Cocktail tomato

Cherry tomatoes are not hardy and die in frost. The simplest approach is to grow them as annuals and sow again in spring. If you want to save a plant, bring it indoors before the first night frosts (below 10 °C), cut it back by about half and keep it bright, cool and frost-free (around 10 to 15 °C); water only sparingly and do not feed.

Sowing (main method): Sow cherry tomatoes indoors from the end of February to the end of March. Use loose, low-nutrient seed compost and keep it at 22 to 25 °C until the seeds germinate after 7 to 14 days. After germination, keep the seedlings bright and somewhat cooler. As soon as the first pair of true leaves appears, prick the young plants out into larger individual pots; plant them deep, and they will form additional roots along the stem. From mid-May, after the Ice Saints, you can plant them out in the open or in the greenhouse. Pay attention to the variety: only open-pollinated varieties give you plants that come true. Seed from F1 hybrids segregates in the next generation, so the daughter plants differ from the parent type.

Cuttings from side shoots (additional method): When removing side shoots from May into summer, you can use strong side shoots from 15 to 20 cm long as cuttings instead of throwing them away. Remove the lower leaves, cut the shoot at a slant at the bottom and stand it in a glass of fresh water in a bright, warm place. After about ten days roots are visible; then plant the cutting deep in seed compost, where the buried stem forms further roots. Note: cuttings made too late in the year often do not manage to ripen their fruit fully outdoors. Those started early in summer are the most worthwhile.