Discussing cuddly toys is all well and good. But we’d attend a veg symposium over a stuffed bear seminar any day of the week. Yeah, you can keep your TedTalks. We’ll be at a TomTalk with Niall Radford!
Known to some as the ‘Pomodor Comodore’ (?!), Niall has thirty years of experience growing every variety of tomato imaginable. Verily, he’s more tomato now than man. As well as extending his own knowledge of the plant Niall is keen to broaden the availability of some really unique tomato types and get the word out there that stunning, flavourful results are easily possible. To these ends Niall’s established himself as a prolific seed producer and popular, visible, supportive advocate for home tomato cultivation. All of which leads us to his recent TomTalk.
Want somewhere to demonstrate the ease with which a dazzling crop can be grown to a crowd of engaged enthusiasts? As venues go you couldn’t do much better than a plant nursery / garden centre like Moore’s in Stanton-on-the-Wolds. Such places are absolutely brilliant for hooking in established and potential Lycopersicon-persons. Accessible, friendly, but with serious quality plants available, Niall felt sure that Moore’s would prove a great platform. And so it proved to be.
As a decent audience looked on, Niall explained how simple it is to cultivate a spectacular tomato harvest. More importantly, that this can be done even if you don’t have a great deal of time, space, or mental bandwidth to spare. At Moores he demonstrated how a range of smart, natural, eco-friendly products can enable people to grow regardless of their experience or capacity.
Clever use of composts, fertilisers, fungi, and automatic plant watering can make growing an absolute doddle, even when your plants have diverse requirements. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noted a mention for ‘automatic plant watering’ right there. Hmm, wonder what brand of system he was talking about?
Would you believe it!? Niall only went and showcased AutoPot Watering Systems at Moore’s! Who saw that coming?! Well actually, not us, given that Niall took up the speaking engagement and featured our systems completely off his own bat, without us knowing – compliments don’t come much bigger than that!
Such a testament to AutoPot is perhaps not surprising though, given that some of Niall’s biggest successes have come with our systems, as he himself explains. ‘I’ve been using a mixture of 1Pot, easy2grow and 1Pot XL for several years as I’ve slowly expanded my AutoPot usage for tomato growing. As a seed seller and producer, yield is really important and my AutoPots just deliver time-and-again.’
As if to prove his point about the ease with which tomatoes can be grown, Niall’s triumphant yields have come in some quite modest settings. ‘For several years I’ve been making-do with a pair of flimsy green poly shacks to house my AutoPot Watering Systems, unfortunately they both met their demise this winter.’
Niall has some big plans for this year, ‘with 60 new pots planned and almost 60 new tomato varieties to grow.’ So the need for a new, more permanent growing space couldn’t be more pressing. With that in mind he’s made a decisive move, ‘onwards and upwards with a new 7.5m polytunnel from Premier Polytunnels – cracking bunch of lads! Plus 30 new easy2grow modules and an additional reservoir to fill the tunnel out.’
The easy2grow modules used by Niall have long been a favourite of vine crop growers. Their compact design allows you to get a surprising number of modules into a small space. AutoPot gardeners commonly set them end-to-end to create long runs that mutually support superb harvests of tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and peppers.
The low-level pots are also great for bushy varieties. So if your space is square, rectangular or irregular easy2grow provides an easily accessible option. Best of all there’s no electricity or mains water required, meaning you can set up practically anywhere – just as Niall has, semi-outdoors and totally off-grid.
We wish Niall the very best for 2025 and would like to offer our profuse thanks for his trumpeting of our systems. If you’re a U.K.-based grower and you’re feeling inspired by Niall’s exploits why not get yourself set up for less using his special offer code when shopping at autopot.co.uk. Simply type in APRAD10 at the checkout for 10% off the entire range.
