Grow Your Own Tomatoes

Grow Your Own Tomatoes

Throwing together a salad with sun-warmed tomatoes from your own garden is a lovely feeling. Not only are the tomatoes locally grown, they often have a richer and fuller taste as well. Growing tomatoes is easy, and we’ve compiled a few helpful tips for you to get started!

Choose the right variety

If you intend growing your tomatoes in a greenhouse or vegetable patch, choose a tomato variety suitable for outdoor cultivation. If you want to grow them on a balcony instead, small bush tomatoes are ideal, while dwarf bush tomatoes are perfect for indoor window sills since they don’t need much space.

Seed in February or March

A good time to plant tomato seeds is in February or March. No matter if you want to grow tomatoes indoors or outdoors, always allow the plants to germinate and sprout indoors. As summer approaches and the nights get warmer, the tomato plants can be moved outdoors. 

Start by planting seeds in small pots or in a mini-greenhouse in order to create the optimal climate for the sprouts. If you will be growing different types of vegetables, it may be a good idea to label the pots. Spray the soil after planting with a spray bottle and try to keep the soil slightly damp at all times. When the tomato seedlings have started to grow and are a few centimetres tall, it is time to replant them in a larger pot.  

Moving the plants outside 

The best time to move your plants outside is when the outdoor temperature remains above 10 °C, which is usually in early June. To get the plants used being outside, you can take them out during the day and bring them back indoors at night. Another way to protect the plants is with a fibre cloth. 

Growing in vegetable patches and greenhouses

When the outdoor temperature is warm enough for your tomato plants, you can replant them in your garden or greenhouse. Remove the plant from the pot and place the whole plant in the soil, preferably deeper than it was in the pot, and then water thoroughly after replanting. Make sure to not put the plants too close together, give them space of 60-80 cm.    

Care and harvesting 

Tomato plants prefer soil that is neither too dry nor too damp. Water the plant regularly and give it nutrients a few times over the season. Harvest the tomatoes when ripe and store them at room temperature. That way they will remain extra tasty!