2016 Tomato Growing

You lucky, lucky people with the caterpillars - getting to play with live bubble wrap every day.

Anyway, here is this year's Tumbling Toms in the sand box:



So, what's different? Well, I swapped out about 200Lt of the sand mix with a similar amount of used compost mix from my carrot cube (comprising of 900Lt of multipurpose compost and 100Lt of perlite). On top of that was added 20Lt of vermiculite in a further effort to increase water retention.

The total number of tomato plants was reduced from 48 last year to just 10 for this year (of which 3 are TomTatoes that I am trialling).

Watering has been 16Lt once a week then increased in frequency to once every 3 days after significant fruit set and/or observed issues.


And, the first picking from the seven regular plants:


Methinks some cross pollination has taken place (probably with Moneymaker from nearby plots)


Anatomy of the tomato.



Taste-wise, they are slightly different to last year's crop - very tomatoey with a tangy skin.

 

They look awesome - what feed are you using ?

 

Got tomato seeds yesterday, Shirley F1, Alisa Craig, and Roma, which one taste better, do they deserve to grow because of limited space?

 

@Tracy_x
I prefer Ailsa Craig and Roma to Shirley, but a bit late for this year. I would try all three next year and decide which you prefer.

 

Something less labour intensive than last year:

Three spoons of Westland Gro-Sure Slow Release Plant Food (12-7-19 with micro nutrients) per plant, sprinkled into ring furrows drawn around each plant and then covered over.

 

Picked my first ripe Bulgarian tomato yesterday, 1lb 3ozs, a good size for stuffing.

 

I will also grow black cherry and sungold, and Floridity, so might can only choose two from that three.

 

Prob wrong thread but my toms have struggled this year blight and all sorts would just like to thank all the peeps that have advised me - I really have learnt lots this is my proudest pic 21 peppers of a 2ft high plant

 

@Tracy_x Roma is a very robust variety and seems to perform for me, whatever the weather. Also, it's a plum variety but its skin isn't so thick and it's fairly juicy, which means you can both cook with it and also eat it fresh.

 

Please tell me this isn't what I think it is!

 

How does that compare with neighbouring plots?

I've had 2 Blightwatch Alerts this year,and no blight resulted, what appeared to be blight only affected one variety of potatoes so I immediately cut/burnt the tops and nothing happened to my other spuds & toms.

 

Infected plants removed with minimal disturbance. Plants in green bin, which has been moved as far away as poss from plot. Harvested full sized unblemished black trifele and country taste tomatoes to ripen indoors. The rambling red stripe that got infected first, I just cut them off at the base and dumped the whole lot straight in the green bin. I never liked those wretched things anyway and the growth habit is way too dense....hence blight. Fortunately there's only one other tomato plant adjacent (a green zebra full of fruit), and the rest are at least 5m away in a raised bed + greenhouse. *fingers crossed*

Edit: I haven't had a Blight Watch alert for ages :(