Red Alert

Red Alert Tomatoes

If you want fast, flavour-packed tomatoes with almost no fuss, Red Alert is the variety for you! This compact bush tomato is perfect for patios, pots, or small gardens — and it’s an absolute machine when it comes to yield. Each plant produces an impressive 1.5–2.5kg of sweet, juicy, bright red tomatoes, and it does it earlier than almost any other variety. Quick to mature, super reliable, and bursting with flavour!

Best Time to Plant

• Greenhouse: April
• Outdoors: 3rd week of May, once all frost risk has passed
Frost may cause leaves to turn blue, but they’ll usually recover unless the main stem collapses.

Harvest

Around 8 weeks after planting, once fruits are fully red, shiny, and swollen.

Growing Instructions

• Planting: Space 45cm apart in well-drained soil, a large pot, or a growbag in a greenhouse.
• Hardening Off: If you don’t have a greenhouse, start indoors and slowly acclimatise plants outdoors over 4–6 days after frost danger has passed.
• Care:
– No side-shoot removal needed — it’s a true bush variety.
– Keep well watered until established and through dry spells.
– As fruits develop, the plant may need a little support.
• Feeding: Feed only once 3–4 tomatoes per truss begin to swell — not before.
• Maintenance: Remove any dead or yellow leaves to keep plants healthy.

Top Tips

• Water Evenly: Inconsistent watering leads to splitting, blossom-end rot, and uneven ripening.
• Avoid Manure: Don’t use farmyard manure — herbicide residues can damage tomato crops.
• Sun + Warmth: Place pots in the sunniest, most sheltered spot for maximum sweetness.
• Patio Perfect: Red Alert is one of the best tomatoes for containers — no staking up huge vines!