2015 Tomato Growing

@JWK - yes not too shabby for outdoors, I think I might be the only outdoor grower on here, or am I? Was wondering how they compared. I know I am miles behind greenhousers.

@Sheal - Regarding the denuding, I adapt this for the general weather and progress for the year.

This year, I think a few weeks back, I had some good trusses all set and nicely fattening and some smaller trusses at the top of each plant, I figured the good trusses would be adquate crop for each plant given conditions. I figured the weather wasn't going to allow a massive crop, so I stopped the plants and took off the top small trusses with very tiny tomatolets as I figured with this weather they would never get to a decent enough size even for green tomato chutney. At the same time I snaped off every branch below the second truss (I know the general wisdom is below the first but ... gotta experiment!) and a few that were overcrowding towards the top of the plant. I find that the Marmandes are really bushy, so I was fairly brutal with the debranching. I've found that once the tomatoes are a fair size and the trusses are decent (even if they are few) then that is the time to debranch and stop. In the end I aim to have say a half dozen branches per plant max, and the max exposure of the trusses to air and sunlight. I try to leave a couple of decent healthy branches in the top third.

I've adapted this approach over the last few years which I think provides a smaller but better quality crop (fingers crossed!!). in previous years I have gone for quantity of tomatoes/trusses over quantity, with mixed results usually a smaller quanity of good ripe tomatoes and lots of greenies often quite small.

Of course, it could go pear-shaped any day as I've found with gardening, the best laid plans ............

GG

 

In addition to polytunnel toms, I've also got around 250 outdoor plants. I don't stop all my cordons, but leave about a third to grow on because you never know if good weather will persist later than usual/expected and it's frustrating if you've removed all your tomatoes that could've taken advantage of it. I do however trim end of season flowers and baby fruits off all of my bush tomatoes as cordons always seem better for late crops (off the cold ground?).

That's enough of being serious, time for another funny shaped tomato:

 

I have 12 plants outside. 6 dwarf plants in 2 troughs (stacks of fruit, none ripe) and 6 'normal' plants in 2 growbags (ripening, but not great). I'll grow some more dwarf plants next year in the troughs, but I'll switch from growbags to large pots as I've found it tricky to get the watering right. Oh yes, I have 1 plant (Maskotka) growing in a large pot, so that's 13

 

All of my tomatoes are outside too - around 25 plants in all. I gave them all a good hair cut yesterday morning & topped them as none of them were ripening. On checking this morning - theyre now turning

Next year though I have planned to grow them in the greenhouse, along with cucumbers.

 

And I am just the opposite this year. I read an article in (I think it was) Practical Gardener advocating watering only twice a week in growbags.
I only had 3 growbags indoors, each with two plants in. I have soaked each one to overflowing every Saturday and Wednesday morning and I have had my best indoor crop for many a year.
In the past I have grown tomatoes in the greenhouse border, in pots and in growbags and almost always had split fruit or blossom end rot etc, this is the first year that I have had a perfect crop. I must add that this method of watering affects the foliage, but at the end of the day it is the fruit that matters.

 

I think the difficulty I find is that it's hard to know when the compost in the grow bag is moistened properly (too dry/too wet). Half of the water runs down the sides, so I water some more and hope I've got it right. I think the drainage is better in a pot, so no worries about overwatering.

 

Good to hear from other outdoor growers.
@JWK - mid July picking is very good for outdoors, any special tips?
@Scrungee - are you a commercial grower? Or else what do you do with the crop ?

I generally have a good and much earlier crop from plants in big pots in my garden room (southish facing) but haven't been able to do that for a few years as they do need daily watering and I'm always away somewhere during the growing season. So I'm limited to outdoors really.

Only tried growbag tomatoes a couple of times when I was in London and had a small garden - each time though they came to grief, once simply because on a hot summer day I went out to supper straight from work, but the time I got home they were fried They just need constant attention I'm not really able to guarantee.

GG

 

Hi @JWK
First of all my son in law showed me the magazine article because he knows that I have had problems with tomatoes in previous seasons.
The growbags used in the magazine test were Levington Tomorite Giant Tomato Planter and I used the same ones. I also purchased 3 plastic growbag trays to stand them on.
In the magazine test they put two plants to a growbag instead of three and I did the same.
In the test they watered some of the growbags every day, some every other day and the others just twice a week, they also did a similar test outdoors. The indoor tomatoes watered only twice a week out performed the others, indoor and outdoor, in size and quantity of fruit by such a distance that I decided to try that method this year.
In the magazine test and with my plants the foliage started to become stressed once the fruits started to mature. The plant did not appear healthy, although the fruit itself told a different story. The article in the magazine said that because the limited water available the plants were putting all of their energy into producing fruit, not healthy leaves.
Each growbag took about 4 or5 litres of a water each time and I fed the plants using Tomorite as normal on one of the watering days.
As I say this has worked for me this year, I have the best tomatoes that I have had for a long time and I will certainly be doing the same next year, give it a try.

 

Just as an add on to the above, my next door neighbour is something of a tomato guru! He always cuts his growbags in half and stands them on their ends, each end with one plant in, this gives more depth for the roots. I intend to try that next year for a couple of plants but with the watering regime that I have used this year.

 

Eat them! Today had fried green tomatoes with garlicky courgettes and eggs from own hens (they like tomatoes) for breakfast, tomatoes with salad for lunch and tomato, marrow and runner bean curry for dinner.

Excess gets used to make roasted tomato pasta sauce and is pasteurised for all year round use. It's tomatoes, runner beans, garlic, courgettes/marrow and spuds with virtually every meal at the moment.