Cherry tomatoes are delicious bite-sized tomatoes that love growing when the weather is warm. And this garden project for kids from Yates is a great way to get kids involved in growing – and eating – them!
They’re great for a healthy snack in lunch boxes, to include in a salad or for the kids to make fun food with!
Cherry tomatoes can be turned into mini toadstools using balls of bocconcini cheese, made into cute little ladybirds on crackers or threaded onto kebab sticks. Everything tastes better on a stick!
It’s easy to grow your own cherry tomatoes at home and Yates Tomato Patio Mini tomatoes are a sweet and tasty variety that can be grown out in the vegie patch or in pots on a sunny veranda or balcony, so you don’t even need a backyard. Tomato Patio Mini plants are compact and don’t need to be staked.
What you’ll need:
- Seedling punnets or small pots
- Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix
- Medium-sized pot and Yates Premium Potting Mix or Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food if you are planting them directly into your garden
- Tomato Patio Mini seeds
- Yates Thrive Tomato Granular Plant Food
Step 1: Fill some small pots or seedling punnets with some Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix and sow some Tomato Patio Mini seeds around 3mm deep. Keep the mix moist while the seeds germinate (it will take around 10 – 14 days) and the seedlings establish.
Step 2: Find a sunny spot in the vegie patch that receives at least six hours of sun a day and improve the soil with some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food. Or fill a medium-sized pot with Yates Premium Potting Mix and position in a sunny location.
Step 3:Â When the tomato seedlings are about 5 cm tall, carefully transplant them into their final home in the vegie patch or pot and water them well.
Step 4: Keep the soil or potting mix moist and after a fortnight, start feeding your tomatoes with a special tomato fertiliser like Yates Thrive Tomato Granular Plant Food. Reapply every six weeks, decreasing to four weeks once the plants are established or flowering.
Step 5: It will take around 12 weeks from when you sow the seed to when you’ll be picking your very own tomatoes.
Check out the Yates website for other growing projects for kids.
Read more: <Kids’ garden project: Bring in the Monarchs! >>
