Tomato Gardening: Tips for Winter Tomatoes

The best way to have fresh, delicious tomatoes all year long is by indoor gardening in the winter. Winter-grown tomatoes are just as good as those grown in the heat of summer. As long as they have the needed amount of sunlight, nutrients, and water, you will never run out of fresh vine-ripened tomatoes.

Plant Winter-Grown Tomatoes Bi-Weekly

In the winter and early spring, many of the tomatoes you find in the grocery store or supermarket taste like little more than mealy mush. Keep yourself in fresh supply of delicious big tomatoes by planting tomatoes every two weeks throughout the winter. Choose a variety of tomato that is well-suited to small container gardening. Robert Cox, from he Colorado State Cooperative Extension Agency, recommends using the following varieties: Pixie, Patio, Toy Boy, Small Fry, or Tiny Tim.

As their names imply, these are small tomato varieties, which are perfectly suited to indoor gardening. Although they are small, they will still require some sort of support, either in the form of stakes or cages. This will keep them upright and strong, especially while producing fruit.

Materials for Tomato Gardening in the Winter

Once you have chosen your variety of tomato, get your materials ready. You will need: seed starter mix, a seed starting tray or small pots, the chosen tomato seed, 6-inches or larger pot, good soil mix, fertilizer, and plant stakes or cage. Germinate your seed inside in a seed tray or individual pots and transplant them into the larger pots when they are 3-inches tall. After about two weeks, fertilize the soil with a balanced fertilizer. Water plants on a regular basis, until the water flows out of the hole in the bottom of the pot.

Pollinating Tomatoes Grown in the Winter

Because your plants are indoors and it’s winter, you will need to help your tomato plants pollinate themselves. Act like a giant bumblebee by tapping or shaking the large center stalk of the tomato. This will shake the pollen out of the flower buds and cross-pollinate the flowers.

Light Requirements for Tomato Gardening in the Winter

Ensure that all of your growing tomatoes get enough sunlight by placing them in a sunny windowsill. Tomatoes need at least 7-hours of sunlight a day for fruit production. Turn your plants occasionally, so that the entire plant gets equal amounts of sunlight.

Not only will growing tomatoes indoors (even for apartment tomatoes) throughout the winter keep you a happy connoisseur, but it will supply you with a fresh and easy source of vitamins and minerals. Gardening isn’t just for the summer; it can be just as fruitful and fun in the winter time, and just as tasty!