Growing Tomatoes: The Ultimate Guide for Your Garden & Balcony
Craving fresh, juicy home-grown tomatoes? With a few tips, the right tools, and a little know-how, you can easily grow your own tomatoes – even without a garden!
Tomato Profile
✓ Sowing: late winter (greenhouse or indoors)
✓ Planting out: when temperatures are consistently above 59 degrees Fahrenheit
✓ Harvest: early fall (perform a ripeness test)
✓ Best varieties for beginners: Moneymaker, Harzfeuer
✓ Best varieties for balconies & apartments: Miniboy, Rotkäppchen, Bajaja
✓ Best varieties for garden beds: Paoline F1, Goldene Königin
Planting tomatoes: What you need
- Seed tray
- Seed-starting potting mix
- Pots
- Saucers
- Pricking-out tool/dibber
- Hand trowel
- Gloves
- Watering can/garden hose
- Compost
- Plant support/trellis
Growing Tomatoes from Your Garden to Your Apartment: What Matters Most?
Tomato plants don't just thrive in garden beds; they also grow easily in pots and containers. That means you can start growing your own tomatoes in your garden, on your balcony, on your patio, or even right inside your apartment. No matter which you choose, the following tips are key to success:
- You must always start your tomato plants indoors or in a greenhouse.
- Your tomato plants need plenty of space in their pot or garden bed.
- Make sure there is no standing water. Choose pots with drainage holes.
- Always place them in a sunny spot – the more sun, the better.
- Use highly nutrient-rich soil. Specialty tomato potting mix is ideal.
- Protect your plants from too much rain or wind. Consider building a small shelter for them.
If you want to grow larger tomato plants in pots, give each plant at least a 5-gallon (20 l) container. Smaller varieties for indoor growing can get by with about 2.5 gallons (10 l) of space per plant. In the garden or in a raised bed, leave plenty of space between individual plants – up to 30 inches (80 cm), depending on the variety and growth habit.
Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is particularly easy and rewarding. Here, your plants are safe from wind and weather, and it is always nice, warm, and bright. That is why you can not only start your seeds here, but also transplant them as early as the beginning of spring. Just make sure to look out for these features:
- translucent roof
- heating
- sun protection
Extra tip: You can plant tomatoes in a raised bed two to three weeks earlier than in a standard garden bed, as the soil temperature is warmer here. When setting up your raised bed, keep the height of your tomato variety in mind: the taller the plant, the lower the bed should be. Otherwise, maintenance and harvesting can become quite difficult.
Growing Tomatoes for Beginners: How to Do It
Growing tomatoes from seeds might not be the easiest gardening challenge, but with a few tips, you can definitely make it happen. Even if you make mistakes when starting your tomato seeds or aren't quite perfect with watering and fertilizing, your plants can still be saved in many cases. If not, just give it another try next season!
Step 1: Sowing
Sow the seeds in seed trays or individual pots with 1.5 to 2 inches of seed-starting mix. Each seed gets its own 0.5-inch deep hole, which you then cover with soil. The seeds need plenty of light, water from a spray bottle several times a day, and a room temperature of around 68 °F. A windowsill is the perfect spot for sowing.
Step 2: Pricking Out
Around three weeks after sowing, the seedlings will have developed their first leaves. This is when you can prick them out. This process involves separating the individual plants and transplanting them into separate pots or containers. Use a dibber to gently loosen the delicate roots. In a pinch, a wooden skewer will do.
Step 3: Planting Out
Three to four weeks after transplanting you can plant the tomatoes out into the garden bed. Rake plenty of compost into the soil and dig planting holes with a shovel or trowel. Carefully loosen the tomato plant from the pot and place it in the hole. Press the soil down firmly and water the plant. Finally, install a climbing support.
Step 4: Caring for your tomatoes
To ensure your tomatoes get the nutrients they need, you must fertilize them every 14 days. Tomato fertilizer, compost, or nettle liquid manure are ideal fertilizers.
For the first two weeks after planting, you should water the tomatoes daily with at least half a liter of water. After that, they need water when the plant's leaves hang limply in the morning. It is important not to water from above. This helps you avoid fungal diseases.
Regular pinching out ensures that the tomato invests its energy into its fruit. When pinching out, you remove excess shoots in the leaf axils – right at the point where a new leaf stem branches off from the main stem. You can simply snap them off.
