GreenlyHow to grow Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum · cherry tomato
Warm-season fruiting vegetable grown from seedlings. Cannot tolerate frost; needs warm soil and a long sunny season to ripen.
Quick facts
| Type | Vegetable |
|---|---|
| Family | Solanaceae |
| Light | Full sun |
| Soil pH | 6–6.8 |
| Frost | does not tolerate frost |
| Soil for sowing | from 15 °C |
| Germination | 7 days |
| Seedlings ready | 50 days |
| Sowing to harvest | 100 days |
| Where it grows | Greenhouse, Open ground, At home |
When to plant
Sow for seedlings about 8 weeks before planting out.
Plant out in open ground about a week after your last spring frost, once the soil is warm.
In an unheated greenhouse everything moves about three weeks earlier.
The first harvest comes about 100 days after the shoots appear.
Care
Greenhouse
| Stage | Watering | Temperature | Feeding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedlings | every 2 days | 18…25 °C | balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage |
| Growth | every 3 days | 18…28 °C | balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage |
| Flowering | every 3 days | 18…30 °C | phosphorus and potassium, at the start of the stage |
| Fruiting | every 2 days | 18…30 °C | potassium, at the start of the stage; potassium, 21 days into the stage |
Open ground
| Stage | Watering | Temperature | Feeding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedlings | every 2 days | 18…25 °C | balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage |
| Growth | every 4 days | 15…28 °C | balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage |
| Flowering | every 4 days | 15…30 °C | phosphorus and potassium, at the start of the stage |
| Fruiting | every 3 days | 15…30 °C | potassium, at the start of the stage; potassium, 21 days into the stage |
At home
| Stage | Watering | Temperature | Feeding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedlings | every 2 days | 18…25 °C | balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage |
| Growth | every 2 days | 18…26 °C | balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage |
| Flowering | every 2 days | 18…27 °C | phosphorus and potassium, at the start of the stage |
| Fruiting | every 1 days | 18…27 °C | potassium, at the start of the stage; potassium, 14 days into the stage |
Growing notes
Light
At least 6–8 hours of direct sun a day; fruit set drops in shade.
Soil
Loose, fertile, well-drained soil with compost; slightly acidic to neutral.
Care
Water deeply at the root and evenly — irregular watering causes cracking and blossom-end rot. Remove side shoots on tall varieties and tie stems to a support. Ventilate the greenhouse above 30 °C: pollen stops working in the heat.
How to tell it is ripe
- Fruit has reached its full variety colour: red for most, but also yellow, orange, pink or near-black.
- The colour is even over the whole fruit, with no green patches left.
- A ripe tomato is fully coloured yet still firm in the hand; a soft fruit is past its best.
- Pick each fruit with its stalk as soon as it is fully coloured; in heat above 32 °C pick at first colour and let it finish ripening indoors at 21–24 °C.
Pests and diseases of Tomato
- Anthracnose
- Bacterial canker
- Bacterial Spot
- Bacterial wilt
- Blossom-end rot
- Broad mite
- Chafer grubs
- Colorado Potato Beetle
- Early Blight
- Fruit cracking
- Fusarium Wilt
- Grey Mold
- Late Blight
- Leaf Curl Virus
- Leaf Miner
- Septoria leaf spot
- Tomato hornworm
- Tomato leaf mould
- Tomato russet mite
- Tomato spotted wilt virus
- Two-spotted spider mite
- Verticillium Wilt
- White mould (Sclerotinia)
- Whitefly
Sources
Figures cited from these sources.