Tomato Growing 2024

Some great information in this thread. Our recent "experiment" with runner beans confirms for me that size does matter and some great reasons for that provided here. I too think those purple toms are due to the cold, but I'm not so convinced as others they will pull around (fingers crossed). It's a bit of a faff, but I would often use fleece around plants in cold spells.

 

Last week all of these toms planted outside had purple leaves.
But today - no purple at all and they've grown about 6"


My greenhouse toms were sown on the same date and are more than twice the size -


Normally I'd be picking my first toms from the greenhouse in late June, this year there's not a hint of any changing from green yet

 

But they do look healthy @Pete8 unlike a couple the OP has. I've also seen many recover as they are a bit like weeds, but also seen a few either die off or produce very little. Just wonder if here in the UK there is time for them?

 

My outdoor ones looked pretty sad only a few days ago - soon as they get some warmth they recover quickly.

As to weather there's enough time for them - that depends very much on the temperatures both day and night.

I was planning on growing my greenhouse toms up to the apex this year, but decided I'll top them at the current height due to the lateness of everything this year

 

This is all very interesting. Bring on the tomato weather!
I'm hoping mine will recover, but who knows. I don't have high hopes. I'll definitely pay more attention to sizes of pots next year. This is my 3rd year of growing cherry tomatoes and so far the worst one. I do admit that I never planted out tomatoes that were so small. Well, I got my lesson haha.

@fairygirl tomato on the left side was the size of tomato plant on the last photo when I repotted it outside. I just didn't have enough compost to repot the other one at that time, and it took me a while to get one. The purple tomato plants were planted from seed later on as well, so they are younger.

 

Mmm - by the sounds of it I think we can safely say that it's been a rubbish year so far for the likes of toms - even for those of us in the souhern half of the UK . For me, the best performers in my GH so far have been the Cucumbers but not much help when you could kill for a tasty tomato
I keep reminding myself that we still ( possibly ?? ) have 3 months to go before Autumn sets in.

 

I'm having no problems with my cherry toms in the greenhouse, I've started picking already, I only have a couple of small cuttings outside, they were taken from the greenhouse ones and will probably come up with something if blight stays away.

 

I have unsuccessful year... again both in the greenhouse and outside. Very few fruit. Plants look green healthy but flowers drop... Microelements, shaking don't help.

 

@Pete8 , your outside toms look good, but they were hardly seedlings, surely, when you planted them out, they do, I find, have a bit more resistance to cold when larger plants.

I've never know toms to be purple in early July.

 

They were spares @pete and they went from a 3" pot into the ground on 12 May, so they've been through a lot bless 'em.
They haven't been happy unless we've had some good warmth and they did look very purple around last week, but I'm surprised how fast they have recovered and are growing well.
Each plant has 3-4 trusses already!

It's a Swiss variety - Rose de Berne and the tastiest tomato I've ever eaten.
I guess they do well outside having been bred in Switzerland.
I done that same last year and some of the fruits were bigger than the 4 plants I grew in the greenhouse!
The skins are very thin so they can be prone to heavy rain damage, but the large leaves give good protection.

 

Ahh, OK, there was me thinking you planted them out only recently, they certainly do look good strong plants, so were they kind of purple all along until the warmer weather came last week, or have they gone from green to purple with the weather conditions.

 

They seem to react to the temperature quite fast.
We've had a couple of warm spells and a lot of cold spells and the colour starts to change within a day or so of it getting cold.
A while ago the leaves and parts of the main stems were so dark it almost made me think they had blight, then it warmed up and the purple disappears again quickly.

 

That explains the difference @KarolinaW , if I've understood you correctly.
If you plant out a larger plant it'll cope better with the vagaries of the weather. The ones available in GCs etc in early spring, are generally further on for the simple reason that they've been sown and grown on in suitable conditions.
If you're going to grow from seed next time, just sow early enough [March is ideal] and keep them warm and with plenty of light [that's very important too] and take time to ensure they're big enough before going outside. It's always a bit of a balancing act and your climate is the important factor with toms, especially if you don't have a greenhouse or similar. The further south you are, the more light you have in late winter too.

@Pete8 is saying he would normally have toms ready at this time of year in his gr'house, whereas I would never have any at that time of year. Mine have a few toms formed [Sungold, which I've grown for many years] which is early for them, but it was warmer than usual here in spring, and although the plants were smaller when planted in there, they quickly grew on, and sometimes a bit of stress pushes them to form flowers/fruits too. There's a big difference between his location and mine though, so that's the thing to remember. The variety can make a difference too.

You'll get there though, and next year, if you just pot on those smaller ones into a slightly bigger pot before putting them out in their final ones, I'm sure you'll see a big difference

 

My "spot the tomato" greenhouse... Just a few fruit set this year. Only cherry types have more. And some outside...