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Tomatoes are extremely popular.
Everyone calls them a vegetable, but actually they are a fruit.
They're really versatile.
Pop them in a salad, a burger, or use them in your cooking.
You can't have enough tomatoes.
I'll show you how to plant them, grow them, and show you
how to take care of them, so you'll
have a good supply on hand for some good eating.
You'll need to wait for the cold weather to pass
and the soil to warm up.
Traditionally, Labor weekend is normal planting time,
but this does vary between islands.
In parts of the North Island, tomatoes
can be planted as early as September,
but in the South Island, you'd best to wait until October.
When it comes to a location to make
sure you get sweet, ripe tomatoes,
look to plant them in a warm, sheltered, well-drained area
with full sun for most of the day.
As far as plants go, the easiest thing to do
is to choose a grafted tomato plant.
This means that each variety has been joined or grafted
onto a healthy set of roots.
They will be more disease resistant
and give you a much bigger yield.
There's heaps of varieties to choose from.
Some of the most popular are sweet 100, beefsteak,
moneymaker, and a wide range of heirloom varieties.
Good soil with some extra potassium
will encourage fruiting.
Grab some of the specially formulated tomato mix
to make the job pretty easy.
Then mix it well through your existing soil.
Space your plants evenly according to the recommended
spacing on the back of the tag.
For these, it's roughly 50 centimeters apart.
Then, soak them in bucket of seaweed tonic before planting.
It's full of nutrients and helps reduce stress and transplant
shock.
They're good to go when the air bubbles stop rising to the top.
Dig the hole, very gently ease it out of the pot,
and then place it in our hole.
And then back fill with our tomato mix.
And just press down firmly, but making
sure not to get the soil above the bottom of the stem.
And then stake them.
Just go a few inches off the bottom
of the plant to ensure that you're not
damaging any of the roots, and then just press down firmly.
So now our tomato plan has some structure to grow up.
And finally, water them in.
After some time, as your plants grow in height,
gently secure them to the stake with some ties
to keep up the support.
As far as feeding goes, tomatoes need a bit of everything.
This tomato food has just the right NPK ratio.
That's nitrogen, N, for foliage.
Phosphorus, P, for root growth.
And potassium, K, for fruiting.
Water them daily and twice daily in hot weather.
It's important not to let them dry out,
but they don't like wet feet, so make sure the water doesn't
lie around getting stagnant.
Avoid watering the leaves too, as this can
increase the risk of disease.
If you've gone for a non-grafted variety,
it's a good idea to pinch out the laterals
to concentrate the plant's energy on producing
better fruit.
But you don't need to worry about laterals
for grafted or bush varieties.
Grafted tomatoes have a higher disease resistance
than standard tomatoes, but here's a few pests and diseases
which tomatoes are susceptible to.
Look out for these.
Green fly, blossom end rot, fruit split, late blight,
or bacterial wilt. If you spot any of these pests or diseases,
just head in store and we'll sort you out
with the right product.
If you're not sure what you're looking at, just take a photo
and bring it in.
Once the tomatoes have ripened, picked the fruit
daily so the birds don't get at them.
Use a pair of sharp secateurs and snip the stalk.
Don't pull them off, and don't store them in the fridge,
as they'll lose their flavor.
So that's how to grow your own tomatoes, easy as.
Follow this guide, and you'll have a good supply ready
for your plate.
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