Growing Tomatoes: The Ultimate Guide for Your Garden & Balkon
Fancy some crunchy, home-grown tomatoes? With a few tips, the right tools, and a little know-how, you can easily grow your own – even without a garden!
Tomato Fact File
✓ Sowing: late winter (greenhouse or indoors)
✓ Planting out: when temperatures are stable above 15°C
✓ Harvest: early autumn (check for ripeness)
✓ Best varieties for beginners: Moneymaker, Harzfeuer
✓ Best varieties for balconies & indoors: Miniboy, Rotkäppchen, Bajaja
✓ Best varieties for garden beds: Paoline F1, Golden Queen
Planting Tomatoes: What you'll need
- Seed trays
- Seed compost
- Pots
- Pot saucers
- Dibber / Pricking out tool
- Hand trowel
- Gloves
- Watering can / Garden hose
- Compost
- Plant supports
Growing Tomatoes from the Garden to Your Home: What's Important?
Tomato plants don't just thrive in garden beds; they also grow perfectly well in tubs and pots. This means you can start growing your own tomatoes in the garden, on a balcony, a terrace, or even inside your home. No matter which you choose, the following points are important:
- You must always start tomato plants indoors or in a greenhouse.
- Your tomato plants need plenty of space in their pot or bed.
- Ensure there is no waterlogging. Choose pots with drainage or a drainage hole.
- Always choose a sunny spot – the more sun, the better.
- Make sure to use particularly nutrient-rich soil. Specialist tomato soil is ideal.
- Protect the plants from too much rain or wind. You may need to build them a shelter.
If you want to grow larger tomato plants in a pot, give each plant at least 20L of space. Smaller, dwarf varieties for your home can also manage with around 10L of space per plant. In the garden or in a raised bed, leave plenty of space between the individual plants – up to 80 cm (depending on the variety and growth).
Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is particularly easy and productive. Here, the plants are safe from wind and weather, and it's always nice, warm, and bright. This means you can not only start the plants off here, but also plant them out at the beginning of spring. However, make sure you have these features:
- A translucent roof
- Heating
- Sun protection
Top tip: In a raised bed, you can plant tomatoes two to three weeks earlier than in a regular garden bed. This is because the soil temperature is higher. When setting up your raised bed, consider the height of the tomato variety: the taller the plant, the lower the bed should be. Otherwise, maintenance and harvesting will be difficult.
Growing tomatoes for beginners: Here's how
Growing tomatoes from seed might not be the easiest gardening challenge, but with a few tips, you can still get it right. If you make a few mistakes when starting your seeds, or aren't too precise with watering and fertilising, your plants can often still be saved. If not, you can simply try again next season!
Step 1: Sowing
Sow the seeds in seed trays or individual pots with 4 to 5 cm of seed compost. Each seed should get its own 1 cm deep hole, which you then cover with soil. The seeds need plenty of light, water from a spray bottle several times a day, and a room temperature of around 20°C. A windowsill is the perfect place for sowing.
Step 2: Pricking out
Around three weeks after sowing, the seedlings will have developed their first leaves. Then you can prick them out. This involves separating the individual plants from each other and planting them in separate pots or containers. Use a dibber to loosen the delicate roots. If you don't have one, a kebab skewer will do.
Step 3: Planting out
Three to four weeks after pricking out, you can plant the tomatoes out into their bed. Rake plenty of compost into the soil and dig planting holes with a shovel or trowel. Carefully remove the tomato plant from its pot and place it in the hole. Press the soil down firmly and water the plant. Lastly, install a plant support.
Step 4: Caring for your tomato plants
To ensure your tomato plants get the nutrients they need, you should fertilise them every 14 days. Suitable options include tomato fertiliser, compost or nettle manure.
For the first two weeks after planting out, you should water the tomatoes daily with at least half a litre of water. After that, they need water whenever the plant's leaves are drooping in the morning. It's important not to water them from above, as this helps to prevent fungal diseases.
Regularly pinching out side shoots ensures that the plant invests its energy into its fruit. This involves removing the unnecessary shoots that grow in the leaf axils – the point where a new leaf stalk branches off from the main stem. You can simply break them off.
