Tumbling Tomatoes – How to grow them.
There are many varieties of tomato on the market these days to try and grow at home in pots or in the ground. However did you know you can grow tomatoes in hanging baskets? There is a variety of tomato called tumbling tomatoes. These are obviously named after how they appear, hanging down from the hanging basket to make it look like they are tumbling.
In this article, we will be explaining how to grow tumbling tomatoes at home or at your allotment. Tumbling tomatoes are very easy to grow and you can even get fantastic harvests from each plant. Up to 70 tomatoes per plant. We share our tomato tips and advice so that you will be able to grow great plants and get amazing results.
Tumbling tomatoes are cherry sized tomatoes which are ideal for pack lunches or picnics. Just make sure you slice them in half if you are giving them to a child so they do not swallow it whole.
You can grow your tumbling tomatoes either outside in the hanging basket or you can grow it in a polytunnel or a greenhouse hug up. The choice is up to you.
Find out about different tomato varieties here.
Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book
Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-
You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.
How to grow tumbling tomatoes
When growing fruit and vegetables you always need to plan out and decide where you are going to grow them in your garden. You also need to find out the conditions that it likes best for it to grow successfully, this will help you get better tomato harvests and nicer produce. When growing tomatoes they are always best grown in the polytunnel or greenhouse as they like hotter temperatures but more are being developed to be grown outdoors for those who don’t have greenhouses or polytunnels. In this tumbling tomato guide, we will be giving you a step by step process of growing them from sowing, planting, harvesting and caring for the plants. Fingers crossed you get a great harvest of tumbling tomatoes.
When to sow, plant and harvest tumbling tomatoes
When you sow tumbling tomatoes they need to be planted at the right time of year. Here you can find out when to sow, plant and when to expect to harvest tumbling tomatoes.
| Sow | February to April |
| Plant | May – June |
| Harvest | July to October |
** Please not these are timings for the UK! Obviously it all depends on the weather also**
The best place to grow tumbling tomatoes
The best place that you can grow tumbling tomatoes is obviously somewhere warm either in a polytunnel or a greenhouse. You can grow them in your hanging baskets hooked onto your house wall. Make sure they are in a warm sunny spot which will help them grow and ripen. This variety will produce up to 70 tomatoes per plant so your friends and family will love you as you will certainly end up giving lots away to them unless you make something with them.
The best soil to grow tumbling tomatoes in
The best soil to grow tumbling tomatoes in will be multi purpose compost as you will be growing these in hanging baskets. Don’t use soil just dug from the garden. The compost will have all the nutrients in to help create a great crop. Just keep feeding them on a weekly basis once the flowers have started to increase crops.
How to sow tumbling tomatoes
When it gets to the time of sowing your tumbling tomatoes it could not be any easier. We also include a video below with advice on how to sow your tomato seeds – this can be done for any variety of tomato.
To sow your tumbling tomatoes you can follow this step by step process:-
1) You will require a seed tray with holes in the bottom for drainage.
2) Put a layer of compost in the bottom of the tray.
3) Sprinkle the seeds along the top of the compost.
4) Cover the seeds with another layer of compost
5) Sprinkle the compost with water – do not over water just enough to soak the compost. Use a watering can with a sprinkler on the end.
6) If it is cold in your greenhouse cover with a layer of cling film this will keep them moist and also warm – this will help with germination
How to plant tumbling tomatoes
Tomatoes generally do not take a long to time to germinate. They take on average 14 to 21 days to germinate in the right conditions you could even be seeing signs of life after 7 days. Let the tomato plants keep growing in the seed trays until they are quite large around 8cm, just enough for them to be able to handle them. When they have got big enough so that you can handle them without the risk of snapping the stems they can be transplanted into individual plant pots.
When you are potting them up into individual pots they need to go into plant pots that are around 8cm tall. Now you can carefully transplant the tomato plants into there own pots of compost. Be careful when doing this as you don’t want to damage the plants or the roots. Once you have transplanted them give them a good watering then water every other day if it is hot water every day so that the plant does not die. Keep your tomato plants in the polytunnel or greenhouse where it is light and warm – this will encourage them to get growing well. Make sure you pot up a few extra plants just in case any get eaten by the slugs or snails. You can always share any spare plants with family and friends. Why not make a hanging basket as a present for someone.
When the tumbling tomato plants have reached around 15cm you can then transplant them to there final position – this being the hanging baskets. Fill your hanging basket with multipurpose compost, making sure that the hanging basket has holes in the bottom for drainage or it will drown the plants and rot the roots. Place 2 -3 plants in each hanging basket. Give them a good watering once you have planted them.
Looking after your Tumbling Tomatoes
One main difference with growing tumbling tomatoes you don’t need to trim off the shoots. You can just leave them to grow making the plant bushier. This will also encourage the plant to make a great amount of produce.
When it comes to watering the hanging basket this will have to be done every day as they will soon dry out with it being a small basket. In warm weather you may need to do them in the morning and at night.
The tomatoes will need feeding once a week when the flowers start to appear on the plants
Purchase Tumbling Tomatoes
Below you can purchase tumbling tomato seeds from Amazon to try and purchase some yourself.
You can find out more information about growing fruit and vegetables here.