The smell. A fantastic pungent but pleasant herbaceous, herby smell like no other.
Brush against the leaves of the glorious tomato plant and you are treated to that heavenly waft.
Love them or hate them, you can’t deny their importance in the annual gardening calendar.
Tomatoes are a subject all into themselves. Some love cherry types like Golden Crown, some adore beefsteak like Big Beef, some salad/globe like Valencia and some even love those plum types for making sauce like San Marzano.
All I know is that if you grow any of the aforementioned types then you’re in luck because they’ll all be delicious!
Some of my favourite garden memories are of walking into the comforting sun kissed warmth of the polytunnel.
Glistening red jewels hang suspended mid-air. The trusses bearing that collection of mouth-watering fruit.
The burst of flavour so sweet and vibrant that it sings on the tongue. Made all the more delicious by the gentle residual warmth it holds. The only problem is collecting some without scoffing the lot!
Windowsill tomatoes?
At Beechgrove Garden we are trialling windowsill tomatoes on a small staging area in the greenhouse.
This is in order that prove you can have a bountiful crop of delicious home-grown, fresh tomatoes even if you have no garden at home.
We are trialling a dozen types. These are grown from seed and are ultimately potted into 7” (18cm diameter/ 5L pots).
We wanted to ensure that growing them at home in pots was realistic by using pots big enough to sustain the plants but will still actually fit on your windowsill.
The windowsill varieties we are growing this year includes Aztec Yellow, Balconi Red, Fat Frog, Heartbreaker Vita, Red Robin, Rosy Finch, Sweet n’ Neat, Tiny Tiger, Tiny Tim, Venus, Veranda Red and last but not least Vilma.
The advantages of these are that they need no support, string, canes etc to stop them flopping over and to assist their growing, unlike cordon tomatoes. The downside is of course that they are grown in pots.
This means they naturally have less growing medium and as such they’ll need watered more.
Careful with the watering
A careful eye will need to be cast on them because tomatoes famously hate erratic watering. Inconsistent watering causes bottom end rot.
This is a brown spot that develops whilst the fruit is still unripe and green. It is often mistaken for a disease but simply because the watering can has been absent!
Another issue can be the skin of the fruit cracking and splitting. This is usually caused by over-watering followed by a dry spell. This is due to the fruit expanding quicker than the skin can keep up with!
Cordons
As well as the windowsill tomatoes we also have some regular cordon tomatoes namely Golden Crown and Sungold.
We have planted some of these into the beds within one of the glasshouses. Some have been placed into growbags.
A good tip is to limit the number of trusses per plant to six. That will allow for the best quality fruit.
A revolution for me was learning a simple new trick from the gardeners Claire and Elien at Beechgrove Garden.
When planting the cordon tomatoes they first make the hole then place some string into the hole.
The tomato is planted on top of the string then firmed in and watered as usual. The other end of the string gets taken up to a hanging point like a hook or wire above plus.
A little extra length for later on when more is needed for twining is accounted for.
A slipknot (no not my favourite band; the other kind) is then used to have a secure but expansive loop onto that hook or wire.
This means that the cordon can grow up the string. The string can be wrapped around the stem remaining taut but expanded to be slackened if necessary.
Nifty trick
The string planted under the plant root means it will always be secured. A nifty trick that I’ll always be using.
I believe it was George Anderson that showed Claire and Elien it. Now I am telling you!
Us gardeners are a generous lot. We share knowledge and skills. We often share out time and equipment.
The old adage: “The purpose of life is to find your passion; the meaning of life is to pass it on,” springs to mind. Any day I can share my true passion of horticulture is a good day to me.
Take care and happy gardening.
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