DID YOU KNOW – tomatoes were not eaten for about a century after their introduction to the American continent? Europeans thought that the red fruit of the plant was poisonous. And, you may have noticed that I said fruit! That is because a tomato is actually a FRUIT, not a vegetable, as is commonly thought to be. Well, technically it is a berry, because it is the ovary of the flowering tomato plant. But whatever you choose to call it, this vegetable is one of the most commonly grown vegetables throughout the United States. For who can resist a freshly picked, bright red tomato, straight from the vine? I know I can’t.

During your tomato growing journey you will discover many varieties of tomatoes. Some are as small as marbles, known as cherry tomatoes, and some can grow as big as a softball, known as beefsteak tomatoes. Tomatoes also come in a host of different colors ranging from yellow, to orange, to purple, and to the all loved and well known red tomatoes.

You may be surprised to hear that tomato plants come in two different types: determinates and indeterminates.

Why the funny names, you may ask? Well, it is actually quite logical and makes sense, once you know the answer. Determinates grow to a specific height and then stop growing, as if their height was pre-determined before they started growing. Because of this, they are a great choice for people with small spaces, or perhaps those who want to plant their tomatoes indoors. The indeterminate tomato plants are the opposite of the latter, having no pre-determined growing height. These tomato plants are sometimes called vine tomatoes, as they behave like a vine. Because of this, indeterminate tomato plants usually require support, like stakes or fences, thus making for fantastic outdoor growing.

You can grow your tomatoes from seeds, which is not too difficult, or you can just buy small seedling plants from garden centers. Seeds can be purchased over the internet these days and many hard to find varieties are seen more commonly because of this reason. Tomatoes are hungry for water and sunshine, with well-drained soil. Follow those basic steps and you can’t really go wrong, the plants will grow themselves. But there are many techniques and growing tips around if you would like to grow your tomatoes super tasty and juicy. In fact, there is a whole ART to producing superior tomatoes.

Realistically most growbags that are available which can be 35 or 40 litres in size are only enough to support two plants. There are ways in which you can push this out to 3 plants but for the cost of a growbag its probably as well just to stick to 2 plants, particularly if you take good care of them and produce lots of fruit.

If you go for pots then you should steralise them before use, to do this you can use a dilute solution of a suitable disinfectant, something like Jeyes fluid is perfect for this task.

While we are on this subject, you really should wipe down the inside of your greenhouse with disinfectant as well to ensure any residual contaminants that could also cause disease are removed from the glass.

One of the reasons I am suggesting using large pots or growbags for growing tomato plants is because the soil in the greenhouse is going to need to be dug out and replaced every 2 or 3 years anyway to ensure that you get rid of any build up of disease and also because the soil will be pretty much spent in terms of nutrients.

Space is limited in a greenhouse so the best option for plant varieties is to use the indeterminate variety of tomato plant i.e. a vine plant. You can prune the plant to the required size, leaving about 4 to 6 trusses on the main stem, which is about 6′ to 7′ in height, greenhouse size allowing. This will give you lots of fruit over an extended period.  You will have to pinch out the main stem when you have enough trusses to stop further growth.

As an aside, using the bush variety is less convenient for greenhouses because they, as the name suggests, form a determinant size of bush without pruning which is probably a little too large in diameter for the average greenhouse. The fruit also has a tendency to all come at once.

Irrespective of the growing method you choose, you should start to feed the tomatoes at the first sign of fruit and for the duration of the growing period, twice a week should be sufficient. Also as you are in a greenhouse regular and consistent watering is also very important and I recommend 2 to 3 times a day with water that has been allowed to warm in the greenhouse.

As the end of the season nears a way of helping the last remaining fruit ripen is to hang a couple of bananas in the apex of the greenhouse. If that fails to ripen the last bit of fruit you can always use the green tomatoes for making a delicious chutney.