Select your climate zone Australia - cool/mountain Australia - sub-tropical Australia - temperate Australia - tropical New Zealand - cool/mountain New Zealand - sub-tropical New Zealand - temperate United Kingdom - temperate/cool United Kingdom - temperate/warm What is my climate zone?

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
									P	P	P

(Best months for planting Tomato in New Zealand - cool/mountain regions)

• Harvest in 60-120 days
• Grow in seed trays, and plant out in 4-6 weeks. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed.
• Best planted at soil temperatures between 16°C and 35°C.
• Space plants: 40-60cm

TOMATOES

---

There is nothing like the taste of a freshly picked tomato, warm from the sunshine. In the smallest of gardens or even an apartment with a window-box, it is worth growing at least one tomato plant for the pleasure it will give you. They will grow in pots, troughs or even hanging baskets.

Tomatoes are frost tender and should be grown in shelter or under cover in cool climates.

---

Tomatoes need feeding. In a garden bed, compost and mulching will produce a crop from one or two plants. In containers, use some suitable long term fertiliser pellets or feed regularly when you water. Feeding also improves the flavour of the fruit.

---

There are many different varieties of tomatoes but they all have one of two growth habits.

Determinate:

Compact bush growth, stops at a specific height and useful for containers.

Indeterminate:

Will continue growing a main stem, or vine until stopped by frost. The majority of heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate.

Both types need stakes to give them some support otherwise they will sprawl across the garden.

Varieties include Acid-free, Bush, Tall, Cherry, Yellow and many others.

Your comments and tips

26 Jan 10 Chris (Australia - temperate climate)

Lyndall, Flowers not producing fruit could be due to too much water. with regard to the height, last year I let all the side shoots grow and that stopped vertical growth compared to this year where I have religiously trimmed out any shoots from the leaf joints and my plants which were planted 23 November are between 1 and 1.4 metres high. My theory is that if you let the side shoots grow a bit it will stop trying to grow vertical because the plant needs to keep flowering and the only way to flower is to produce new growth. This growth comes from the main stems or new stems nearer the bottom of the plant. I have 4 plants so am going to let to bush out more and keep 2 growing vertical. If you let the plant grow up through the wire the possums will do the trimming for you.

29 Jan 10 DelBoy (Australia - temperate climate)

I've had trouble with my tomatoes too this year. Last year I had 3 x cherry and 3 x Roma plants which all gave me loads (too many) tomatoes. This year I planted 3 x cherry and 1 x Roma (in a different section of my garden). Two of the cherry plants gave me a handful each of tomatoes and grew to maybe 15cm in height. The Roma is still producing huge tomatoes but is only about 40cm tall. The last cherry plant is about 1.4m tall and still producing flowers and delicious fruit. I've treated all plants equally well, feeding them and watering them all equally. They all get equal sun. The only difference? The small cherry plants came from Bunnings and the other 2 came from K-Mart!

03 Feb 10 Homebrewpig (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Well I done the experiment of putting boiling water in the area that the tomatoes where planted then added organic fert. and the results were great. First time I got good tomatoes.

05 Feb 10 Lyndall lightbody (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Hi lyndall here again still serching for a particular reason my tomato flowers are falling off and not baring any fruit! It's not from too much water and they are very well drained??

08 Feb 10 Claudia (Australia - temperate climate)

My tomato leaves are yellowing and dying off but I still have plenty of fruit which has been ripening daily. I used the Diggers seeds for the first time and have Tigerella & Tommy Toe Reds. They are in old steel caged plastic water tanks just over 1 meter squared. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it as this is my first time at planting & want to maintain fruiting as long as I can. Thanks

15 Feb 10 Marissa (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi everyone I have 8 tomatoe plants and experiencing a lot of leaves wilting, fruit rotting at the bottom but the top half is still green plus little black flying insects attacking it and laying eggs in it so when I cut a tomato in half it has maggts inside. Can anyone tell me what to do?

27 Feb 10 Lyn (Australia - temperate climate)

My tomatoes have been disappointing this year as well . The Black Russian and Cherry's producing hardly any fruit .The pot grown Romas which i let bush out and basically ignored did the best.So maybe a little neglect is the way to go. Marissa if you live in Adelaide there has been a fruit fly outbreak so maybe that's the cause of the maggots. Apparently you need to tell the local council if that's the case .

04 Mar 10 Steve (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

This year I grew four sorts, Black cherry, marmande, Kotlas and one other I forget. All from the Lost Seed Company. For the first time ever I applied monsterous neglect and I've had my best ever crops. At least 20 kilos so far and still growing strong. Other than an automatic watering over three weeks in December I have done almost nothing. No shoot removal, bad supports, they have sprawled into one huge mess of about 6 square metres which cover the ground so much that weeds have no chance at all. (I haven't weeded since I planted them). I just stick an arm into the pile and pick beautiful toms. I've even left chewed one to drop and rot as it's too hard. I think I've finally discovered the secret to tomato growing.

07 Mar 10 Marion (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I have planted some yellow pear tomatoes the bush is huge and has plenty of tomates on however they are splitting, can anyone tell me why?

08 Mar 10 Sim (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Marion, it's due to either too much watering or irregular watering. Tomatoes will split when they absorbed too much water than the skin can expand. Try reducing amount of watering but keep the frequency of watering. Can't do much about the tomatoes already split.