Black cherry tomatoes | Photos by the writer
Growing tomatoes is an exceptionally rewarding experience, especially if you fulfil all the necessary requirements which aren’t really too much. Being able to go out and harvest basket after basketful of luscious fruit, bursting with juice and vitamins, is a pleasure that never wanes.
We, in Pakistan, are lucky that, with care, tomatoes can be grown all the year round, with the exception of areas in which the temperature regularly plummets below zero in the winter months. Gardeners in Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore, where winter can be decidedly chilly, can still grow tomatoes right through winter providing that they are treated to an unheated greenhouse/poly tunnel or, at the very least, the plants are covered — weighted down sheets of strong, clear plastic are ideal for this purpose — on cold nights and when there is a cold wind/rain during the day.
Contrary to popular myth, tomatoes do not need ultra rich soil to grow in. In fact, if the soil is too rich for their taste, the plants will appear to flourish, producing lots of leafy growth but what look like incredibly healthy and promising plants will produce few, if any, flowers and the fruit for which they have been grown. This is not to say that the plants should be starved of nutrients — far from it — but they need them only in moderation.
Tomatoes are fairly easy to grow and you can produce baskets full of the juicy fruit, if proper care is taken
Perfect tomato-growing soil is sandy loam — a medium type soil with good drainage — though they do well in clay soils too, providing that they do not get waterlogged. Weekly feeds of an organic liquid fertiliser — seaweed-based ones being ideal — or of a home-made ‘compost tea’, brewed in a large container, from a variety of ingredients, such as crushed egg shells, chopped up leafy greens (that would otherwise be put in the compost bin, for example, outer cabbage leaves) and a shovelful of manure, all mixed up in plenty of water, stirred daily and left to brew for at least a week, then further diluted with water for use, are good feeding options.