Tomato Growing Thread 2022

With my tomato plant having no terminal bud I guess all I can hope for is a side shoot to spring out, although I notice one of the top trusses seems to be in two minds whether to throw more flowers or extend as a leaf branch. I've had this on a number of occassions.

 

@JWK I've not actually broken off a growing tip like that but I know it is very easy to do so! I have grown my toms up strings to the balcony ceiling for many years now.

 

Its always a good idea to make sure the top shoot is still going before nipping out the side shoot below the top,......... he says in hindsight.

 

I've "bitten the bullet" as it were & "beheaded" my tomato plants on the balcony!

Before:
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After:
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As several plant have good, strong sideshoots I've cut back the tops to these. I've even left a couple on several of the plants.

Yesterday I gave them all a watering with a general purpose fertilizer & now I hope they will "take off" after the drastic action I took this morning.

As they say: "Only time will tell"!
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On I haven't nipped out the growing bud, the plant in its infinite wisdom decided to throw out two trusses at its Apex and no central stem. I only hope it gets its auxins together and throws out some kind of growth stem, there is too much air real estate left and if it won't grow I'm branching off a double stem from its neighbour onto its pole higher up if it doesn't

 

Here comes the UGLY bug.....

By my records, it's a garotte bicolour

 

OLD BROOKS
A heavy producing heirloom tomato that is perfectly suited to canning because of its acid content. Vigorous, regular leaf, indeterminate plant produces 6-8 oz., uniform, bright-red, round tomatoes that have great, full, complex, well-balanced, tangy flavors. Also a good sauce or salad tomato. Resistant to blossom end rot and blight. A wonderful all-purpose tomato.

No mention that it might forget to produce a central stem and loose it's head :-)

 

Monster....Monster....

 

I have had several like that over the years! One year I was growing an old French variety & on most of the first trusses I got a couple of toms like those!

 

I've had a look back through my pictures & found one of Tomato 'Marmande' deformed & with BER.
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Not a very nice picture but it goes to show some of the problems we have with our toms!

I've very rarely had BER on my toms on the balcony but I did that year!
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Here's a "Sci-Fi" from a year or two ago.

 

@eatenbyweasels That really is a monster, but so interesting too.