How to Grow Tomatoes on a Windowsill

If you have a sheltered, sunny windowsill, growing a small crop of tomatoes is easy. You’ll need a container, the bigger the better. The container should be at least 12 inches deep giving the tomato plants enough room to grow and fruit. Choose a trough-style container and grow several plants in it or a series of pots with one plant in each. Raise tomatoes from seed or buy young seedlings for transplanting from your local garden center. Indeterminate types bear fruit until killed by frost and have vinelike growth patterns. Determinate tomato plants are bushier and all their fruit appears and then ripens at once. Indeterminate tomatoes definitely need support, but even the bushier, determinate type benefit from staking when container grown.

Containers
Compost
Trowel
Garden canes
Garden twine
Liquid tomato feed
Pruners
Pesticide

Instructions

- 1
  Fill your container with potting compost, leaving a 1-inch gap at the top. This makes watering the plant easier.
- 2
  Sow your tomato seeds on the soil and cover them with a thin compost layer. With seedlings, use a trowel to dig holes large enough to fit the root balls. Leave a gap of about 18 inches between each plant. Backfill around the young plants and firm the soil down. Water the seeds or seedlings. Sow the seeds or plant the seedlings after the last frosts.
- 3
  Thin the seedlings as they grow from the seeds once they are about 3 to 4 inches tall. Retain the most vigorously growing ones and transplant them so that they have 18-inch gaps between them.
- 4
  Put garden canes in the compost next to the plants when they are still young, avoiding the root ball. Tie the plants to the canes with garden twine as they grow.
- 5
  Water the plants whenever the top of the compost is dry to the touch. Tomatoes, especially when grown in containers, are sensitive to water shortage. Water from the soil level, avoiding getting water on the foliage or fruit.
- 6
  Trimming indeterminate tomato plants’ growing tips stops further growth once four or five trusses appear. The trusses are the stems that grow from the main stem carrying yellow blossoms. The blossoms grow into tomatoes. Stopping the plant from growing more encourages fruit production. This procedure is not necessary for determinate varieties.
- 7
  Fertilize your plants with a liquid tomato feed once the trusses appear. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

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Growing Tomatoes