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Fast tomatoes – the quickest way to grow your own

Faced with empty supermarket shelves, we’re left wondering: what’s the fastest route to picking your own tomatoes? RHS experts offer top tips

With the value of ‘growing your own’ starkly underlined by the rows of empty shelves in supermarket veg aisles, and tomatoes threatening to become to 2023 what toilet rolls were to 2020, many of us are turning to other methods of getting our hands on the precious Italian fruit.

There’s no denying that however you grow your tomatoes, you’re in for the long haul. But with a little guidance, you can be enjoying your own supply in just a few short months – whatever the weather in Morocco. RHS experts are here to help, sharing their seasoned secrets to a fast harvest.
 

Location, location, location

Tomatoes grow and mature in a direct relationship with heat and light, so growing them in a heated greenhouse, or at least raising them in one before later transplanting outside, will of course give the earliest crops. However, most of us don’t have this luxury!

The good news is, there’s still plenty that those of us growing outdoors can do to in order to get our tomato harvests off to a racing start.

RHS Chief Horticulturist for Communications, Guy Barter, said: “Cold nights are particularly likely to set crops back, so covering plants with fabric or

fleece (ideally biodegradable) on cold nights – whether indoors or out – can avoid setbacks that may delay flowering.

The earliest and tastiest outdoor crops come from warm, sheltered, sunny places like a bright patio, while plants that are subject to some shade will be slightly slower to mature, delaying harvests by as much as two weeks.”

© Olivia Drake
Olivia's outdoor tomatoes benefit from a sunny courtyard spot overlooking an open area of churchyard, which basks in full sun all day long
 
To sow seed or to buy plants?

Whether to sow seed or to buy young plants is a perennial debate for the vegetable grower. Often, raising from seed is seen as preferable (and usually, inexpensive), with plugs and young plants a valuable backup for time-short gardeners who want to keep the work down or have simply missed the boat to sow. However, nursery-bought plants aren't to be sniffed at, said Guy.


“For greenhouse crops you need transplants ready for April, which means sowing in February.” Now that we’re into March, Guy recommended, “for indoor crops, buy plants in April, or order

plug plants now if you have somewhere warm and bright to grow the plugs on.”

In my view there's much to be said for buying good quality tomato plants in April, ideally from a reliable local nursery

- Guy Barter
“Seed can be sown now for outdoor crops for planting out in May/June, potting into 9cm pots in 6 weeks’ time. They will need a bright, warm place (windowsills are not ideal but can be made to work). If this is not feasible then buy plants – a good selection is offered by garden centres, or mail-order plugs can be bought for April delivery. Expect maturing crops in August.”

© Olivia Drake
Tomato 'Sungold' seedlings ready for pricking out
Which varieties to grow

One of the most patience-sapping stages in growing your own tomatoes is waiting for the fruits to ripen. For what seems like weeks on end, they’re big, they’re juicy – but they’re green!

For an early crop, you want a tomato that ripens quickly. Cherry tomatoes ripen much faster than beefsteak varieties for instance, which require prolonged warmth and sunshine to redden up their hefty fruits.

Amongst the cherry varieties, some of the fastest to ripen are the orange varieties such as 'Sungold'. This is simply because they don’t need to ripen so far, calling it a day at orange, rather than needing to progress right through to red! Yet they are packed with all the sweetness, juiciness and flavour that you could ever ask of a tomato.

Generally, cherry tomatoes mature before round ones; next come plums, and finally beefsteaks. I can recommend ‘Crimson Crush’, an early-maturing round type with good blight resistance.

- Guy Barter
There's also a difference in ripening speed between the two main types of tomato plant – cordon and bush – as Guy explained: “Bush tomatoes are usually speedier than cordon varieties, and of these, cherry-fruited ‘Red Alert’ is astonishingly early to mature, being ready in July. Seed and plants are widely available.

Bush tomatoes can hastened by covering with cloches, coldframe or fleece (ideally biodegradable), which can advance maturity by as much as two weeks.”


© Olivia Drake
You can enjoy bountiful harvests of tomato 'Sungold' in even the smallest outdoor space
© Olivia Drake
A sunny spot against a south-facing wall is ideal for an early crop!
When to sow

Sow too early, and your tomato plants will outgrow the windowsill before the great outdoors is ready for them. Sow too late, and you waste precious potential cropping time. So is there a sweet spot for the best time to sow your tomato seeds?

Many of us are so eager to get our growing season underway that we’re filling seed trays as soon as the calendar flips over to February. But patience is a virtue, and that applies to seed-sowing too.

If you sow tomatoes too early, the plants risk coming up against frost when moved out to their final positions, or becoming leggy indoors while you wait for the weather to warm up enough to move them out.

Reflecting on hard-won experience, RHS Horticultural Advisor Jenny Bowden said: ‘Wait until the end of March to sow tomatoes indoors (or in heated propagator in the greenhouse). Young plants can’t go in the cold greenhouse or outside until summer, and too often mine became leggy when sown too early.’


© Olivia Drake
Tomato 'Sungold' plants waiting indoors to move into their final outdoor positions
Other top tips

  • Pollination is very important for timely fruit formation. For outdoor plants, visits by bees should suffice, but indoor plants will benefit from a gentle shake on sunny afternoons to transfer pollen.
  • ​Good horticultural practice is necessary for early crops. Use moderately fertile soil or peat-free growing bags; keep these well-watered but not over-watered; and apply fertiliser as recommended by the manufacturer.
  • It may seem counterintuitive, but spoiling your plants can actually slow them down. Instead, keep them in 9cm pots until they start flowering – this stresses them into flowering earlier, at which point they can be planted out. If the plants are treated generously, flowers can be delayed for as much as two weeks.

Even if the current tomato shortage is a distant memory by summer, home-grown tomatoes are unbeatably delicious when picked warm and fully ripe from the plant. Once you’ve started growing your own, there’s no looking back!
 
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Solanum lycopersicum 'Crimson Crush'
tomato 'Crimson Crush'
  • 1–1.5 metres
  • 0.5–1 metres
<em>Solanum</em> <em>lycopersicum</em> 'Crimson Crush'
Solanum lycopersicum 'Red Alert'
tomato 'Red Alert'
  • 0.5–1 metres
  • 0.5–1 metres
<em>Solanum</em> <em>lycopersicum</em> 'Red Alert'
Solanum lycopersicum 'Sungold'
tomato 'Sungold'
  • 1–1.5 metres
  • 0.5–1 metres
<em>Solanum</em> <em>lycopersicum</em> 'Sungold'
Solanum lycopersicum 'Crimson Crush'
tomato 'Crimson Crush'
  • 1–1.5 metres
  • 0.5–1 metres
<em>Solanum</em> <em>lycopersicum</em> 'Crimson Crush'
Solanum lycopersicum 'Red Alert'
tomato 'Red Alert'
  • 0.5–1 metres
  • 0.5–1 metres
<em>Solanum</em> <em>lycopersicum</em> 'Red Alert'
Solanum lycopersicum 'Sungold'
tomato 'Sungold'
  • 1–1.5 metres
  • 0.5–1 metres
<em>Solanum</em> <em>lycopersicum</em> 'Sungold'
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