Organic Tomato Cerise

Plant seeds in trays or modules of good organic seed & cutting compost between January and March at a temperature of 18-21°C. Seed can also be planted in March and April – putting the trays on a sunny windowsill – if you do not have a propagator for earlier sowings.

Pot up into 8cm pots when the first few true leaves appear and the plants are approximately 8cm tall. Use a good quality organic multi-purpose compost with good nutrient levels and grow on at 10°C. The plants grow rapidly and need the nitrogen particularly to stay green and healthy.

If you are growing in pots keep potting up the plants until you get to the largest size you have. Plant out in growbags, inside borders, or outside borders in April and May. Tomatoes are not frost hardy. Always feed with an organic liquid feed when the first trusses of Tomatoes form and keep feeding and watering as required. Tomato plants are very hungry.

Try to keep the watering consistent (but do not drown your grow bags) and try not to let the plants dry out. Support tall growing varieties with strings or canes and pinch out the side shoots that grow from the base of the leaf joint, but not the flower stems!
Once the plants have set 3 or 4 trusses of fruit you can pinch out the growing tip of the plant. Remove older, yellowing leaves from the base of the plant and this will improve light and air flow to the lower trusses of fruit. Harvest your tomatoes when ripe from June until October.

Pests and diseases:
Tomatoes can be affected by whitefly, aphids, red spider mite and also potato blight. For greenhouse pests use a biological control if required.
Blight shows as brown patches on the leaves and it can spread to the fruit. Remove affected leaves and be careful not to transmit it from the potato patch to the greenhouse on muddy boots.