Alan Titchmarsh offers tips on watering tomato plants

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As the end of the month approaches, many people will be watching their tomato plants start to produce fruit. Tomatoes love bright, sunny spots but they don’t like irregular watering. Irregular watering can cause problems with the tomatoes themselves and with their roots.

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Kate Turner, Miracle-Gro’s gardening guru, has shared her “key” tip for watering tomato plants to avoid problems like blossom end rot and blight.

She said: “One of the really key things with tomatoes is they hate irregular watering.

“They like to be watered but you need to do it regularly.”

Kate said it’s important to drench the base of the plant.

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Lightly watering them occasionally won’t do the job.

She said: “What they want is half a watering can-full of water three times a week.

“A really good drench.”

Kate said when you see tomatoes with a split in them, this is down to irregular watering.

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The plants can also get a disease called “blossom end rot” which is down to calcium deficiency.

This can also be caused by “poor watering”.

She added: “One of my big tips with tomatoes is regular watering, properly, at the base.

“Try not to water the foliage as this can encourage blight.”

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Now is also a great time to feed tomato plants.

As soon as they start to flower, gardeners should start feeding them with liquid feed.

For this, Kate suggested using Tomorite.

She continued: “Anything that’s high in potassium is good for fruit and flowers.

“You want to be giving it a weekly feed with a liquid plant food that’s high in potassium.”

Gardeners should also be cutting the bottom leaves off their tomatoes to stop any soil-born diseases spreading.

She said: “You want to start cutting the bottom leaves off your tomato plants.

“Any leaves that are touching the soil, you want to cut those off – get rid of them!”

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