Cherry tomatoes are tiny variants of actual tomatoes. They are basically bite sized treats packed with abundant flavour. Use them in salads, as dressings for desserts, in savoury dishes or just pop them up whole as a snack. They taste good in all forms. Best part about them is that you can grow them in your home and even in small containers. Don’t worry even if you are a beginner to gardening. Cherry tomatoes don’t require much attention.They are perfect for a beginners as well. Let’s learn the steps to grow these tasty treats in our home.
Step I – Gather all the materials required
All you need is- a container for planting
- seeds or sapling
- potting mix
- a cage or some sort of support system for tomato vines ( like bamboo / wooden sticks)
- and some compost
Become an Urban Farmer-
Enjoy the Fruits of your Hard Work
Become an Urban Farmer-
Enjoy the Fruits of your Hard Work
If you are planting them in a garden, add some compost by digging a few inches into the ground. This will ensure a proper drainage to the plants and will avoid water logging. Cherry tomatoes are rapidly growing plants with fragile stems. They would need support in order to bear the weight of tomatoes and to stand erect. For this purpose you can purchase a cage or you can even use wooden sticks to support them.
Picture 1 : Cherry tomato plants in containers. You can grow them in pots or you can even reuse old buckets or plastic containers to plant them.
Step II – Decidetime and place of sowing
Cherry tomatoes should be sown in early spring for best results (March to early June). Try and position your plants in an area which gets ample sunlight. You need to take care that the plants receive at least 8 hours of sunshine or else it may wither and die.
Step III – How to plant
Choose whether you want to grow your plants directly from seeds or through plantlets or saplings. The seeds should be sown 4-7 cm deep in the soil. Try to water them regularly such that the top layer of soil is always moist. The seedlings should appear within 10-14 days. Growing the plants with the help of plantlets is relatively easier. Dig a little hole in the soil and transplant the seedling in it. Before transplanting the seedling, remove the bag of the sapling if it is not self-degradable type. Cover the exposed portion of roots with soil properly. The plantlet should have enough support and it should not fall down.
Picture 2: A 15-20 day old transplanted cherry tomato plant
Step IV – How to take care of your plants
The secret for growing healthy tomatoes is in the soil. These plants need ample of moisture to give a good harvest. Water them regularly to keep the soil moist. Avoid water logging at any stage and for that purpose the soil should be properly drained. These tiny fruits are full of nutrients and the source of their nutrition is soil. Fertilise the soil in an interval of 10-15 days with compost or organic fertilizers. As the plants grow, they will need more support. Keep increasing the size of sticks or you can even use strong threads to support them.
Picture 3 : 30-35 days old plants. They are provided with support to grow.
Step V – Time to harvest the fruits of your labour
After taking such good care of your plants, it is now time to enjoy the tasty cherry tomatoes in delicious dishes or salads. The tomatoes will be ready to harvest after 60-65days of transplanting. Completely ripened cherry tomatoes will be soft and tender as compared to immature ones. A mature fruit will come of its stem very easily with minimal force. It is best to pick fresh fruits daily as per your requirement. If proper care is taken, the plants can continue to produce fruits till winter. During extreme winters you can even cover the plants with a sheet at dusk to protect the plants from the chill. This can give you a few extra weeks of harvesting.
Picture 4 : Mature and immature cherry tomatoes. The green ones are unripe and the bright red ones are ripened tomatoes.
References :
Al-Amri, S.M., 2013. Improved growth, productivity and quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants through application of shikimic acid. Saudi journal of biological sciences, 20(4): 339-345.
Kimura, S. and Sinha, N., 2008. How to grow tomatoes. CSH protocols, 2008, pp.pdb-prot5081.
Picture 1: https://live.staticflickr.com/3545/3678638850_1f99740069_b.jpg
Picture 2 : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Tomato_27_days_from_planting_seeds.jpg
Picture 3 : https://web.johncook.uk/gallery/tomato-plant-photos/2016-06-17%2019.48.49.jpg
Picture 4 : https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/07/09/06/09/tomato-4326287_1280.jpg
