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Photo Credit: Courtesy of W. Atlee Burpee & Co.

Wouldn’t you love to have tomatoes like these in winter?

The tomato, which well may be our nation’s favorite homegrown food plant, has proved one of the most versatile when it comes to being coaxed into growing under conditions other than what nature meant for it. And that includes growing quite well and prolifically indoors.

Hold on – I know you’re thinking of those scraggly specimens you may have seen growing in someone’s dimly lit apartment in the past, but I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right lighting and temperature, and a little research in selecting the variety that will work best for you, you can be on your way to turning your back on those mush-textured tomato impostors we’re forced to consume from the supermarket in the wintertime. Here’s how:

Lighting

So what constitutes good indoor lighting? A generous-sized, south-facing picture window is ideal – but not all of us have that. Most successful indoor gardeners have to augment their natural lighting with a spot grow-light or fluorescent lighting so that tomato plants receive at least 12 hours of sunlight a day. These lights are a must if you have small or inconveniently placed windows, or if most of your winter is spent socked in under steel-gray skies. You can buy these lights in a garden center or hardware store; what you should choose depends on how many plants you want to grow, and how well your growing space can be adapted to the installation of additional lighting. You may also need to do some tweaking to make sure that the sunlight from western windows is not too intense by providing some kind of filter, such as a sheer curtain (otherwise plants may dry out too quickly).