Outdoors
Some people living in colder climates grow tomatoes in the glass house but in most places they can safely be grown outside. In the UK how well they do will depends on the sort of summer that we have and these can be variable. But there are many things that you can do to help you get the best out of your plants whatever the weather. These growing tips will apply equally to plants grown under glass.
Reflected warmth
Tomatoes like warmth so it is good to grow them on the sunny side of a fence or wall. In this way they will gain shelter from the wind and also get reflected warmth from the wall or fence behind them.
Water
In this sort of position the wall may also shelter the plants from the rain and as a result they may need more watering than if they were sited in a more open position. It is essential that tomato plants are kept moist at all times and not allowed to dry out between watering. If this happens then it will impact on the crop. You can get split skins on the tomatoes and may also have strange shaped fruits.
Pruning shoots
It is also important to nip off with your fingers any side shoots coming out from the main stem. You just want one strong stem from which the leaves and fruit trusses will grow. If you do not nip out the side shoots then the plant will use up considerable energy that otherwise would produce fruits in producing a large bush plant with loads more greenery. (If you want a bust plant let all the side shoots grow but it will cut down your crop of fruit.)
Feeding
It is a mistake to feed the plants with tomato feed before the tiny green fruits can be seen on the lowest fruit truss. If you start earlier the you will get too much growth of stem between the fruit trusses. It is important that you read the instructions on the packet for feeding the plants. It is necessary to keep feeding regularly once you start - one or two intermittent feeds will not really have much effect and it may be better not to feed at all. You can make your own liquid fertilizer by soaking rotted organic waste in water but this can smell and so if you are growing the plants near to your house you might prefer to use one of the tomato fertilizers available from gardening shops.
Topping the plant
Some gardeners stop the plant by taking off the top after there have been three or four good trusses of fruit set. This will concentrate the plants energy in growing and ripening the fruit that is there rather than keeping on producing more and more small fruit. If you don't take the top off you will have a quantity of green tomatoes left at the end of the growing season which are too late to be ripened on the plant. Perhaps you want to make something with green tomatoes - or perhaps you can use some of the old techniques for ripening fruit inside such as putting them on a sunny windowsill in the late autumn.
I have tried many ways of ripening green fruit at the end of the season and it can be difficult as they can rot rather than ripen. If you do take the top off the plant may rebel and start putting out loads of side shoots which also will have to be trimmed off.
Good crop
If you follow these instructions, which are the same for whatever tomato you grow - from the sweet little salad ones to the huge beefy ones and all the types in between - you will have a better crop than if you leave the plants alone and do nothing.
