 65F and 70F, the minimum temperature you can live with is about 55F and the maximum is around 90F. Out of doors this will be very difficult to control, so for cooler climates you may need a greenhouse and for warmer climates you can try temporary shading at the hottest part of the day or you can perhaps position them so that they don’t get full sun at the hottest part of the day, a little tricky because you still need sufficient sun to ripen the tomatoes i.e. at least 6 hours.

Watering is to a lesser extent affected by the weather but you do need to monitor whether there has been a lot of rain and whether you actually need to water that day, if the soil is moist and not dried out then you can probably  miss a watering session. It’s been said before but it is a fact that watering of tomatoes is extremely important they neither like to be dry or saturated and if you struggle to keep on top of your watering program then you may need to consider an automatic watering system.

* Top tip – extremes of moisture and temperature are compounded by the use of containers that are too small, the minimum size pot that should be used is 12″ diameter. The extra mass of compost slows the rate of temperature change and is less susceptible to drying out quickly.

Ripening tomatoes

As with all vegetable growing, the one stage that every gardener awaits with eager anticipation is when the plants start to produce ripe ready to eat produce, this is when you can start to reap the rewards for all of your effort. Waiting for your tomatoes to ripen is no different to any other garden product.

Problem is tomatoes can sometimes be a little tricky and hang on the vine not looking at all like the lovely red tomatoes everyone aspires to.

There are a few good reasons for this, first of all the most obvious, not every tomato variety is red. In rare cases some are actually ripe and ready to eat when they are green. There are also varieties that are yellow, orange or even striped, so make sure you know which varieties you are growing so you know what to expect, seems obvious but not everyone keeps a note of the type of tomato they are growing.

To an extent the type of tomato applies to the second reason some tomatoes can take longer to ripen which is size. Clearly a small cherry type tomato will ripen more quickly than a large beefsteak type of tomato. The period to maturity and ripening can vary across tomato types by as much as 25 to 30 days, mostly size dependent.

That said, tomatoes of all varieties and types have to reach a mature stage, which is actually when they are still mostly green but maybe showing the beginning of turning red at the blossom end. Until they reach this mature state they will not ripen, even if you take them off the vine and try to induce ripening, indoors for example. If you do try and induce ripening at some point you need to be very sure the tomatoes have reached maturity before removing them from the plant.

What triggers ripening in tomatoes is ethylene gas which acts as a hormone to progress the ripening process. As they ripen they produce carotene and lycopene in the skin giving it the colour red. Tomatoes will normally ripen as long as the temperature is between 55F to 85F, temperatures lower than this will produce bland, tasteless tomatoes and any higher than 85F and the production of carotene and lycopene will stall abruptly.

You can visit how to ripen tomatoes for detailed information on the problems that prevent tomatoes from ripening and some suggestions for resolving those problems.

There are a few other options available to the home gardener and the list below represents a few of the popular ones: -

Alicante – good quality tomato generally with good disease resistance
Big Boy – very large fruit with an excellent texture, great for sandwiches
Eurocross A – a bit like Moneymaker but more vigorous and produces more fruit
Growers Pride (F1) – Great for the beginner, fruits early and useful for most things
Mandel (F1) – Good for disease resistance, dark red colour and can be used for a variety of things
Odine (F1) – Great for a small greenhouse with many uses
Tigerella – Yellow striped fruit, lots of flavour and is available early in the season
Vibelco – very disease resistant
Yellow Perfection – Lovely yellow fruit with great flavour and high quality fruit

Obviously you need to take into account where you are in the world when selecting a tomato plant but you should be able to find something to suit from this list and can be reasonably confident you will have a good crop of tomatoes that you will enjoy.

Some of the most common tomato pests are : -

• Aphids
• Whitefly
• Spider mites
• Leafhoppers
• flea beetles
• tomato hornworm

The list goes on but there are often common ways to rid yourself of the pests, for instance when they are still eggs and if you are not too squeamish, you can simply wipe them off by pinching the leaves gently between your fingers and thumb and using your thumb to squash the eggs and wipe them off the leaf at the same time. A bit messy but quite effective.

Larger bugs like caterpillars can be picked off and dropped into a jam jar with some appropriate cocktail that will see them off.

An effective way of dealing with whitefly is to mix a fluid of one part liquid soap and four parts water in a spray bottle and dowse the whole plant with the mix.

There is also the option of introducing tomato friendly bugs that feed on the unfriendly bugs, a good example is a ladybug (ladybird as it is known in the UK).

You also have the option of using chemical pesticides of course but I have to be honest that there are so many different types that I think what most people need is a pest control book or bible. Below is one of several 5 star reviews for a book that is available on Amazon at a great price, incidentally everyone who left a review for this book gave it 5 stars.

This is the Review

“This could be the most useful book I own. It gets more use than my dictionary. Tiny Game Hunting offers practical and effective methods of capturing or killing common household and garden pests; everything from insects and spiders, to lizards and snakes, and mice and gophers. It focuses on environmentally safe extermination methods. Many of the traps, repellents, and pesticides can be made cheaply with common items found in the kitchen or garage. More than just pest control, the book offers some basic information on the habits and history of the critters. Have a problem with a pest? I bet it’s in here. It’s honestly one of the best books I’ll ever own!”

This is the book: –

Have to say it covers pretty much everything you need to know on tomatoes and a whole bunch of other stuff as well, really is a good buy and well worth it for any budding gardener. But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the reviews and with the power of Amazon you can open the book up and look at the contents, even if you only go as far as the index to satisfy yourself you will have the information you need.

Heirloom tomato varieties are very popular for their full flavour and taste. Although the video does not use heirloom tomatoes the technique is pretty much the same for all tomato types. If you want to find out how to cultivate the seeds and turn them into plants you can find out how to grow tomatoes from seed by clicking on the link.

Of course I should mention that you cannot grow tomatoes with seeds taken from the Hybrid varieties. They have for the most part been specially produced for commercial use and you cannot take the seeds from these varieties and cultivate them, just doesn’t work. So stick to the varieties that mother nature concocted for us and you will be fine.