Yummy Tomatoes

If you're tired of spending a small fortune on tomatoes that don't taste good, then look no further and grow your own! It is a gratifying way to save money and eat healthily.

Generally, I plant 'Mega Tom' grafted tomatoes. These are created by merging two varieties of tomato plants, the rootstock, and the scion. The rootstock provides the strength of any grafted tomato; the scion is the part that produces beautiful, tasty fruit. A grafted plant can produce at least double that of a normal variety. Because of the strong rootstock grafted, 'Mega Toms' have greater disease resistance; therefore, minimal spraying is required.

Temperature

The optimum temperature for tomatoes is 18-22 degrees Celsius; they do not like temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius but will handle the occasional 5 degrees. If planting in pots or bags, you should use a size equivalent to PB28 or PB40 planter bag. Tomatoes are sun-loving plants. If your tomato fruits are not ripening, it is most likely caused by low light levels.

Soil

For best results, use Oderings Fruit & Veggie Mix or Oderings Shrub & Tub Mix. You can mix this into your garden to provide the best start for your plants, or read below about planting directly into these bags.

Feeding

If you use one of our Oderings bagged mixes, you will not need to fertilise your tomato plants until they are one metre tall or start fruiting. We recommend Oderings Total Replenish or Tui Performance Naturals Fertiliser Tomato & Vegetable when feeding plants.

Watering 

Water directly onto the soil, not the leaves, as that, can encourage disease. Adding a layer of mulch or placing a weed mat around the base can help conserve moisture and suppress weeds. Never keep plants wet, but water regularly to encourage firm fruit. An excellent point to remember is to water your plant a little less at harvest time; this makes the fruit sweeter and tastier.

Removing laterals

Too many shoots inhibit fruit development; therefore, lateral shoots must be removed regularly. Once the tomato has reached 1.8m, the top of your stake or the top of your greenhouse, pinch out the tips.

Pests

The biggest problem affecting tomatoes is psyllid which affects the quality of your tomato crop. If you have had tomato plants that looked wrinkled and stunted, this is most likely the issue. This nasty little insect is resistant to nearly all chemical sprays, making it extremely hard to control. The best cure for these nasty insects is to prevent their arrival on your plants in the first place with Mavrik, BioNeem or Crop Cover. Yates has also registered Success Ultra as a spray to eliminate psyllids. Remember when spraying to spray the undersides of the leaves. For best results, alternate spays in a two-week rotation.

Other insects, such as whitefly and aphids, are controlled easily, so please bring a few problem leaves (in a bag) to us, and we can help ensure you are using the right product. For more info, read the Tomato Dr article.

Diseases 

Growing Tomatoes in a Soil-Less Media Bag 

You can plant a tomato directly into Oderings Fruit & Veggie Mix or a Shrub & Tub Mix bag. These bags will provide the nutrients the tomato plant needs until around December.
Slice open the top of the bag and thump the bag, so the mix settles.
With scissors or a sharp knife, make a line of gashes around the bag, about 5cm up from the bottom.
This provides the bag with drainage when watering, and having the holes 5cm from the bottom means there is a small reservoir of water that the plant can use when needed as they are big drinkers.  

Make a hole in the middle of the mix for your tomato plant. Remember not to plant the tomato deeper into the media than the level it has been planted in its nursery pot. This is extra important when planting a grafted tomato; you must ensure the grafted join is above the soil line. If the graft gets into the mix, it can start to grow roots and a whole new plant which will ruin the good grafted variety.
Once planted, water the bag entirely so water runs out the bottom. After this, water when required, and don't allow the plants to dry out. They like regular drinks.
The tomato plant will tell you when it needs feeding as the bottom leaves will start to yellow as the upper leaves start to take their nutrients. This is when you can start feeding, and follow the care tips above for feeding, pruning, and watering.

Types

Angela

Large vigorous plants produce round shaped fruit of about 100 grams and are one of the most popular varieties. It possesses excellent disease resistance.

Arrowtown

Firm and very flavourful with more beneficial lycopene

Bambino
A highly productive truss variety with sweet-flavoured, rich-red 50g fruit.

Big Beef 

Produces big and meaty (250-350g) tasty fruit. 

Big Boss

This is a first for a beefsteak-type tomato, as it has a bushy, compact habit with all the big, juicy fruit of a traditional variety. Growing only one metre tall, Big Boss has bountiful loads of 450-500g fruit that have an unsurpassed balance of sweetness and acidity. This tomato will dominate a sandwich or burger bun in one slice and is brilliant on a summer barbecue or in salads.

Beef Steak
Plants are multi-disease resistant and produce high yields of large (approximately 250 to 350g) and very tasty fruit.

Cherry Bomb

An explosion of flavour is the outcome with this reliably sweet, true cherry tomato with red round fruit, which are produced over a long fruiting season.

Dr. Walter
This is a superior beef steak style tomato producing low acid fruit of 130g and is a vigorous grower and is one of the best tomatoes for the BBQ.

Dark Delight

Don't be put off by the colour, this delightful fruit has an irresistible sweet yet rich taste. Dark Delight is also a heavy cropper producing an abundance of fruit. 

Deep Delight

Grafted Mega Tom, Deep Delight is an attractive, sweet, quality fruit in red colour with a brown blush. Produces an average of 10 fruit per truss. 25-30 gram cocktail type tomato. Full sun.

Early Girl

Tall growing variety (approx 2m), producing heavy early crops with fruit size of 110-130g. 

Grapevine

A flavour hit, this grape-shaped tomato is commercially grown and is early maturing, providing masses of fruit that are sweet and acidic, just like a traditional cocktail tomato.

Grosse Lisse

Large robust red fruits with a heavy abundance of fruit and tall vigorous growth. Stake to support. 

Money Maker
Large vigorous plants produce round shaped fruit of about 100g and are one of the most popular varieties. It possesses excellent disease resistance.

Ox Heart

High producing heirloom type. Ribbed, deep red tomato of 150-180g produced on trusses of 3-5 fruit. Meaty flesh with a delicate, low acid flavour. Great for sandwich and salads.

Potentate
New Zealand grown from seed of a favourite old English variety. Its claim to fame is early blossoming and fruit set on bottom trusses, making it ideal for earlier outdoor planting. Fruit weigh 130g.

Red Robin

A true dwarf tomato reaching only 20cm. It produces lots of tasty cocktail sized fruit. This small yummy tomato grows on a neat and tidy plant which requires no staking and is best suited to growing in a container where you can pick the fresh fruit often.

Roma
Plum shaped acid free, medium-sized fruit of 100g. An early producing and high yielding plant which is suitable to use for cooking.

Russian Red

This semi dwarf variety requires no staking and produces medium sized fruit. 

Strawberry Bells
Fantastic for salads or snacks, this heart-shaped cherry tomato is high yielding with trusses of 25g weight, evenly coloured tomatoes.

Sweet 100
This is our most popular tomato and is a cherry type - each fruit weighing approximately 13g. It Produces large numbers of blanched clusters of fruit, each cluster producing up to 100 fruits.

Sweet Delights
Round, firm and dark red in colour with average 50g size of cocktail-type tomato. Truss production is high and regular with strong green stems giving this tomato an easy to manage habit.

Sweet Treats

This large, healthy plant produces masses of the sweetest, tastiest, bite-sized tomatoes that you have ever had. It is considered a cocktail tomato but the fruit is bigger than the 'Sweet 100' with an excellent flavour and an extremely high yield. The fruits are brilliant red, round and very uniform. Bred in Europe, the plant offers resistance against virus, leaf spot and fusarium. 'Sweet Treats' can be grown in large tubs or in a well-drained, sunny position in the garden.

Tangled

Tomato Tangled is packed full of flavour, this truss cocktail will hit you with a new taste sensation. With a slight pink tinge this fruit is sweet and juicy. Each fruit weighs between 20-25g and their high yielding trusses will produce 40 fruits per truss! 

Tasty Treats
Producing flatter round-shaped fruit and weigh approximately 100g. The plant is vigorous and offers very regular, uniform production as well as flavour-some fruit.

Taupo
The fruit are slightly rounded and weigh about 95g. The plant tolerates lower temperatures and both high yielding and robust, cropping over a long period.

Totem A

A dwarf plant, which produces an excellent crop of round, medium-sized fruit with a delicious flavour. Totem has become popular over the last few years as a container plant that doesn’t require staking or pinching out. With a height of 50-60 cm and spread of 30-40cm. This is an early tomato with medium sized – crimson fruit.

Tumbling Tom

An outstanding plant like no other. It is available in baskets from which two plants cascade and produce handfuls of sweet, juicy cocktail-sized two to four centimetre fruits.