Have you ever picked up a tomato from the shops, with skin so hard you could bowl it down a cricket pitch? This is why tomatoes will always have a place in my summer vegie patch, because I can grow the best of the best and look for qualities well beyond how the fruit stacks and stores.
My sister-in-law’s family is Italian and knows how to celebrate tomato season. Every spring, their kitchen garden is jam-packed with the tastiest tomato plants, often sown from seed saved and passed down from one generation to the next. And every summer and autumn, there are more than enough tomatoes to harvest and share. When the crop is abundant (which it usually is), their pantry is filled with homemade tomato sugo that lasts well beyond harvest season.
Grow your own tomatoes, and you’ll be delighted by the depth of flavour and life they bring to a dish. Explore the range of heirloom varieties, and you’ll be surprised by the different flavours and colours, too.
Fast facts for growing tomatoes
- When to plant: Early spring
- Climate: Across all of Australia
- Aspect: 6-8 hours of sun a day
- Water: Need to stay well-hydrated, especially on hot days
- Soil type: Well-drained with lots of organic matter
- Harvest: Spring and summer
The tomato varieties Melissa King loves
If you’re after a classic big red tomato it’s hard to go past ‘Grosse Lisse’, a good old favourite that gives you a generous crop over a long season. But if you want to serve up a tasty variety that will get the whole table talking then try growing ‘Jaune Flamme’. It’s an heirloom gem from France, with jewel-like orange fruit that is packed with flavour and beta-carotene.
Complicated to pronounce, but delicious to eat, the ‘Wapsipinicon Peach’ tomato is another great one for spicing up the salad bowl and the conversation, with creamy-yellow fruit that is covered with a fine peach-like fuzz, said to deter fruit flies.
“The first green tomato I grew was a heritage variety called ‘Green Zebra’. My garden is full of birds (and other things that like to eat my fruit), so I was delighted to discover my green tomatoes didn’t get the same unwanted attention as the red ones. When the delicious green and yellow striped fruit was ready to harvest it didn’t look ripe – at least to the birds. So, we got to enjoy the whole crop.”
One of the great pleasures of growing heirloom varieties is the stories they have to tell, like ‘Greek Treasure’ – a big meaty beefsteak variety that was carried to Australia by boat more than 40 years ago – the seeds too good to leave behind. Or ‘Uncle Tony’s La Stupenda’, another treasured beefsteak type with whopping fruit and big flavour. It was introduced from Italy in the 1970s and gifted to gardeners by Australian photographer Bill Henson (Uncle Tony Caruso’s nephew!).
Australia is home to such a wide variety of tomatoes, but the most popular ones are:
- Cherries, grapes: small red and yellow fruits. They add a pop of colour and flavour in salads.
- Plum: red, round and medium-sized fruit, they are great in sandwiches.
- Heirloom: large colourful fruit that is perfect in salads and roasted.
- Roma: are the size and shape of an egg, they’re ideal for cooking or stuffing.
- Beefsteak: the biggest in the tomato family.
How to plant tomatoes with Graham Ross
Gather your supplies
- Vine tomato seedlings
- Soil booster
- Stakes
- Hessian wrap
You’ll also need
- Hand fork
- Hammer
- String or wire.
Step 1
Remove weeds from soil and dig over soil to aerate it.
Step 2
Dig hole for seedling with fork and put in fertiliser pellets.
Step 3
Fill hole with water and wait until it drains away.
Step 4
Remove seedling’s lateral shoots and lower foliage to reduce contact with soil and improve air circulation around seedling.
Step 5
Plant seedling gently into soil, replace soil and press down gently.
Step 6
Water soil, not foliage.
Step 7
Hammer in three three stakes around each seedling to create tepee, with stakes meeting at top.
Step 8
Tie top meeting point with string or wire.
Step 9
Wrap stakes with hessian to protect from birds, possums and any cold snaps. Remove the hessian when cold snaps are over.
Why do you need to truss tomatoes?
If left to their own devices, tomato plants will turn into a large vine with many branches and possibly take over your garden. To keep them at bay you can train them so that they are more compact and produce even more fruit. To do this, when side shoots form, pinch them off using your fingers and encourage one or two stems to continue to grow. For more read our full guide on training tomatoes.
As the tomato vines start to grow, they will want to reach and climb something. Use a single stake, tomato cage or trellis that is at least 2.5m tall so that you give them plenty of room. Don’t use wire ties, as they could hurt the soft vines.
Climate
You can grow tomatoes throughout Australia; they love the heat, so plant them in early spring to reap the rewards. If you’re in the sunshine state (Queensland), you might need to make a tomato tent during peak heat to stop them from getting sunburnt.
If you want to get a head start on the season, try sowing your tomato seeds indoors 6–8 weeks before you want to plant them out.
Tomatoes are clever plants that can form roots along the stem, so plant them deeper than you ordinarily would. It helps to stabilise the plant and encourage a large healthy root ball that can take up more water and nutrients.
Aspect
Tomatoes love the sun, so make sure you plant them somewhere they’ll get between six and eight hours of sun per day. Make sure you keep tomatoes well hydrated; they will wilt easily, especially on warm days.
Hint: they’ll dry out quicker in pots, so make sure you check on them every couple of days.
Soil
Grow tomatoes in a sunny spot with good drainage and incorporate plenty of compost and organic matter into the soil before planting. Tomatoes like a soil pH somewhere around 6.5–6.7, so I also add a bit of dolomite lime to the soil well before planting. The calcium in the mix helps to prevent blossom end rot.
Growing tomatoes in pots
You can grow tomatoes in containers, pots, hanging baskets, raised garden beds of just in the ground. Tomatoes love a good quality soil with ideally a pH of 6.5-6.7 so start preparing the soil by laying down some compost and a good quality potting mix.
You can purchase tomato seeds or plants from your local Bunnings or hardware store or did you know that you can actually just slice a tomato in quarters and plant it in the ground. This process is why many gardens often find tomatoes and pumpkins growing out of their compost!
How to harvest tomatoes
Generally speaking, it will take between 10-14 weeks for tomatoes to mature (11-13 weeks for cherry tomatoes). You can pick tomatoes when they are yellow and let them ripen in the fruit bowl or leave them on the vine until they’re red don’t leave them too long or they’ll split and go rotten (or that critters don’t beat you to it!).
Save your seeds for future plants
- Cut up a ripe heirloom tomato and squeeze the seeds and gel into a jar.
- Cover seeds with water and cover the jar with a paper towel, securing with a rubber band. Stir daily. Fermentation takes 2–5 days.
- Clean seeds with fresh water – the viable seeds will settle on the bottom of the jar. Pour the mix through a strainer, dry on a paper towel, then store in a cool, dry spot until ready to sow in spring. Seeds are viable for 4–10 years.
Tomato leaves are one of the caterpillars’ favourites. If you notice a couple of holes in the leaves, then spray with a natural caterpillar killer.
Tomato crops are susceptible to numerous diseases including:
– Septoria leaf spot
– Anthracnose
– Fusarium and verticillium wilt
– Early Blight
– Late Blight
– Mosaic Virus
– There are a couple of reasons why your tomato plant is not fruiting.
– Insufficient light
– Too little or irregular watering
– Cold conditions
Tomato recipes for your homegrown harvest
Smoky, rich and ridiculously easy, this BBQ tomato pasta sauce is made for nights when you want maximum flavour with minimal effort.
We turned a bagel into a salad – and it’s our new go-to summer lunch
Light, fresh and surprisingly filling, this tomato, prawn and avo bagel salad is the kind of healthy summer lunch that actually satisfies.
If you’re after a recipe that’s quick to throw together, big on flavour and basically made for Taco Tuesday… we have one for you.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
