TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2020

I dont exactly grow toms organically, but I do grow them outside and hard, rarely feed and only water in drought situations.
I agree the way you grow has a big bearing on the taste.

 

The wind decapitated the tip one of my toms, but it has another stem which survived. Perhaps it is not an entirely bad thing either, given it has probably too many upper trusses and now it will have more resources to divert there..

As for the rest, the tomatoes are one thing which is doing generally quite well despite of excessive cramming. They do not seem to mind to be close to the blackberries, I guess that help pollination a lot. The taste has improved a bit, courtesy of the sunny weather, and the blight has yet to show up, fingers crossed.

I am trying desperately to find someone to give my spare plants to, but it seems that everybody is planning holidays right now, so not much luck.









The honeycomb toms are finally starting to ripen, they have been quite slow, and probably will need some snipping in 4-6 weeks to finish working on the top trusses.

 

Im going to pick my first Sungold tomorrow. Just one ready at the moment. Quite a few trusses showing but it seems very late to me. Im sure I was picking much earlier last year. Im growing 2 varieties Sungold and Piccolo and the Piccolo are even further behind. Both in pots but in a very hot sunny sheltered corner. Being in Eastbourne (supposedly the suntrap of the South) I expected fruits earlier.

 

Toms ripen well into October, and it doesn't happen often, but I've picked outdoor ones in november before now.

 

Letting most of my toms do their own thing this year,(JWK's gardeners delight excluded). I'm just side shooting them and throwing some water at them, they don't seem to mind, I've got loads of fruit which I'll have to wait for because I was so late starting.

 

The toms look reasonably happy, the top trusses are still very much green and developing, but there is plenty of time. However, some at the bottom seem to get overly ripe, so I lured the kid into the garden to pick some and compare notes.
We tried mainly these ones, in the back garden.





The taste for the Aviditas has improved considerably since a few weeks ago and the Honey are most definitely a keeper, albeit slow at ripening.

Lizzano are a partial disappointment however, the taste varied from really good to absolutely rubbish, dependently on the plant. I have noticed variability for Lizzano over the last two years, but I thought that giving them all plenty of soil would even things out.
In reality, I think the main variable is insolation instead, and possibly air circulation. Some have been growing too bushy and I misjudged how much sun the plants around would steal once fully grown. Me and my cramming tendencies..

Anyway, I am not keen on trimming tomatoes, but in this case I think there is nothing to loose by giving it a go, along with staking the single branches to expose them more.
I have kept the fruits from the 'bad plants' (poor plants) separated (left ones), because frankly they are pretty bad and I would not wish anybody to pick one of those by mistake
I might make some spicy sauce with the evil ones or simply discard them.
The others are pretty good though..

 

Dammit, garden tunnel's first year and I've got tomato moth caterpillars munching my big Tom's.

Wish I'd bagged them up earlier with the 30p mesh bags I got from Sainsburys last year to make up my shop to a spend and save voucher threshold.

Bright-line Brown–eye or Tomato Moth and caterpillar (Lacanobia oleracea) | Wildlife Insight

 

Picking at last! So slow this year compared to previous years. But lots are now turning and a pretty good crop. These are Nagina Plum and Crimson Crush

 

Yummy with cheese in a sandwich.

 

Fourth trusses of Sungold are ripening, too many for us so I have to keep giving them to our neighbour but I get cucumbers in return.

 

Gotcha!

B&Q Verve compost is the worst stuff I ever tried. Tomatoes just sat sulking in it and did not extend their roots into it.