It’s time to grow Tomatoes!!!!! - Sep 04, 2020

It's Spring!!!!!

Dear gardening friends
There's a warm breeze blowing tonight so it's definitely spring. That means it's time to plant tomatoes.

It's Fathers Day this Sunday, so your father might like one of our famous Tim's $50.00 Gift Cards. We sell them to you for just $40.00. That's a bargain.
They are not redeemable until after Fathers Day. Buy a couple for yourself.

If you've never grown tomatoes before don't panic. We have an heirloom variety here that's resistant to Fruit Fly.
It's called Tim's Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato.

The apricot sized, sweet tasting fruit, have a natural resistance to Fruit Fly.
Simply let them ripen on the vine.
Pick them when they are bright red.
You'll be amazed by the sweet taste.

Tomatoes grow best in full sun.
They need lots of water, or they might get a condition called Blossom End Rot.
This causes the tomatoes to get a black spot on the bottom of each tomato.
It's due to a Calcium deficiency that's brought on by lack of water.

Prepare your garden first by digging in Tim's Cow Manure. You'll need one bag for every 3m2 of garden.
Dig this into the soil and remove any white Curl Grubs you find. Curl grubs eat the roots.

Add a dressing of Tim's FAST FOOD fertiliser. This contains all the nutrients that plants need for growth and fruit.

Cover your soil with Sugar Cane mulch.
This helps prevent the soil water from evaporating. More water means more fruit.
It's that simple.

Plant your tomato seedlings through the mulch. Water daily.
Stake tomatoes.
They grow at least 1.8 metres high.
You need a sturdy tomato stake that won't break in the wind.
We have these tomato stakes here.

Tie your tomatoes to the stakes with stretchy material. You can use old stockings. We sell stretchy garden rope here.

Don't remove side shoots.
An old wives tale told gardeners to remove the side shoots so you get bigger tomatoes.

Clive Blazey from Diggers seeds did a gardening trial and discovered that you actually get less fruit if you remove the side shoots and the fruit aren't smaller!!!!!

I've discovered that if you let your tomatoes grow wild you'll get less fruit damage from birds. Birds are frightened to get in amongst the multi branches.
They eat the tomatoes on top and leave the rest for you.

There's no pesticides on the market to control fruit fly so you need to pick the fruit when they are still green and ripen them inside on the window sill.

Fruit fly sting the fruit as they turn red.
This is when the fruit softens so they can sting the fruit.

Pick early and your fruit will be worm free.

You can grow Tomatoes in big pots.
You have to water them daily.
Tim's Best Potting Mix is the best.
It's still just $10.00 a bag.
It's 30 litres.
Your pot must hold at least one bag.

We have all your favourite tomato varieties.
I like to mix it up and try several.
This means they are less likely to be effected by disease.

My favourite tomato is our Tim's Italian Tomato. I found this variety while holidaying in Italy. It's a huge pear shaped tomato that has less seeds and more flesh.
When it's ripe the tomato is soft.
The taste is amazing.
The fruit taste like fruit!!!!!!!!!

See you at the nursery.
We are flat out right now.
Be patient. Everyone wants our advice.
Stock is in short supply.

Don't blame us if your favourite plants aren't in stock. Nurseries sold their spring stock last autumn. There's nothing left.
Citrus are extinct!!!!!

We still have amazing Rose Bushes.
They are coming into flower.
You've never seen better plants.
Come see

Happy gardening
Tim