If you are considering growing tomatoes this year then now is the time to get sowing your seeds. Late February is the best time to begin sowing seeds as it take quite a long time for a tomato plant to mature and develop its juicy fruits. To grow tomatoes in Ireland you will need a greenhouse or mini greenhouse. Another great way to grow your tomatoes is using a Tomato Grow pot.
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- Growing Tomatoes
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- Growing Tomatoes
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- Growing Tomatoes
Of course the first step in growing tomatoes begins with sowing the seed. It is not until your tomatoes are around 10 cm tall that you will transplant them into their tomato grow pots. Sowing tomato seeds should only commence once the worst frosts have past, sowing any earlier could lead to seeds and seedlings dying in the cold nights. If you are going to grow from seed be sure to have a good set up in place so that you can store, water, feed and transplant your seedlings while not causing them too much stress or disturbance. Be sure to keep them in a warm location which never goes below 10 degrees day or night. This means avoiding cold windowsills and keeping them well protected from sowing to mid May.
Have the right potting trays, compost mix, plant food, watering systems, potting on trays and grow pots to hand will make your life that bit easier and give better crops yields. Tomato plants firstly don’t like to be disturbed too much and secondly they like warmth and moisture. To achieve the later you will need to keep your plants in a warm greenhouse and ensure that they are well watered and moist at all times, without over watering. That is why the tomato grow pot is such a clever invention; it has been designed with a watering ‘moat’ that tells you how much water to add and then limits the amount of water being soaked down to the plant’s roots. This moat provides a slow and steady water supply to the outer roots leading to best usage of water. The inner pot has a deep planting zone to which you should apply a liquid feed. This leads to the development of two root systems; one water root system and one feeding root system.
If you aren’t using the tomato grow pot you can alternatively use large 10 litre pots and regulate your watering and feeding as required. Another way to grow tomatoes is to plant them into a tomato grow bag, these grow bags are 15cm in depth giving a deep rooting area for the plants which is essential for growth and develop of fruiting trusses.
If you take the best care of your tomatoes then you will have a great harvest come later August. Of course all gardeners are at the peril of the weather and if we have a dull summer without much in the way of sunshine then your tomatoes may never fully ripen.