Jamie’s Little Allotment: Gayton based gardener talks all things tomato

In his weekly column, Gayton-based gardener Jamie Marsh talks all things tomato…

If you had chance to read my column last week, you would of seen I was raving about the amazing weather we were having.

I mentioned it had been 18 degrees, and that I had been wearing shorts and T-shirts. I also wrote about something that happens most years, fools spring.

When we have lovely weather, some of us get lured into a false sense of frost-free security and put out some of our young tender seedlings.

Then, Wham! A few days later we experience some hard frosts and the seedlings have been wiped out. Well, that’s definitely happened and is still happening after our fools spring hoax last week.

I hope you didn’t get taken in by the sunshine and get gypped into planting anything out.

Anyway enough about the weather, what have I done this week in the plot?

I think most people who have a garden or an allotment have a specific favourite flower or vegetable to grow. I definitely have a number one on my list, but come to think of it my favourite thing to grow isn’t a vegetable it’s a fruit.

It’s not peppers, chilli, cucumbers or aubergines, which are all fruits by the way. They are grown from a pollinated flower and contain seeds when fully formed.

My best-loved things to grow in the allotment are of course the humble tomato.

You might think to yourself, Why tomatoes when there are so many other delicious things to grow?

Well, the answer is, that I don’t actually buy tomatoes from the supermarket, I only eat my tomatoes or tomatoes grown in the UK which are in season.

The shiny red snooker ball-looking tomatoes we all see in the supermarket are flavourless and watery and have been bred to be like that for storage and transit from far-flung places and also because that’s what we the consumers, now know and demand tomatoes to be like.

Several years ago now, I was given some tomato seeds from a friend to grow, called “crushed heart”.

I was a little sceptical, but I sowed them. When they grew, I could see where the name came from. It actually looked like a heart which had been crushed. What an amazing-tasting tomato, it blew away anything else I’d ever tasted.

Since then I’ve researched different varieties of heirloom tomatoes from all across the world. Now I grow around 30 different types of tomatoes in so many colours and shapes.

They all have a different taste from the supermarket ones we are all so familiar with.

As you might have guessed by now I’m talking about tomatoes this week, it’s now the perfect time to sow your seeds.

As with all seed sowing, I use a fine peat-free seed sowing compost mixed with two parts compost and one part perlite to aid drainage and help to retain a bit of moisture.

When I’m seed sowing, I try to use individual cell trays, rather than one big tray. It saves the fiddly job of pricking out and transplanting seedlings in a few weeks.

I filled the cell tray with the compost mix and pressed it down gently. Then using a pencil, I made a hole about 4-5mm deep and popped a seed in each hole. I then covered the seeds with more compost and gave the trays a good tap on the bench to make sure the holes were all filled.

I then wrote labels for every variety and popped them in, there’s nothing like not knowing what tomatoes are what, later on when they are growing in the greenhouse.

I watered them gently so as not to disturb the seeds and popped them on my heated mat to germinate. Don’t worry if you don’t have a mat, just put them on a nice warm windowsill.

Tomato seeds need to be about 18-19 degrees to germinate. Make sure you keep the compost damp, if it dries out the seeds won’t germinate.

In seven to 14 days the seedlings will force their way to the top of the compost, ready to start their growing journey.

If you would like to share what you're doing in the garden or ask me a question please email me at Jamieslittleallotment@gmail.com

You can also see what I’m up to on Instagram at @ jamies_little_ allotment