No-tillage cultivation with living mulch offers several benefits related to environmental protection and fulfills requirements of sustainable agriculture very well, however there are only few reports on vegetable cultivation using this method and referring to natural conditions of Poland. In three years field experiment stake tomatoes cv. Malinowy Ożarowski grown on no-tilled plots covered with wintering hairy vetch as a living mulch produced significantly lower total and marketable yield in comparison to conventional cultivation. Yield of fruits infested with potato blight was also significantly lower but their share in total yield was much higher. Content of carotenoids, monosaccharides and total sugars in fruits harvested under conventional cultivation was significantly higher and content of dry matter was significantly lower in comparison to no-tillage and content of vitamin C was independent of cultivation method. At time of full fruiting, leaves of tomatoes grown on plots covered with mulch contained more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and content of calcium and magnesium did not depend of cultivation method. Method of cultivation did not affect root-taking of potted tomato transplants but then tomatoes grown on plots covered with living mulch were dominated by hairy vetch and grew much slower till third decade of July when majority of vetch plants decayed. Growth of tomatoes in vetch mulch was much more differentiated during whole vegetation period. Living and then dry vetch mulch covered soil surface almost entirely and suppressed annual weeds well. Average decade temperature at 5 cm and 10 cm depth of conventionally cultivated soil was usually higher and soil moisture in 0–40 cm layer was significantly lower than those of soil covered with mulch. Cultivation method did not affect soil total porosity nor bulk density. At time of tomato planting, fresh and air-dry weight of hairy vetch was 39.7 t∙ha^-1 and 6.5 t·ha^-1 on an average respectively and it contained 180 kg N, 43 kg P, 209 kg K, 51 kg Ca and 12 kg Mg. Studied cultivation method offered several benefits related to environmental protection but was more management intensive and variable than conventional tillage.

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