Plants established in September and October should produce their first fruit by Christmas.

It’s tomato time again for most Australian gardeners, except for very frosty areas where it is still a few weeks early. In some tropical areas lucky growers can plant tomatoes all year round. Plants established in September and October should produce their first fruit by Christmas.

Tomatoes are the most commonly grown vegetable in the home garden - that probably means one of the most-grown plants in Australia. One reason for its popularity is that it is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. It is also a sensible plant to grow, because it has so many uses - in sandwiches, salads, soups, casseroles, sauces, stews and many other dishes - almost every meal can incorporate a tommie.

Undoubtedly the ultimate reason to grow a tomato in the back yard is taste. Only a rare shop bought tomato can challenge the full flavour of a home grown tom. And how could it be better, when you can lavish all that organic care and nurturing on it. With many varieties to choose from, you can grow a common all rounder tomato, or experiment with sauce varieties, salad tomatoes, cocktail varieties or a yellow coloured low acid fruit.

While a pretty good tommie is easy to grow, the art can be taken to extremes. Many jealous gardeners carefully guard the secrets of the biggest, earliest or tastiest tomato from their prying neighbours. But the secret is out - good organic soil preparation, even watering, and cautious use of simple, safe pest control practices will produce the best fruit on the block. Match the simple hints below with your favourite variety for real tomato taste.
Varietal selection

When I establish a new garden, I grow a wide variety of tomatoes in the first two years. This gives me some idea which varieties will perform well. From then on, I grow a few varieties each year, for salad and sauces, early and late season. I still try new varieties occasionally.

There are excellent new varieties, but the old stayers are still worth considering too. ‘Grosse Lisse’ is still the most popular tall staking variety, ‘Mighty Red’ and ‘Rouge de Marmande’ are also strong performers. Good shrub varieties are ‘Burnley Gem’ and ‘KY1’, and ‘Roma’ or ‘Amish Paste’ for saucing. Off course there is always room for a ‘Tiny Tim’ or another high yielding cocktail tomato.

The staking or ‘indeterminate’ varieties, are generally pruned to a few leaders, depending on plant vigour, and then laterals are removed from the major leaf axis.

Determinate varieties grow into a shrub, and don’t require pruning. Allow them to scramble over a piece of wire mesh, inclined to one side. This helps to keep fruit off the ground, where it is clean and easily seen for harvesting.

There are so many varieties of tomatoes. Unless you live in a very disease prone area, you don’t need to pay the high price for F1 hybrid seed. Ask local gardeners which varieties they grow with success.