Imported Cherry Crimson Tomato Seeds (10 Seeds)

This imported F1 cherry crimson tomato is all about flavour in a small package. Each plant carries trusses of bite-size, perfectly round fruit that ripen to a deep, glossy ruby-crimson, with a sweet yet pleasantly tangy taste and a bright tomato aroma. The little fruits are ideal for snacking straight off the vine, tossing whole into fresh salads, roasting until they burst, or threading onto skewers, and their jewel-like colour makes them just as decorative on a sunny balcony as they are delicious on the plate. As a hybrid (F1) selection, it brings vigour and even fruit set, rewarding home growers with generous, eye-catching clusters all season.

Planting

Tomato is a warm-season, frost-tender crop, so timing matters. Start seed indoors about 5 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost, and only move plants outside once all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed. Sow the seed about 0.6 cm deep in a sterile, soilless seed-starting mix. Kept warm at around 24 to 29 C, the seeds usually germinate in roughly 7 to 10 days, and a heat mat helps hold that temperature until the seedlings appear. Once true leaves form, thin or prick out the seedlings to about 5 cm apart, then harden them off over about a week before planting out. Choose a warm, sheltered site in full sun, giving the plants at least 6 hours of direct sun a day, and ideally 8 to 10 hours. At transplanting, set each plant deep so only the top 2 to 3 sets of true leaves sit above the soil; the buried stem grows extra roots for a stronger plant. Space transplants about 45 to 90 cm apart within the row and roughly 90 to 150 cm between rows, using the wider spacing for tall vining types and closer spacing for compact bush types.

Fertilizing

Begin with a starter fertilizer that has an NPK ratio under 10 at transplanting time, and avoid overdoing the nitrogen, since too much produces leafy plants that are slow to set fruit. Once the first fruits begin to enlarge, side-dress the plants with nitrogen; you can do this about 3 to 4 weeks after planting using a nitrogen and calcium source such as calcium nitrate (15.5-0-0). For tomatoes grown in containers, feed every 10 to 14 days with a high-potassium liquid feed once the first fruits start to swell.

Care

Steady moisture is the key to clean, healthy fruit. Aim for even watering of about 2.5 cm of water per week, counting both rain and irrigation, and avoid swinging between wet and dry, which leads to split fruit and blossom-end rot. Container plants can need watering every day in hot weather. Keep an eye out for common pests such as tomato hornworms, aphids, flea beetles, cutworms, Colorado potato beetles and whitefly, as well as diseases like early blight, late blight, Septoria leaf spot, bacterial spot, tomato viruses and grey mould; even watering also helps prevent the physiological troubles of blossom-end rot and fruit splitting. Harvest when the fruit reaches full size and the colour begins to change, or is fully coloured for the variety, leaving the stalk attached for the best flavour. The first ripe tomatoes usually arrive about 52 to 90 days after transplanting depending on the cultivar, and any green fruit can be ripened indoors at around 21 C.

Growing in Egypt

Egypt's mild winters and hot summers open several planting windows. In the cooler Nile Delta and around Cairo, the main, highest-production crop is sown or transplanted in late winter to early spring (about February to March) once frost risk has passed, starting seed indoors roughly 5 to 6 weeks earlier in December to January; a secondary planting can follow in September to October. In hotter Upper Egypt to the south, lean toward autumn (around October to November) and late-winter (January to February) plantings to take advantage of the mild winter while dodging extreme summer heat. Mid-summer transplanting (July to August) is the hardest window for a home grower because high temperatures hurt fruit set, so it is best avoided or given protection.