The Top Ten Tomato Tips

There are plenty of tips, advise, tutorials and videos out there about growing tomatoes and caring for plants. Our top ten tips are based on growing tomatoes for nearly 40 years in our polytunnels in Cliffony, Co. Sligo, the NW of Ireland. Hopefully they will help you in growing the best tomatoes wherever you are and in time will lead to your own top ten tips. Nothing beats your own experience!

Moving your tomatoes from the pot to the soil (in your polytunnel) is always a shock for your young plants, therefore there will be little growth for a few days, but if you have prepared your soil well with plenty of compost or well rotted manure the plants will get going quite quickly.

  1. Tomatoes can be planted deep, up to the germination leaves, to increase root production.

  2. Good airflow around the plants helps against fungal problems and blight, so spacing of 50-60cm between plants helps, as does removing the bottom leaves up to the first trusses of fruits.

  3. We usually wait till the 10th of May before stringing them up, so we can fleece them easily if the weather turns frosty.

  4. We side shoot regularly in the morning as the cut heals faster and there is less damage to the plant. We do it when the sideshoots are still small and use our fingers rather than a scissors or knife.*

  5. We water every second day in the morning, starting with a litre per plant and increasing steadily to up to 4 liters per plant end July. Water to the roots of the plants, never the leaves!

  6. Once fruit sets in we feed with comfrey water once a week.

  7. To keep the moisture in the soil we permanently mulch with a mulching membrane.

  8. This years companion planting trial is with garlic.

  9. We plant pot marigold to attract aphids away from the tomato plants and tagetes to deter aphids.

  10. We use garlic spray or nettle spray against fungal problems and spray in the morning. On very hot days we also spray water onto the leaves.

*There is also plenty of advise on side shooting or not, on planting side shoots to grow more plants etc. We have tried all those methods and find side shooting leads to more managable plants, helps better airflow and reduces fungal problems. Raising plants from side shoots works, but the plants fruit much later and much less. At present we ferment all side shoots in a bucket of water to fertilise the plants.