Home-grown tomatoes not only look and taste infinitely better than shop-bought ones, but there are so many varieties from which to choose that even if you only have a hanging basket you can plant a cascading type which will give you dozens of sweet, cherry tomatoes.

Yet many end up disappointed, as their tomatoes suffer blossom end rot or are decimated by blight, where the stem and fruits have brown blotches and are inedible, particularly in wet, windy summers.

Kevin Smith, of Gardeners’ World magazine, which is launching a Grow Your Own Week campaign from March 29, says: “Few crops are more rewarding than tomatoes, and they’re easy to grow in any space, even a tiny balcony.

“Don’t be put off by the recent cold weather, as you can delay sowing tomato seeds until April, or even buy pot-grown plants in May. Producing a delicious tomato crop is easy.”

He offers the following tips to help you produce healthy, delicious tomatoes: * Water the soil or compost daily – it must not dry out. Pay attention to plants grown in containers, as irregular watering causes nutritional imbalance, with low calcium take-up, which causes blossom end rot.

* Keep plants well fed. For tomatoes grown in pots and bags, watering won’t be enough to ensure healthy growth. Feed tomatoes weekly with a high-potash fertiliser, increasing the frequency as the plants grow or if leaves start discolouring.

* Train tomatoes to canes or supports. Bush tomatoes need little, if any, training, but most other tomatoes are trained as single stems, or cordons, and the main shoot needs to be tied upright to a cane or support.

* Pinch out tips. Outdoor cordon tomatoes usually form three or four trusses of fruits. Pinch off the tip of the main shoot a leaf or two above the fourth flower truss.

* Combat blight disease. Warm, humid weather provides the perfect conditions for blight disease, which attacks tomatoes and potatoes and can spread rapidly. Keep an eye on the weather and, if these conditions occur, use a preventive fungicide spray to stop blight spores infecting your plants.

The greenhouse is the obvious place to grow tomatoes, as you can give them a longer season and are likely to get bigger crops than if grown outdoors.

Indoor tomatoes can be sown in March in a heated propagator set to a minimum of 15C, but preferably a little higher.

Outdoor tomatoes should be started off indoors eight or nine weeks before it’s safe to plant outdoors.

Two years ago, during the wet summer, the magazine trialled container-grown tomatoes to discover which performed best. The top choice was Apero F1, a rich, red cherry tomato with a slightly elongated shape.