Vegetables · Warm
Tomato
Solanaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 60 cm
- USDA zones
- 5a–11b
- Frost-sensitive
- yes
- Growth duration
- 16 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- raised-bed mixAlso okay:loamy
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Pre-culture recommended
Start indoors / cold frame first, transplant into the raised bed later.
Stachi's tip
Tomatoes are divas with style. Plant out after the last frost, water at the base only (never on the leaves), and give them basil as a neighbour — both benefit. If pinching out side-shoots feels finicky, stick to bush varieties.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Transplanting
Harvest
Good neighbours
Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
Avoid these neighbours
Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
Good pre-cultures
These plants improve the soil / free the slot early:
What comes after Tomato?
When the bed frees up, the season is usually not over. We worked out what still fits afterwards — with time windows and reasons.
See follow-on crops for Tomato →Sources
- Kreuter, Bio-Garten
- Kosmos Gartenkalender
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Crop rotation
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: Kreuter, Bio-Garten · Kosmos Gartenkalender · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
Articles about this plant
Peppers and chillies in September: harvest now, ripen indoors, or overwinter the plant?
The nights are getting cooler and your raised bed still has green peppers and chillies hanging on. Now's the time to decide what to do — including whether it's worth overwintering the plant.
Ripening tomatoes indoors: when to bring them inside in September
When nights turn cooler and the plant starts giving up, tomatoes stop ripening outdoors. What you do next decides between kilos of harvest — or compost.
Saving seeds from your raised bed — which plants are worth it
Late August shows you which plants had the best season. These are exactly the ones you want to keep for next year — as your own seeds. Which varieties work, why hybrids are a trap, and how tomato seed saving actually works.
Before the summer storm: why you should get to your beds today
Friday is not a normal weekend — storm warnings for Saturday. If your raised bed is in the shade: harvest right now. Ripe fruits that turn brown after hail won't do you any good.
Bell peppers in the raised bed: why they're still green in August — and what helps now
Mrs Schneider is standing in front of her raised bed and every single pepper is still green. End of August. What is she doing wrong? Nothing at all. But there are a few things that make a real difference right now — and a point after which waiting no longer makes sense.
Harvesting squash: how to tell when it's truly ripe
Your squash has been hanging on the vine for weeks and looks great — but is it ripe yet? Most gardeners cut too early or wait too long. Five signs that tell you the right moment has come.
Related plants
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.