This article was updated in July 2021.

Tomatoes are one of the most satisfying vegetables (though they are technically a fruit) to grow.

Even a single plant in a pot on the patio can be worthwhile to a non-gardener – they are easy to grow, look lush and tropical, can be picked over a long period and taste far superior to anything you can buy at the supermarket.

A sun-warmed tomato sliced on fresh bread with salt and pepper is a meal to be savoured.

READ MORE: * How to grow organic tomatoes - and it's easier than you think * Experts pick the best tomato variety to grow at home * How to keep tomato seedlings strong and healthy

There are many old wives' tales about how to grow the best tomatoes, and they all focus on the same things:

Do this and a good crop is pretty much guaranteed.

There are two types of tomatoes.

I always buy a grafted early tomato plant to get some fresh fruit as soon as possible and then grow a range of indeterminate heritage tomatoes seedlings for eating, a red and a yellow cherry tomato (just one plant of each is enough) and a bed full of saucing determinate tomatoes to freeze for winter sauces.

There are literally hundreds of varieties to choose from. For a range of heritage tomatoes, check out Bristol Seeds.

Tomatoes are heat lovers. Choose your hottest spot and wait for the soil to warm up before planting out. You can wait to plant until as late as mid-November further south, though I find after Labour Weekend warm enough in the Waikato.

Weekly, thin layers of grass clippings around the plants will warm the soil as it decomposes and provide a moist mulch.

​To produce well, a tomato plant needs lots of food. Place good compost in the garden bed and ensure you have ample supplies of calcium and magnesium in the soil. You can achieve this by adding lime, gypsum, dolomite or even a teaspoon of milk powder and Epsom salts to the hole before planting. Read more about how to prepare your soil for planting tomatoes.

When planting, place plants quite deep or on an angle as the stem will grow more roots.

Give regular waterings of compost tea while growing, one high in potassium (banana skins and comfrey make a great compost tea for tomatoes).

Add a light sprinkle of wood ash if you have it once the fruit start forming and an occasional splash of seawater or seaweed compost to sweeten the fruit.  

As they grow, the leaves are prone to fungus, powdery mildew and blight, all of which are more likely when conditions are humid and moist. Prevent this by watering the roots, but not the leaves.

I have drippers I hook into my watering system and place under the grass mulch – providing moisture to the roots but not dampening the leaves at all. Read more about the right way to water your plants.

Also remove some of the lower laterals – side branches that form just above a leaf to allow wind flow as this helps keep the leaves dry and fungus free. Replant these laterals as a cutting and you will have even more tomato plants! 

If your climate thwarts your tomato crop – if it's too cold in spring or summers are short – seek out varieties with "early" in their name.

Try 'Baxter's Early Bush', 'Early Doll' (both Kings Seeds), 'Early Girl' or improved 'New Girl' (Egmont Seeds).

Read more about choosing the right tomato variety for your situation. 

For a fail-safe cherry tomato, you can't go past 'Sweet 100'. It's a great variety for beginners. It was scored 8/10 in the 2017 Auckland Botanic Garden tomato trial.

'Gardener's Delight' (Kings Seeds) got the same score.

Want to mix up your cherry tomato colours? Go for golden 'Sungold' or dramatic 'Black Cherry'.

​'Juliet' scored 8/10 in the tomato trial. Apparently this F1 hybrid took 20 weeks until harvest, but once she started fruiting, there was no stopping her, with a very long fruiting period of 21 weeks. 

'Early Money' also received 8/10 and had the heaviest yield.

Want to grow giant tomatoes? Go for 'Big Beef', 'Country Taste' (Egmont Seeds) and dark Russian heirloom 'Black Krim' (try it slow-roasted with balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and rock salt).

Some seed-savers use the start of WWII as the cut-off date for heirloom tomatoes but the widely accepted definition of an heirloom is an open-pollinated variety (the birds and bees have done the pollination work rather than the result of hybridisation).

Favourite heirlooms, as voted by NZ Gardener readers, are 'Brandywine Red', 'Purple Calabash', 'Bloody Butcher' and 'German Red Strawberry'.

As well as the prolific 'Sungold', heritage variety 'Sunshine Cherry' (Bristol Seeds) is a good cropper.

'Indigo Rose' (Kings Seeds) is one of the darkest tomatoes bred so far with fruit starting out green, then turning red, then purple.

You could also plant stripy tomatoes like 'Tigerella', and tasty 'Eclipse Fireball' (Egmont Seeds).

Or go for a true oddity such as 'Tom-Pom' (Kings Seeds may have stock). It resembles a cluster of atoms or a range of cherry tomatoes fused together.

If you want to grow tomatoes in pots, choose varieties bred for this purpose. Aim for non-permeable pots at least as big as a 10-litre plastic bucket (for a single plant) or cut holes in a 40-litre bag of potting mix and slip seedlings straight into it. 

Tomatoes in hanging baskets need a good soak twice a day; an automatic irrigation dripper is best. Never water the foliage. Use a potting mix that includes a wetting agent.

Take your pick from 'Tumbling Tom Red' or its cousin 'Tumbling Tom Yellow'; 'Tiny Tim'; 'Balcony' (Egmont Seeds), 'Container Choice Red F1' (Kings Seeds) or 'Patio F1' (Egmont Seeds).

Read more about growing edibles in pots and containers.