How to grow your best-ever crop of tomatoes

If you’re as keen on growing tomatoes as I am you’ll be getting read to sow now. I sow them as early as February to grow inside and late March for plants to go out in the veg patch. Don’t panic if you’re late sowing, they do catch up, you’ll just be picking a little later.

Choose your favourite cultivars: I eat ‘Sungold’ F1 like sweeties, they ripen early under cover, ‘Ildi’ is a good bush alternative for outside. Beef tomatoes are so impressive and tasty; ‘Super Marmande’ F1 gets my vote and I grow ‘Crimson Crush’ outside where it’s so good at resisting the dreaded blight. Watch my guide to sowing tomato seeds, to ensure yours get off to the best possible start. Then check out my six top tips for growing tomatoes.

Choose blight-resistant varieties like ‘Crimson Crush’ and ‘Mountain Magic’ if like me your veg patch is on a site surrounded by trees where the air is static and humidity can rise after summer showers. I also peg a fleece curtain inside the greenhouse door to stop the spores drifting inside.

• 20 of the best tomatoes to grow

Sow seeds 3cm apart onto a pot of firmed damp compost. I use warm water to soak the compost; it saves the propagator having to warm it up. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of compost and put them somewhere warm and light to germinate. At 20°C, I find they take