There’s nothing tastier than homegrown tomatoes, with just one plant producing lots of fruit throughout the entire season.
They’re a great choice for beginners, but they do require regular care in order for them to flourish properly.
This includes one important job, pinching the side shoots towards the bottom of the tomato plant to ensure it grows upwards instead of sideways.
Pinching the side shoots enables the plant to put all of its energy into growing nice and tall with lots of fruit.
If the side shoots are not removed, they may form a mass of long, leggy stems and may not provide trusses of fruit.
It also helps to let in light and air so that the growing fruits get more sun to reduce the risk of disease.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) recommends checking for side shoots every time you water them.
This five-minute weekly job will help to provide gardeners with “bigger” and juicier” tomatoes.
Make sure to pinch the shoots when the leaves are dry to avoid spreading disease, so the morning is the best time before watering.
This process should be continued weekly until there are no leaves left at all.
As well as pinching the shoots, tomatoes should be fed every 10 to 14 days with a balanced liquid fertiliser, according to the RHS.
To encourage fruiting, especially for plants in containers, gardeners can feed them with a high potassium liquid fertiliser every 10 to 14 days too.
Tomatoes can be picked when nearly ripe, especially if it’s coming towards the end of the growing season.
Ripening can then be sped up by putting the fruit in a paper bag, or a cardboard box to trap the ethylene gas.
