02 May How to Grow Tomatoes using Ring Culture

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Growing tomatoes using ring culture is an incredibly space-efficient and straightforward method. The rings and grow bag significantly aid the water and nutrients to nourish the roots for robust plants. Remember, it’s crucial to keep them warm.

Intercropping is highly beneficial, as demonstrated at the end of the video. For more on intercropping, click here.

Ring Culture for “Black Sea Man”

A Brief History of Tomatoes

Tomatoes were initially cultivated by the Incas in the Peruvian Andes and later grown by the native Americans around 500 BCE. Tomatoes made their way to Europe either with Christopher Columbus or Conquistador Cortés around 1500. Initially, tomatoes were treated like a red aubergine in Spain, cooked with salt, oil, and pepper.

Cosimo de’Medici first mentioned tomatoes in a letter in 1548, indicating that it took another 50 years before they were mentioned in Italy. There’s a wide range of tomato forms, from small cherry to the large beefsteak. They are either “Indeterminate” – Cordon, Vine – which requires staking out and pruning and grows to over 2 m in height, or the “Determinate” – Bush – form which grows as a bush and does not require any pruning or staking.

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Ring Culture Tomatoes: Easy to Do in Big and Small Spaces

When it comes to growing tomatoes using ring culture, if you’re growing indoors, sow from late February to mid-March in pots or seed trays. It’s an excellent re-use of plastic, but remember to keep them warm in conditions of about 18C for them to grow well at this early stage.

As the plant grows, add extra compost around the stem, which stimulates more feeding roots from the stem. If you’re sowing seeds from late March to early April, you’ll be growing the plants outdoors. Ensure the soil is well fed with copious quantities of organic matter and use early fruiting forms such as the Russian types.

Pick the fruit when it is ripe and fully coloured. Any unripe fruit left at the end of the season can be left in a warm dark place to ripen or with a banana.

Potential Problems with Ring Culture Tomatoes

Tomato Blight is similar to Potato Blight and causes fruit and foliage to rot, especially in wet weather. If this is a consistent problem you may have, look for resistant varieties. Tomato Leaf Mould can cause significant yield loss in greenhouse-grown tomatoes and is rarely seen on outdoor crops.

Yellow blotches develop on the upper leaf surface, and greyish-brown mould growth is found underneath. Select resistant varieties and provide better ventilation to increase air movement. Tomato Splitting and Cracking does not affect the taste of the tomato but can allow fungus to infect and can cause a variety of physiological disorders.

Control temperature and sunlight levels carefully. Feed and water regularly. Blossom End Rot shows as dark blotches on the ends of the peppers. Water and feed regularly, not allowing the soil to dry out. Don’t forget that Aphids, Whitefly, and Red Spider Mite can be a problem too in glasshouses. Click here for Pest Control 🐌

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Some Varieties For You

• ‘Tornado’ AGM: This bush cultivar is hard to beat outdoors and is suitable for hanging baskets or pots.
• ‘Gardeners Delight’: This small, flavoursome tomato is a cordon type and good in growing bags or pots.
• ‘Tumbler’: This small bush cultivar can be grown in hanging baskets and pots.
• ‘Ferline’: This is a beefsteak tomato with flavoursome, large red fruits and some resistance to tomato blight. A cordon type which is good in growing bags or pots.
• ‘Sweet Million’ AGM: This tomato produces masses of small, sweet, cherry-sized, bright red fruits and grows well in growing bags and pots.
• ‘Black Russian’: This is a very early maturing variety with a very dark skin and has a lovely, sweet flavour.

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