Month by month
 
SOW                    Harvest     
Feb                   July 
Mar                   Aug
Apr                   Sep
 
Sow
Choosing what to grow
Tomatoes generally have two ways of growing:

Cordon (or indeterminate) tomatoes grow tall, up to 1.8m (6ft), and require tall supports. They are great for growing in a greenhouse, but will also do well in a sunny spot outdoors, either in the ground or in large pots against a south-facing wall. They are useful when space is limited, as plants grow vertically, tall and narrow, and produce a heavy crop. They require regular maintenance – watering, feeding, tying to supports and pinching out side-shoots.

Bush (or determinate) tomatoes are shorter and wider, great for smaller gardens, pots and growing bags. Smaller types can also be grown in hanging baskets, with the stems trailing over the sides. These are the easiest type to grow and need little maintenance apart from watering and feeding. The stems don’t usually need support, except if heavily laden with fruit.

Check seed packets or plant labels before buying, to ensure you get the right type to suit your needs. There are also lots of varieties to choose from, offering fruits of various sizes, shapes, flavours and textures. Fruit colours range from traditional red to dark purple, pink, orange, yellow or green, and even striped. There are heirloom varieties, grown for many generations, as well as modern, blight-resistant choices. There are miniature round fruits, elongated plum varieties, smooth uniform salad tomatoes and huge, wrinkled, mis-shapen beefsteaks, all full of flavour and with their own individual characters.

For varieties that will reliably produce good crops, look for those with an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), which means they performed well in RHS growing trials. There are currently more than 40 AGM tomatoes to choose from – for a selection, see Recommended varieties, below.
What & where to buy
Tomato seeds are widely available from garden centres and other seed stockists.
Sow indoors 
Tomatoes are easy to grow from seed sown indoors in warm conditions. Sow from late February to mid-March if you’ll be growing your crop in a greenhouse, or from late March to early April if they’ll be outside.
Fill a small pot with seed compost, water well, then sow three or four seeds on the surface. Cover with vermiculite and keep at around 18°C (64°F), ideally in a heated propagator, or cover with a clear plastic bag and place on a warm windowsill. As soon as seedlings appear – usually within a fortnight – uncover and place in as much light as possible, to prevent them growing thin and leggy. 
Potting on
After a couple of weeks, move the seedlings into individual pots:

• Fill small pots with multi-purpose compost and water well, then make a hole in the centre of each with a dibber or blunt stick.

• Lift each seedling individually, using the dibber to support its rootball and holding it by a leaf rather than the delicate stem, then lower it into the new hole. If the seedling is leggy, bury it up to the first pair of leaves, then firm in gently.

Keep the plants in a greenhouse or on a well-lit windowsill, where the temperature is always at least 16°C (60°F), and water regularly. After about a month, they should be ready to plant into their final position, as soon as the first flowers open. 
 
 
 
 
Watering
Water tomato plants regularly to keep the soil or compost evenly moist. Fluctuating moisture levels can cause problems with the fruit, such as splitting or blossom end rot (see Problem solving, below).
Plants in containers dry out quickly, so they may need watering daily in hot weather.
Feeding
To boost fruiting, especially with plants in containers, feed every 10–14 days with a high potassium liquid fertiliser once the first fruits start to swell.
Mulching
Lay a thick layer of mulch over the soil around tomato plants to help hold moisture in the ground and deter weeds. Use garden compost or well-rotted manure, but leave a gap around the base of the stem, to prevent rotting.
Improving pollination
When growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, open the vents regularly to give pollinating insects access to the flowers. You can also lightly tap or shake the flowers when fully open to aid pollen transfer within the flower. Misting flowers with water may also help.
Pruning & training
The two different types of tomatoes are treated differently – check your seed packet or plant label to see which type you are growing:

Cordon tomatoes are grown as tall, single-stemmed plants – they need tall supports and the side-shoots should be removed regularly.

Bush tomatoes are more compact and the side-shoots should not be removed. They may or may not need support, depending on how large they grow and whether the stems are strong enough to carry their crop of fruit.
 
 
 
 
Tomatoes start to ripen from mid-summer onwards, depending on the variety, weather conditions and fruit size. Smaller cherry tomatoes ripen more quickly than larger fruits, and greenhouse tomatoes usually start cropping earlier than those outdoors, and continue for longer, well into autumn.

Check plants every few days and pick tomatoes individually, with the stalk still attached, as soon as they’re ripe and fully coloured.

At the end of the growing season, lift outdoor plants with unripe fruit and either lay them on straw under cloches or pick the fruits and place somewhere warm and dark to ripen. Alternatively, put unripe tomatoes in a drawer with a banana, to aid ripening.
Storage
Tomatoes are best eaten as fresh as possible. But if you have too many, then fully ripe tomatoes can be kept in a fridge for a week or so, to prevent them going mouldy. Try not to keep them refrigerated for long though, as the texture can deteriorate. Bring them back to room temperature before eating, to enjoy the full flavour.
If the tomatoes aren’t yet fully ripe, leave them unrefrigerated to reach their peak of ripeness.
Surplus ripe tomatoes can also be cooked then frozen for use in pasta sauces, soups and stews.