It’s always a challenge to pick the right time to plant tomatoes, and as we had snow here on the weekend, I may be sensible to delay a little longer, but regardless, it’s almost nearly maybe time to plant them again.
Before tearing into it, consider how you are going to support the plants, as that will improve the look and create a healthy, fruitful crop. Our frames can be made into perfect climbing frames to support tomatoes (and cucumbers, beans, pears, melons etc), so maybe repurpose one that you have for this task. Otherwise, the Supreme Frame is ideal and can be used to make a climbing frame to fit your patch perfectly.
As the plant grows you can secure them with soft ties to the legs of the garden frames (or to stakes if you are using the old-fashioned method), to provide stability and prevent sprawling. Two to three leaders per leg should be fine and remove sideshoots as they appear. Or you can drop a stringline down from the top of a frame and weave the leaders up that as they grow to the very top. This is neat and tidy and does not take up as much space.
Down here we seem to be having shorter and shorter summers and getting the tomatoes up, growing and ripening has been a real challenge, so I am going with seedlings this year to try and get a kick start. I get these from our reliable local nursery. The seedlings come in a punnet, which you just tip over and tap to release the seedlings, then very gently and carefully wriggle the seedlings apart to separate them, being careful not to tear the roots, as you want them to stay long and healthy. Don’t pull or tear them apart, just nice and carefully wriggle them away from each other.
Now head to your prepared garden bed, make a hole so you can bury the seedling deep, covering much of the stalk. If you plant it high in the ground, with much of the stalk exposed, it may grow fast, but planting deep will encourage more roots to grow off the buried stalk and connect the plant with the soil making it stronger and more vigorous above. Deep planting will also be good for the plant's health, as you will create a barrier against soil borne diseases and allow the plant to reach deeper moister.
Give it a good liquid feed, tend to it over the months and you will have them thriving for summer.
Enjoy
Peter