Plant Care
Tomatoes
Home-grown tomatoes taste best!
Everyone appreciates the rich and juicy flavour of a freshly harvested tomato, which is why it’s so rewarding to grow your own.
When to grow
Tomatoes love the warmth so, in most areas, they grow best through the summer months. Spring and early summer are the ideal times to sow tomatoes from seed. Although tomato seeds can be planted direct into the garden bed, best results are usually obtained by sowing into pots or trays of Yates® Seed Raising Mix and transplanting when the plants are a few centimetres tall. Some keen gardeners start their tomatoes indoors so they’re ready for planting out when the soil is warm.
What to grow
Here are some of the favourite tomatoes in the Yates range:
- Grosse Lisse: Australia’s most popular variety produces a heavy yield of large, round fruit.
- Big Beef: An award-winning variety with good flavour. Large and meaty.
- Improved Apollo: A popular hybrid that fruits over a long period and is disease resistant.
- Burke’s Backyard Italian Tomato: Classic Italian variety with Marmande-type ribbed fruit.
- Roma: Traditional egg-shaped tomato that’s best for paste and cooking.
- Small Fry: Trusses of tiny sweet fruit on a tall, rambling plant.
- Tiny Tim: A miniature in all ways, Tiny Tim grows cherry-sized fruit on a dwarf plant. Perfect for pots.
Growing tips
- Water in well at planting time.
- A layer of mulch will retain moisture in the soil.
- Fertilise 5 weeks and 10 weeks after planting with Yates Dynamic Lifter Advanced for Tomatoes.
- Feed once a fortnight with Yates Thrive® Flower & Fruit Plant Food or Yates Nature’s Way® Multi Nutrient Plant Food. • Protect plants from pests and diseases with regular use of Yates Tomato Dust. • In fruit fly-affected areas, as fruit approaches maturity, begin applications of Yates Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control or Lebaycid®. Always read and follow label instructions carefully.
Tomatoes in the garden
- Choose a spot that gets plenty of sun and has well-drained soil.
- Dig the soil to one good spade’s depth a few weeks before planting.
- Mix in some organic compost or old manure and some Dynamic Lifter® Advanced for Tomatoes.
- In acidic soils (where azaleas grow happily) dig in some Yates Garden Lime.
- Tall growing tomatoes will need stakes for support.
Tomatoes in pots
- If you don’t have enough space in the garden to grow tomatoes, try them in containers instead.
- Yates Tiny Tim is compact enough to grow in a small container or even in a hanging basket.
- Larger varieties need bigger pots. A Yates Tuscan pot in the 400mm or 500mm size is best.
- Use Yates Professional Potting Mix.
- Add some Yates Dynamic Lifter Advanced for Tomatoes to mix before planting.
