Tomato Growing Thread 2023

would love to have too many dahlias and lilies…unfortunately, my garden is like a scene from the walking dead once the lily beetles and slugs have done their rounds!

 

Oh, that's a pain @Susieshoe. Lily beetles are terrible. I had a few that arrived last year and was on high alert several times a day, checking all the lilies. For the dahlias, have you tried a load of grit around the dahlia as it starts to grow? Works for me really well and once the plants get a bit bigger, they seem to cope well with those slimey things!

 

I stopped growing Dahlias for some years as they seemed to attract every single earwig in town! But that was growing my favourites which are the Cactus ones. The ones I grew from the Gardeners World seeds were all singles & didn't seem to interest them.I grew them for 3 years before putting them in a raised bed in the garden of my church back in November, I think. The tubers probably haven't survived the hard ground frosts of December 2022 & January 2023.

My tomatoes seem to escape the attention of insects & grow well every year. I even avoid blight - both early & late - probably because being at the back of our balcony the foliage never gets wet & I take care not to wet it either when I'm watering them.

This year I'm going for only the one variety 'Gardener's Delight'. I've got enough seeds to last me a decade of them! Last year was the first year in the 20 I've been growing them on the balcony to have all the plants die on me. They would grow up to about a meter then wilt! I later discovered that there is a disease called wilt that affects them. It must have come in the growbags I used last year. Every year I use new bags but this is the first time anything has ever happened to me like that. I hope I don't have a repeat this year.

 

Really interesting @Balc, not heard of tomato wilt before so googling that. Good luck this year.

Earwigs interesting in dahlias. Realised I had some when brought some dinner plate ones in for the vase. Hadn’t damaged blooms, just sitting in the petals. Had to catch them and take back outside.

 

All sown 8 days ago, now all have sprouted. I've got them outside under a propagater lid. Then under lights in the evening

 

Blimey @Hanglow, they look impressive. Just checked mine again and despite having very warm compost under their lids they are not showing at all. Have given them a “must trying harder” look and closed the lids

 

Sadly this might become more prevalent now peat is no longer used to make the contents of grow bags. I understand some companies are getting materials from councils green waste bins, the problem is do all the councils get the composting done to a high enough temperature to sterilise it?
My local council moves their stuff on to us as soil improver, which mixed with the soil in the garden is perhaps causing less of a problem, but you can see how the batches vary depending on what goes into them.

 

@burnie, our local council does the same & I used a lot on my allotment some years ago. I liked how it improved the soil! I started using it as a mulch which was then incorporated into the soil.

 

I don't know, how our council does composting, but I keep healthy staff for my composter, and to the tip I bring all the unhealthy staff, like plants that had powdery (real or false) meldew, roses leaves with black spot, tomato plants in autumn etc. I wouldn't want compost made of it back.

Speaking about seedlings, I have 4 sprouted of 7 by now.

 

Councils around my area offer a couple of free bags each year to the first 50 people who arrive at the park or wherever they set up. Can also usually purchase bags from the compost plant, where the Councils take the brown bin material. Good stuff, I use it for soil improver and also last year used it to mulch flagging dahlias after a good soak. Considering they come from Mexico they didn't much like the incredibly high temperatures unless watered heavily morning and night so the soil improver helped.

 

I am thinking of growing some tomato that grow in the shade or partial shade i heard of some any ideas which ones are good i guess as they would grow in shade most likely they will be more prone to disease or pests ? Should i water them at bottom so leaves are dry so they might be less attractive to insects?

 

Hi @Janet mahay, have heard Black Cherry and Roma are quite shade tolerant but not tried it myself. Imagine others will have tried and will reply.