SEEING RED

Do your tomatoes have a habit of remaining stubbornly green? Or perhaps you're lucky to enjoy lots of lovely fruits - just all at once. Either way, Benedict Vanheems is here with some top tips to ripen and process the nation's favourite summer staple

- Benedict Vanheems

Time and again tomatoes top the polls of our very favourite homegrown crop. It's no wonder - with such a veritable smorgasbord of varieties in a universe of sizes and shapes, there's always going to be something new for us to explore.

But tomatoes have us playing a guessing game most seasons. Will they or won't they ripen before blight hits? Will those final trusses colour up in time? And just how many trusses is it safe to leave in the hope they'll all develop to glorious maturity? Some years we hit the jackpot and are almost overwhelmed with fruits. What then?

Ripening tomatoes is a bit like conducting an orchestra. There are lots of moving parts and getting your plants to crescendo, on time, requires a little skill and wrangling.

THE ROAD TO RIPE

Getting tomato plants to the point of perfection includes the basics: the sunniest, warmest position you can muster, frequent watering to support steady growth, and regular feeding to encourage flowers and fruits. There's little point skimping on the tomato feed - the small cost will be repaid many times over in the abundance of what you pick.

With steady watering and feeding, you're already doing all you can to smooth the path to mature fruits, bursting with taste and filling the air with that heady aroma. Then once the fruits start coming, it's your delicious job to keep picking; removing the load from the plant, diverting its energy into the next truss.