Just days before turning 13, teenager started a tomato business; now grows 7,000 plants and has customers as far as Australia

Two days before his 13th birthday, Jacob Mann collected an old greenhouse with his father. What followed was the beginning of a business that now grows as many as 7,000 tomato plants a year and has customers thousands of miles away. The 14-year-old from Norwich, England, started The Tomato Cart with a small number of seedlings and a homemade bicycle trailer. Today, he sells tomato plants, home-growing kits and merchandise, with one of his crocheted tomato mascots even reaching a buyer in Australia, around 10,000 miles from his home, the BBC reported.

Jacob's journey began during the Covid pandemic, when his family turned their vegetable patch into a friendly gardening competition. While other plots struggled, his plants continued to flourish. The experience sparked an interest in growing vegetables and made him consider running his own garden centre one day, selling plants he had raised himself.

How a family gardening competition sparked a business idea

Jacob's decision to turn gardening into a business came a few years after that competition. When his brother started earning money through a paper round, he too wanted to make an income independently. Instead of choosing a conventional job, he decided to build something around the activity he already enjoyed.


Tomatoes became his first focus because they were enjoyable to grow and could eventually be eaten. In December 2024, just two days before his 13th birthday, Jacob and his father collected a greenhouse they had found through Freecycle.

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He then used his pocket money to buy an old trailer base through Gumtree. With his father's help, he converted it into a customised cart that could be attached to a bicycle and taken to local markets and car boot sales. This became The Tomato Cart, giving Jacob a way to sell his plants directly to customers around Norwich.

In a case study published by The Shropshire Seaweed Company, Jacob described how the early gardening experience had encouraged him to take growing more seriously. The business allowed him to combine that interest with his ambition to earn his own money.

From selling 14 plants to growing 7,000 in a greenhouse

The Tomato Cart began on a small scale. Jacob initially sold around 14 plants, but customer interest helped the business expand. By March 2026, he had built up a greenhouse with space for as many as 7,000 tomato plants to meet demand, the BBC reported.

Growing thousands of plants while attending school requires careful planning. Jacob waters them before school, while his parents help him manage the business without allowing it to interfere with his education.

The growing process has also brought challenges, particularly because of unpredictable British weather. Jacob told The Shropshire Seaweed Company that he had to contend with conditions ranging from freezing nights to heatwaves. Before installing greenhouse heaters, he sometimes brought plants indoors overnight to protect them from the cold.

Selling at markets was another hurdle. Jacob initially worried that customers might not take him seriously because of his age. He was also uncomfortable explaining his products to people and appearing in social media videos. Over time, however, customer support helped him become more confident.

Why Jacob has expanded beyond selling tomato plants

For Jacob, one of the most satisfying parts of running the business is hearing from customers who have managed to grow tomatoes using his plants. He enjoys receiving photographs of their first harvests and seeing how the plants develop after they leave his greenhouse.

His growing experience also helps him guide buyers towards varieties suited to their gardens. With advice from Nick at JustSeed, he has developed a selection that includes familiar favourites as well as less common tomato varieties.

The business has also attracted attention outside Norwich. According to The Shropshire Seaweed Company, Jacob has appeared on podcasts, in local newspapers and on radio programmes. He also attended the RHS Sandringham Flower Show, where he met gardening personalities Rekha Mistry, Ade Sellars and Alan Titchmarsh.

As demand grew, he began looking beyond local markets to reach more customers. The Tomato Cart now sells through markets and online channels, with its website offering local delivery and pre-orders. Its products are also listed through an Etsy shop.

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Growing kits, pizza seeds and crocheted tomato mascots

Tomato plants are a seasonal product, with most sales concentrated around the growing season. To give customers more options throughout the year, Jacob developed home-growing kits that can be purchased beyond the main planting period.

The kits include seeds, compost, plant labels, pots and instructions written by Jacob. One of the options is a pizza-growing kit featuring San Marzano tomato, basil and oregano seeds, allowing customers to grow ingredients associated with pizza at home. The seeds can initially be grown on a windowsill before the plants are moved outdoors.

He has also introduced a more unusual product range called Adopt a Tomato. It features crocheted tomato keyrings sold with adoption cards, giving the business a distinctive merchandise line alongside its plants and growing kits.

The products have helped The Tomato Cart reach customers beyond the UK. The BBC reported that a buyer in Australia, around 10,000 miles away, purchased one of Jacob's crocheted tomato mascots. The order demonstrated how the teenager's small Norwich business had found an audience far beyond the local markets where it began.

Jacob wants more people to experience growing their own food

Beyond expanding sales, Jacob hopes his business will encourage more people to grow tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables. He believes that raising food at home helps people understand where it comes from and appreciate the effort involved in producing it.

The Tomato Cart has also developed a partnership with The Shropshire Seaweed Company. Jacob had already been using its organic liquid seaweed fertiliser while growing his plants, and the partnership has brought the two businesses together.

What began with a family gardening competition has now become a business spanning thousands of plants, growing kits and international orders. For Jacob, the aim remains rooted in the same interest that started it all: growing plants and helping others do the same.