Planting tomatoes is one of the top choices for UK gardeners and growers and it’s easy to see why. Saving on shopping costs, helping the environment, and eating your own creation brings immense joy to garden-loving Brits.
But timing is key when it comes to yielding the tastiest tomatoes.
Like many grown foods, tomatoes are sensitive to temperature and conditions.
Being too hot or too cold can lead to a poor yield or can kill off your tomato plant altogether.
To make sure your harvest is successful, read on to discover exactly when you should take your tomato plants into the garden.
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When should I plant tomatoes outside?
Tomatoes need frost-free conditions to grow successfully outside.
According to Gardeners World, you should move your tomatoes outside following the last frost of May.
It’s worth waiting a couple of weeks from the most recent frost to move them, in order to be confident of their survival.
How often should I water tomato plants?
There is no hard or fast rule to watering your tomato plants and can be very weather dependent.
As with most homegrown foods, watering more when the weather is hot and dry is essential.
Naturally, if it’s raining you should hold off on watering for a couple of days after the rainfall has ended.
As a general rule, average-sized tomato plants need one to two inches of water per week.
To save time on watering, when planting you can add organic mulch to the soil.
Mulch reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil, meaning your tomatoes will get more water and you don’t need to water them as often.
However, the best way to make sure your tomatoes are successful this year is to monitor the weather and condition of your plants every single day.
