Tomatoes

From One Tomato to the Next Generation

Tomatoes have been part of the Earthkeepers garden for more than fifty years.

Rather than starting from scratch each season, a healthy tomato from a favourite variety can be saved and used to grow plants for the following season.

It is a simple method that Earthkeepers has used for decades to continue growing treasured heritage tomato varieties.

Grow Your Favourite Tomato

You don't necessarily need a packet of seeds to start your next tomato plants.

A ripe tomato from a variety you love can be used to grow the next generation.

Keeping Favourite Tomatoes Growing

At the end of each tomato-growing season, Earthkeepers keeps a firm, healthy tomato to grow plants for the following season.

This provides a simple method of succession planting and allows favourite varieties to continue from one year to the next.

Judith describes having five heritage tomato varieties that have remained part of her sustainable-living journey for 54 years.

The original Earthkeepers article also describes Judith's belief, developed through decades of observation, that plants grown repeatedly in the same garden become increasingly familiar with local conditions such as the soil, rainfall, wind and changing temperatures. This is Judith's personal observation rather than an established scientific claim.

Healthy Tomato Plants

Earthkeepers also uses simple homemade fertilisers made from resources already available around the home and garden.

Vegetable Peeling Fertiliser

Place vegetable peelings into a clean bucket with a lid.

Fill the bucket approximately two-thirds with water.

Allow the mixture to steep for 1–2 days.

Remove the softened vegetable peelings and place them into your compost, or give suitable scraps to your chickens.

Earthkeepers uses peelings including:

Zucchini · Carrot · Parsnip · Beetroot · Potato · Sweet Potato · Onion · Celery · Capsicum · Mushroom · Swede · Turnip

Apple skins or banana skins can also be added to the mixture.

Ash & Crushed Egg Shell Fertiliser

Another Earthkeepers method combines two resources we've already explored in our Helpful Hints collection — wood ash and egg shells.

Combine:

⅓ crushed egg shells

with

⅔ wood ash

Mix thoroughly.

Egg shells can be dried in the oven, crushed in a blender and stored in a jar until needed.

Wood ash can be stored in a bucket with a secure lid.

When Planting Tomatoes

Dig the planting hole for your tomato.

Add some of the ash and egg shell mixture.

Position the tomato plant and fill the hole with soil.

Add another thin layer of the mixture over the soil and lightly fork it through.

A Tomato Worth Saving

Growing food sustainably isn't always about buying something new.

Sometimes it's as simple as keeping one healthy tomato from a variety you love and using it to begin again next season.

For Earthkeepers, this has allowed treasured tomato varieties to remain part of the garden for decades — continuing from one growing season to the next.