Nothing beats a home-grown tomato. It’s very fortunate that growing tomatoes in sunny Australia is quite easy, as long as you get the soil and aspect just right!
For summer salads or a nice hearty tray bake, a tomato is the foundation of many delicious dishes. Here’s how to grow tomatoes so you can stop buying them from the supermarket:
Growing tomatoes at a glance
- 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
How to plant tomatoes
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 it could hurt the soft vines.
Varieties of tomato
Apart from taking up less space and being easy-to-grow, cherry tomatoes are generally hardier, suffer fewer diseases and have fewer natural predators than their bigger cousins. Plus, many of the trendy truss varieties are ranked the tastiest. Choices abound, with mini truss tomatoes such as ‘Truss Sweet’ and ‘Double Cherry Truss’ producing trusses of well-textured fruit for snacking and salads. For something a little larger, try ‘Gladiator’, a roma fruit perfect for sauces.
Australia is home to a wide variety of tomatoes; the most popular 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.
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.
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
Tomatoes are tolerant of many soil types, but you should add organic matter or fertiliser to ensure good drainage, help resist pest problems and provide the nutrients needed for vigorous growth and plenty of fruit. If you don’t have a big garden, grow tomatoes in a container with quality tomato-specific growing mix. For the best yield, fertilise your tomatoes every two to three weeks.
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!).
Common pests for tomato plants
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.
Diseases that can affect your tomatoes
Tomato crops are susceptible to numerous diseases including:
- Septoria leaf spot
- Anthracnose
- Fusarium and verticillium wilt
- Early Blight
- Late Blight
- Mosaic Virus
Why isn’t my tomato plant fruiting?
There are a couple of reasons why your tomato plant is not fruiting.
- Insufficient light
- Too little or irregular watering
- Cold conditions
The best companion plants for tomatoes
The best companion plants for tomatoes are garlic, onions and chives, which help keep pests away.
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