Wholesale Tomato Seedlings

In the depths of winter, while nobody is thinking about tomatoes, we’re sorting and sowing seed.

That’s how tomato season actually works. By the time your customers walk in on the first warm Saturday in spring, the plants they’re looking for have to be started months earlier. Get it wrong, and the rush arrives before the stock does.

We’ve been running that calculation for a long time. Our first batch is finished and ready from August — before most people have thought about summer at all.

Varieties bred to actually crop

There’s a reason we’re particular about which tomatoes we grow.

Most people who give up on growing tomatoes think they did something wrong. Usually, they planted a variety that was never bred to perform in a backyard.

So we select hybrid varieties chosen for performance — the same approach commercial growers take, because their livelihood depends on fruit that sets and plants that resist disease. A home gardener deserves the same chance of success.

Plantex Roma, Plantex Sweetbite, Plantex Tomeggo, Plantex Truss Plum and Plantex Apollo. Carefully selected hybrids under our own label, chosen to give the home gardener the best possible chance of a good crop.

Which cultivars sit behind our labels is our own business — working out what performs in a Melbourne backyard took years of trialling. What matters is what’s on the tag: a tomato chosen to crop.

Why we grow hybrids: More on our F1 hybrid seedlings and why the same varieties commercial growers use end up on our benches.

The Tomato Patio Range

Not everyone gardening has a garden.

The Patio Range is bred compact and determinate — plants that stay manageable, crop heavily for a defined period, and suit a pot on a balcony or a courtyard rather than a staked row. All three stay under 60cm.

Each label names the other two as companions — a quiet piece of cross-selling that works on the shelf.

For a retail nursery, this is the range that sells to apartment and townhouse customers who assume tomatoes aren’t for them.

Also in production: Tomato Mini Coco in the 116mm Super Maxi format, 9 per tray, carrying the F1 mark.

Grown under cover, not at the mercy of the weather

Our vegetable crops are grown in heated and cold poly houses, with frost programs running on the irrigation clocks through winter.

That means our timing is a decision rather than a gamble. We can have seedlings finished when your customers start looking, not three weeks after the first warm weekend — which is the difference between selling a crop and discounting it.

Availability and ordering

Who to contact

Running a retail nursery? Nathan or Jason are your contacts, and they’re the ones on the Spec Trucks each Monday. Landscaper or buying through a trade market? Speak to Patrick. Not sure — ring the nursery and we’ll point you the right way.

How our week works