Tomato Growing 2024

Celebrations are in order. I found flowers on one of my 8 tomato plants, NO label, think it could be Pink Pineapple.

 

Always good when the flowers appear @Goldenlily26 !
Plenty of time for them to fruit well too.
I have lots of flowers appearing, and a few fruits [Sungold] and even the supermarket cherry tom outside, tucked in by the gr'house, has some flowers. I'm just letting that do it's own thing, and not nipping out all the sideshoots, because it's in a large container. I even remembered to give the fruiting ones a feed yesterday.
With the way my memory is these days, they'll have to shout for it...

 

Indeterminates, strictly going in 2 stems, side shooting regularily, 6 plants on the left, 6 on the right in the greenhouse.

 

Hence the saying - 'I'm just popping down the garden to tickle my blossoms'

 

None of mine look close to ripening, sown early March.

Just checked notes from last year, it was the second week of July that I got my first edible ones from a similar sowing time. That was after the excellent spring and early june we had then

 

All 4 types ( Sungold, Choc. Cherry, Black Krim and Tumbling Tom ) have fruit forming but nothing near mature enough to even think about ripening. All in GH except for Tumblers. Everything slow here whether inside or out

 

I tickle my tomatoes at least twice a day and so far I have a single Orangello ripening from two bushes, lots of fruit forming. Also a decent quantity set on Tiny Tim, Happy Day and Goldkrone, no sign of ripening yet. Getting impatient!!

 

Come on summer!
Really cold her again… cold enough to be wearing extra clothing and fingerless gloves to do a few little jobs outside in the garden.

Tomato plants seen to be doing well with trusses full of flowers, but sadly a few of my plants are not showing fruit as there flowers begin to drop off! “their being fed and watered and even now have a light fleece covering them to keep them warm with being outside.

I’ve posted a few photos taken this morning … all they want is a few months of sunshine just to ripen the tomatoes .
Mascot (Bush)


Baby Boomer (Bush)


Lufichoice Milti-Flora (Cordon)
Mid season plant.

 

Not only fruit not forming, flowers drop, but I noticed blossom end rot on some. First time in my practice despite feeding calcium. Very bad year.
Analysing what could have gone wrong.
1. The weather is rubbish this year.
2. I let wild rocket and dills to form thick underplanting level, probably, it led to higher humidity in the greenhose.
3. Plants didn't look overfed, so I gave Master fertilizer at lower concentration: a mixture of masterblend, magnesium sulfate and calcium nitrate. Mixed a portion for 10l in 2l of water following the order as per instruction, see picture, then transfered into 10 l of water. However I read later that potash and calcium mustn't be given at the same time, as it causes them locking each other. Wondering, if it happened, and there was actually more harm then use from this feeding...