Divisi
How to grow Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum · Solanaceae
Photo: fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Sigma 150mm f/2.8 · GFDL 1.2
Tomato is the number-one cash vegetable across sub-Saharan Africa — and one of the most demanding. Unlike a grain you sow straight into the field, tomato starts life in a small nursery, then moves to the field as a young seedling. It rewards care and punishes neglect. It lives on three things: steady, even water (let the soil swing wet-then-dry and the fruit rots at the end or splits open), relentless pest scouting (the tomato leafminer Tuta absoluta, the whitefly and the leaf-curl virus it carries, and the blights can each wipe out a crop), and support and pruning to keep the plants up off the ground with air moving through them. Grown well, a small, well-tended plot can out-earn a whole field of maize; grown carelessly, it can lose you everything you spent.
- Days to maturity
- 90–150 days
- Row spacing
- 80 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 40 cm
- Sowing depth
- 0.5–1 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will tomato actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Tomato
tamatie · timatim · tomato · tomate · tumatir · itamatisi · phwetekere · domasi · tamati · ditamati · nyanya · itumato · utamatisi
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing tomato, stage by stage
Your tomato season, step by step — from raising strong seedlings in a nursery, through transplanting, staking, feeding and relentless pest watching, to picking and handling the fruit gently so it reaches the market whole.
- Raise strong seedlings in a nursery
- Prepare the field and get your seedlings
- Transplant and get them rooting
- Build the frame: stake, prune, feed
- Flowering and fruit set
- Fill and ripen the fruit
- Pick to the market, pass by pass
- Cool, grade and handle gently
23 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for tomato — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack tomato
36 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your tomato right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does tomato take to grow?
Tomato takes about 90–150 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for tomato?
Space tomato rows about 80 cm apart, with roughly 40 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should tomato be planted?
Sow tomato at about 0.5–1 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack tomato?
The ones covered in this guide are Alternaria leaf blight, Anthracnose, Aphids. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
More reading
Grow tomato with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
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