How to grow ring-culture tomatoes

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Published: Wednesday, 24 April 2019 at 10:50 am

Growing tomatoes in rings can create stronger plants and increase yields. Find out more, in our guide.

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Growing tomatoes with ring-culture pots involves surrounding the crop with a bottomless ring and adding layers of compost at 10-14 day intervals. This encourages the tomato to root from the stem so it can take up more water and nutrients than it would get from the growing bag alone. The result is vigorous, productive plants.

Ready-made ring culture pots cost about £10 for three, but you can make them easily by cutting the bottom of 20cm pots.

Find out how to grow ring-culture tomatoes, below.

You will need:

Growing bags
20cm diameter pot (3)
Secateurs
Multi-purpose, peat-free compost

Total time: 15 minutes

Step 1:

If making your own growing ring, start by cutting the bottom from a 20cm-diameter plastic pot using secateurs. If not, simply cut a hole in your growing bag and place the growing ring over it.

70241 — Placing ring over the planting hole in a growing bag

Step 2:

Plant the tomato in the compost, stake, firm and water well as you would normally. Then, add a 2-3cm layer of compost to the pot every 10-14 days, until it's full. Try to water the plant daily and give it a liquid feed every week.

Step 3:

Remove sideshoots from plants as you would normally. When fruits start to develop, remove leaves which would otherwise shade them, so they ripen fully.