2017 Tomato Growing

Thanks Zigs,I haven't been posting on here of late, been in hospital and awaiting a small operation, so limiting my forum activity a bit.

 

Hope you feel better soon, Burnie

 

Morrisons "Grape" tomato ripening ever so slowly.





Likewise, the Gigantomo beefsteak tomatoes.

 

Aww, hope it goes well Burnie We'll keep the kettle on

 

Sorry to hear that, hope the op goes well and you're soon back to full strength once again.

 

Seriously chuffed, 4th year growing. Learnt a lot by growing different types.. And from you lot of course

 

Cor, nice one Linz

 

Outdoor Gardeners Delight, Manx Marvel and Heinz's got blight so out they came. Big Boy seems unaffected so must have some resistance. As a precaution, cut back the haulms on the spuds

 

Picked the first of the Manx Marvels this evening. This is the plant Zigs gave me at Shineyland.

Although I stopped it after 3 trusses, after a quick count I reckon there are a couple of dozen fruit on there.

 

Currently sheltering behind the iPad watching the heavy rain
after pulling up some blighted toms but have also picked a few pounds of Crimson Crush which, so far, is looking remarkably blight free!

 

@"M" s Cilligia are starting to ripen



Can't really see it from the pic but me Angelina is on the way too

 

Spoiler: Don't look Snorky

 

Tomato moth caterpillars have destroyed the majority of my crop - serves me right for crowding the plants hence far too much foliage - lesson learnt!

 

Are you growing them in pots or soil borders?

I had them appear in a polytunnel in 2015, get much worse in 2016, but after I changed the soil in the polytunnel borders this year haven't seen any sign of them. I erected another tunnel over ground where tomatoes haven't been grown for many years and none have appeared in there (yet).

If you fleece 'bag' trusses of tomatoes it will keep them off, but it will prevent/seriously delay them from ripening, so I have only done this on a dozen of so big beafsteak toms being grown for 'heaviest tomato' class, where doing this will (should) also allow them to grow bigger before ripening (when they stop growing and actually decrease in weight).

These pests seem to be becoming more and more of a problem.

 

As I said Scrungee, it is through greed - last year I had five plants - gardeners delight - masses of fruit - so sweet and absolutely gorgeous - no leaves off, everything just so. This year I squeezed 15 plants into the same space, didn't support properly, masses and masses of foliage - plenty of fruit but bigger than usual, not quite so sweet, slower to ripen, and the majority have holes in them where these pests were chomping them. They are in grobags in greenhouse - five bags next to each other in a U shape - two up each side and one across the top - it was just far too much. 9 would have been plenty. I'll learn my lesson for next year... :D