Today I’m interviewing Jade who grows tomatoes at home in South East England in containers, and in open soil on an allotment.
TL: When do you sow your tomato seeds ?
J: I sow in February or March. I choose 3 varieties and am always interested to see which one does best with my soil and environment. This year I’m growing Il Pomodoro, Gardeners Delight and Black Russian.
I’ve now moved to sowing tomato seeds in root trainers. These allow for good root development resulting in a stronger plant. I’m happy using multipurpose compost for sowing and it’s cheaper than seed compost.
TL: When do you move the plant on from the root trainer?
J: I use the development of the plant as my guide, the diameter of the true leaves determining when the plant should move on and to what size of pot. When the leaves reach the edge of the pot, I pot on again. Before planting out I house the tomato plants in the greenhouse, standing them on capillary matting to provide moisture. I plant them out after the last frost which is often the late May Bank Holiday.
Next year I’m planning on experimenting with using Long Tom pots, placing crocks at the bottom and then using multipurpose or John Innes 1. I aim to sow, get good root growth and then plant out straight from these pots. It’s something the Victorians were into and it cuts down on the potting on.
TL: And you plant some at home in the garden and some on the allotment?
J: At home I grow determinate (bush) varieties in pots. My objective both at home and the allotment is to maximise productivity from my space and plants as well as protecting them from pests and disease. How this works in the garden is by under planting the tomatoes in pots with strawberry plants. The strawberries are a crop in their own right, spilling out over the sides of the pot but they also act as a mulch to keep the compost cool for the tomatoes.
TL: What sort of pot do you use?
J: Large terracotta pots, raised on little feet to ensure effective drainage. I put broken crocs at the bottom of the pot and then fill it with a mix of top soil and compost. The strawberries are in the pot through the winter (and get moved every 3 years) and then, when the time comes to plant them out ,I add the tomatoes, supported with a spiral stake. If the pot is bone dry at this point then I put the whole pot in a bucket of water so that the terracotta gets soaked through, otherwise when planted up I water at the base of the plant. I also grow tomatoes in pots with mint. Mint is hardy and can take aphid attack. When I walk past the pot I always crush a few mint leaves to attract the aphids to the mint and away from the tomatoes.
TL: I really like the idea of strawberries and tomatoes together. It’s space saving and produces an earlier crop from the same compost and pot.
Tomorrow I join Jade on the allotment to talk through her approach to growing tomatoes in the open soil.
In the meantime for more know-how from Jade on allotment growing in general, follow her on Twitter where she tweets as Toots2 .
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
These interviews are fascinating – it’s so interesting to hear other people’s ideas about how to grow things. Being very much an amateur, it’s amazing to find out that there isn’t any one, clever way to do this, just lots of great ideas to try out and experiment with. Thanks for interviewing Jade, and thanks to Jade for being a great interviewee!
Thank you for your lovely feedback. I enjoy the interviews too – and for much the same reason ! There are so many ways to do things and I enjoy the process of finding out what people do and why – and what’s interesting is they are always on the same journey. Maybe much further down the line – but still learning and experimenting! And we all have the same end point in mind – healthy plants and delicious fruit.