Imported Saint Pierre Tomato Seeds (5 Seeds)

Saint Pierre is a much-loved classic French heirloom tomato, famous for being remarkably productive and dependable. It bears generous trusses of round, smooth, deep-red fruit with firm, meaty flesh and a rich, well-balanced sweet-tart flavour. These imported seeds give you a versatile slicing tomato that shines fresh in salads and sandwiches, holds its shape beautifully when cooked into sauces, and makes a striking, glossy red addition to any home garden. Its reliable heavy cropping makes it a favourite of both new and experienced growers.

Planting

Tomato is a warm-season, frost-tender crop, so start your seed indoors about 5 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost and before you plan to transplant outdoors. Sow the seed about 0.6 cm deep in a sterile, soilless seed-starting mix. Kept warm at around 24-29 C, the seeds usually germinate in roughly 7 to 10 days, and a heat mat helps hold that temperature until the seedlings emerge; the minimum for germination is about 18 C. Once true leaves appear, thin or transplant the seedlings to about 5 cm apart, then harden them off over about a week before planting out. Move plants outside only after frost danger has passed and the soil has warmed, choosing a warm, sheltered spot in full sun with at least 6 hours of direct sun a day, ideally 8 to 10 hours. Set transplants deep so only the top 2 to 3 sets of true leaves sit above the soil, since the buried stem will form extra roots. Space them about 45 to 90 cm apart in the row, with roughly 90 to 150 cm between rows; vining types need the wider spacing while bush types can sit closer. In Egypt the highest-yielding window is a late-winter to early-spring planting, roughly February to March in the cooler Nile Delta and around Cairo once frost risk has passed, with a secondary planting around September to October; in hotter Upper Egypt, lean toward autumn (October to November) and late-winter (January to February) plantings to dodge extreme summer heat while making the most of the mild winter.

Fertilizing

At transplanting, use a starter fertilizer with an NPK ratio under 10, and avoid excess nitrogen, which encourages leafy plants that are slow to set fruit. Once the first fruits begin to enlarge, side-dress with nitrogen to support the developing crop, or apply a nitrogen and calcium source such as calcium nitrate (15.5-0-0) about 3 to 4 weeks after planting. If you are growing in containers, feed every 10 to 14 days with a high-potassium liquid feed once the first fruits start to swell.

Care

Give Saint Pierre steady, even moisture of about 2.5 cm of water per week from rain and irrigation combined, and avoid swinging between wet and dry, which causes fruit splitting and blossom-end rot. Container plants may need watering every day in hot weather. Watch for common pests such as tomato hornworms, aphids, flea beetles, cutworms, Colorado potato beetles and whitefly, and for diseases including early blight, late blight, Septoria leaf spot, bacterial spot, tomato viruses and grey mould; blossom-end rot and fruit splitting are physiological disorders linked to calcium and uneven watering. Harvest when the fruit reaches full size and the colour begins to change or is fully coloured, leaving the stalk attached for the best flavour; the first ripe fruit usually comes about 52 to 90 days from transplanting depending on conditions. Any green fruit can be ripened indoors at around 21 C.