Tesco has launched a new “super-productive” tomato plant to allow people living in urban areas to grow the fruit themselves, without the need for a garden.
The mini tomato plant has been developed over the last five years by produce experts who have cross-bred different tomatoes to come up with a compact, high-yielding variety.
Tesco claims that by following the care instructions, the each plant can produce up to 150 delicious tomatoes “with minimal fuss”.
The supermarket chain’s herb and vegetable buyer Phoebe Burgess said: “We hope this remarkable little powerhouse of a plant will help all those people eager to grow their own vegetables but don’t have a garden or adequate growing space to do so.
“Tomatoes are among the most popular fruit and vegetables to grow at home, but as even the most green-fingered of Brits know, the success of garden growing is often down to the weather, which in the UK can be quite unpredictable.
“The beauty of the mini tomato plant is that it’s so small it can fit on a small, sunlit window sill and doesn’t grow much over one foot tall.”
The ‘Mini Tomato Plant’ goes went on sale last week priced at £4 and is available in more than 300 Tesco stores across the UK.
Each plant comes with about ten tomatoes already growing on it and Burgess advises consumers to tickle its yellow flowers to replicate pollination and encourage further production.
The popularity of fresh-growing herbs and vegetable plants is increasing in the UK, with demand up nearly 10 per cent at Tesco over the past year.
