Today is

By: Ikedi Ani-okoye

Now is one of the better times of the year to start your tomato plants. Why, well you need to give them the best begin to life and tomatoes want a long growing season to develop a good crop. I may hear you expression, it is too wintry or too wet to begin my tomato plants in the ground. Yes, I concur for the Septrional hemisphere but you want to begin your plants off in very early on spring to be sure that they are good croppers. This applies in both the North and Southernmost. It is just that Spring happens at differing times in the year in differing parts of the world.

You need to magistrate when to begin your tomato plants and mine go in during January. These will be potted on into larger pots and finally put into the developing area of a building in May. This is giving me about 4 months of growing before they go into their last planting placement and I would expect to begin cropping my harvest sometime during July, likely towards the commencement of July. I will also be able to keep these cropping until late Oct and this is a maturing period of nearly 10 months.

First of all you need to determine the best seed for what you need to create and there are much varying types of tomatoes to select from. The seed category will aswell affect when and where to plant your seeds.

There are 2 main types of tomatoes to choose from and these are inside or outdoorsy tomatoes or a type which will cultivate indoors or outdoors. I grow both but start these off at varying times of the twelvemonths. You also need to look at whether to cultivate bittie, medium or large tomatoes. Diminutive tomatoes are oftentimes renowned as cherry tomatoes and bushes are frequently weighed down with the number of tomatoes growing on their vines. I tend to grow these outside in my high denseness garden and there is nothing I like better than just eating one when out gardening. The other types of tomatoes are substance and big tomatoes. The big tomatoes are ofttimes called beefsteak and are outstanding sliced on sandwiches.

So how best to grow them? Well I start these off in flats. As I do not want numerous herb plants at as time, I use a quarter size flat, (or seed tray), and I fill these with a multi aim compost. There are specialiser seed composts, soil based composts and peat free composts. We should use peat free composts and for most things I do, but for sowing seeds I find a peat based compost is better. Press the compost down a small but not too much so it becomes hard and the seedling roots will develop better in a looser soil than a harder one. Once I have done this I sow the seeds on the surface of the compost.

As I only need 6 of each type for the building I sow 10 seeds in 2 rows of five in a quarter size flat. Once I have done this I cover them with a depressed layer of vermiculite. This is a effective product to blanket seeds with as it is lightweight but retains moisture. Eventually h2o the flat. I do this by placing the flat in diminutive container of h2o and let the compost absorb the water. You may tell it has engrossed the water as the colour of the vermiculite changes.

You then need to place the flat somewhere hearty. I usually use a windowsill and put the flat inside another flat with a plastic cover over it to make a mini greenhouse. I often use a warmth pad underneath this just to start things off and give the seeds the ideal conditions to develop. As soon as there is any clew of germination withdraw them from the energy and change on until great enough to pot into 3 inch pots.

I find that by starting my herb seeds now, I get a better crop originally in the year, and just as significant, a heavier crop afterward on.