Tomatoes for a year

Tomatoes for the year

Can I really grow enough last a year?

Tomatoes, chutney, passata, sauce, bolognese, lasagne and much much more, we use so many tomatoes in my house it will be a tall order to grow enough to last a year. If you stop and consider the shear volume I will need it will seem very difficult, last year I estimated I would need approximately 100 lb of tomatoes, then I would need freezer space, jars and cupboard space. 

Last year I produced 31 LB of tomatoes but I hadn't really planned the allotment space or used all the space on may allotment. This year I have saved all the jars that I can and also planned better my plants that I will growing. One thing that was achieved was making enough chutney for a year, however I didn't make any passata as I wasn't confident enough. There are still frozen tomatoes in my freezer, to be honest I didn't know you could freeze whole tomatoes until Bob Flowerdew informed you could.

This year I will be growing San Marzona tomatoes, these are larger tomatoes that I can preserve and use like tinned tomatoes and also for my first attempt at making passata. I will also be growing moneymaker, Ukrainian Purple, cherry, chocolate and yellow sunrise tomatoes. Growing a range of different coloured tomatoes will be great for salads and chunky chutneys. 

So I will be working on an average of 50% success rate from seed to full grown fruiting plant, hopefully it will be a bit more successful but that my goal for this year. Yields per plant will vary depending upon sunlight, rain and temperature, a cherry plant 8LBS and a San Moranzo could be 25LBS or more. Last year I had some really good yields from my Yellow Sunrise and Moneymaker tomatoes as an average and not aiming to high and get disappointed I will aim for a yield of 10Lb per plant.  So if I plant 10 San Morazo, 10 Chocolate, 10 Yellow Sunrise, 10 Ukrainian purple, 10 cherry and 10 money maker seeds this will give me at least 30 plants and about 300Lbs. 

San  Moranzo tomatoes 

Thirty plants, that's a lot of space needed a plan will be needed for sure. 5 Cherry tomatoes will be at home in large hanging baskets which will free up more space on the ground, and I also have enough space at home for 5 San Moranzo tomatoes. This leaves space needed for 20 each plant needs about 24 inches space between each one for air circulation. My beds up the allotment are 6ft x 3ft which means I can fit 6 plants in each bed, so worrying about space wasn't needed as I will only need 3 beds up the allotment. I will put a few plants in the greenhouse just incase of bad weather, slugs and diseases. This means that I should make my target of 100 LBS provided I don't have tomato blight which I really hope I don't.