2013 Tomato Growing

As mentioned before, my Ferlines haven't many tomatoes on (only 2 trusses of 3 to 4 toms on each plant), they don't show any sign of ripening yet, unripe toms are falling off them and several fruits are rotting at by stem (will add pic later). Maybe they require more attention that they would get in a garden, but not when I've got hundreds of other plants to attend to on a plot where I need to cart water to.

 

Thanks everyone.

Ferlines sounds a bit hit or miss to me from your experiences. I think I'll give koralik a try next year

 

Some more outside toms to consider -

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The small ones at the top are red cherry; lots of small tasty fruit. The ones on the vine are Stupice, nice looking but little taste. The Oval ones at the bottom are Roma, half the size of the ones in the greenhouse but do appear to have more taste. Missing in action are GartenPerle and Ace, which may be sulking around the back of the beans.

 

I have to take mental note of that too for next year. Maskotka seems quite popular on here.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

I know each tomato can taste different depending where it is grown, though

We could use the Maskotka as the base tomato, and rate others in comparison
If you have not grown Maskotka, then no problem, you just watch the thread and when someone posts, that money maker was much sweeter, then base your experience of the rest on that or whatever

Jack McH

 

question guys.... my tomato plants are in pots & are doing very well with biggish toms on them now but they ain't going red! where they are at the moment doesn't get an awful lot of sun...should i move them?

 

Put some banana skins nearby (for their Ethylene)

 

I rate Maskotka for reliability, early outdoor cropping, prolific and sweet. But, they regularly " go thirsty " and look almost dead sometimes.. but I think that these conditions generate sweetness ..?
I also have Sungolds which are delicious little orange cherry toms in generous trusses and they are sweet and quite acidic which I like.
Both are grown outdoors - no GH,
Jenny

 

My Ferline tomatoes are continuing to fall + rot and I've now got some plants with only 3 tomatoes on. I was expecting to get loads of toms even if blight struck with this variety. I'm not bothering spraying them anymore as there's so few tomatoes on them. Went to B&M today and bought 64 cartons of chopped tomatoes in concentrated tomato juice for 19p each to make up for the poor crop.





P.S. Whilst leaving B&M (I was getting the car) Mrs Scrungee saw a family of four 20 stone + people arrive who had to have a little rest after the effort of getting out of their car before going into the store and they all had walking sticks to stop themselves falling over. They started by discussing how some beds collapsed within days of buying them and then what to buy for lunch, one suggesting 8 Mars Bars and a bottle of vodka, but the others started arguing that only 8 Mars Bars wouldn't be enough. But what really got Mrs Scrungee that when they saw all those cartons of tomato in her trolley, they looked at her as if she was some sort of weirdo.

 

I've had the same problem with my toms this year Scrunge....dry sets,rotting et al ....still have a fair few to go at but this year has been my worst year so far....not complaining but i like 'gluts'

 

Yes, having loads of bags, baskets, etc. isn't a problem as besides eating them with every meal and as snacks, having some to give away, there's still plenty left for turning into sauce and passata. I only hope they carry on cropping late this year. At least with the healthy fallen Ferlines they're getting used for fried green tomatoes.

 

thanks Kristen, i never thought of that! i know its advised to leave bananas out of the fruit bowl so they don't encourage your apples, oranges & such to over ripen but it never occurred to me that it might help tomatoes to ripen whilst still on the plant!