3 Fun Edibles To Grow For Kids - Part 3

There is nothing quite like a fresh tomato,  especially fried with a full English breakfast, yum yum yum!

But for kiddos they are also tasty and exciting, they grow so fast, and colour up fast, plus those tiny ones make such a satisfying pop in your mouth!

Tomatoes come in so many shapes, colors and sizes, not to mention textures. The plants themselves grow anywhere between 30 cm to a whopping 2 plus meters! There is a tomato to suit all yards and gardens. They can be grown in a variety of different ways too, pots, garden beds, ground, even upside down! 

DID YOU KNOW: Tomatoes aren't necessarily red, they can be yellow, white, pink, purple, green and even black!

Tomatoes like heat and sun, and need these things to grow, so we start growing them in spring through to summer, they don't do well with frost and too much water, this leads to rotting, wilting and disease. To start growing your tomatoes you can either purchase seeds, seedlings or mature plants either privately, online, or at your local nursery. They can grow in a variety of soil types which makes them easy for most situations. Fertilizer will be required, just a good quality fruit/ vegetable fertilizer, and a seaweed solution every few weeks. Add a bit of compost and manure to your ground when starting, this will help hold nutrients and moisture, especially if your ground isn't great. Or if planting in pots, make sure you use a good quality potting mix.

There are thousands of fantastic varieties of tommies but I've listed some great ones for the kids below:

. Tommy Toe

. Tumbling Tom

. Rapunzel

. Yellow Pear
. Gold Nugget

Your cherry tomato varieties are probably better for kids, especially if you want to get them involved as they ripen quickly and are bite sized.

Yellow Pear
This beautiful heirloom variety is, as name suggests, a yellow, pear-shaped tomato, it has a mild but sweet flavor and produces quite nicely throughout the summer months.

Gold Nugget
This is a dwarfing variety topping out at about 60cm, they are honestly tiny nuggets of sweet goodness.

Tommy Toe 
Growing on trusses, this tasty tomato produces 3cm fruits, that are both sweet and juicy.

Tumbling Tom
This tomato is more of a trailing, dwarf tomato, with ruby red colored, sweet fruits, perfect for eating fresh off the bush.

Rapunzel
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your fruit! This stunning tomato has long trailing trusses consisting of about 30-40 tomatoes, that resemble Rapunzel's long hair. They are sweet, juicy and packed full of flavor.

DID YOU KNOW: Yellow and orange tomatoes have less acid content than red tomatoes!

So, what are you waiting for? Let's get planting those tommies!