2015 Tomato Growing

@JWK Yes, they do need a good stripping now and then! I did mine maybe 3 weeks ago, but the lower leaves have drooped down and now you can't tell it's been done. I think I had 3 big leaf removing sessions on mine last year. Mine are due a feed and tie in, so I'll try to do that tomorrow.

@Gay Gardener I'm mostly outdoors too: 3 plants in the greenhouse and 19 I think are outdoors. If nothing else, I'm too lazy to water them every day.

I must take a photo of what one naughty teton de venus did in the greenhouse...it was so heavy with fruit (with blossom end rot I hasten to add, so no need to be jealous) that it bent the supporting cane right over.

 

Oh dam it! I have blossom end rot on my tomatoes lots have black holes in the bottom, I'm really disappointed becausec they were doing so well I have so many trusses which look good until you look underneath. I've picked most of the tomatoes off the plants which are still perfectly formed in the hope they will ripen in the kitchen, failing that I shall make green tomato chutney.
I don't know what's gone wrong because I watered everyday & fed them once a week?
Luckily I still have my outside tomatoes which Ziggy gave me at Shineyland.
I've had a lot of ripe tomatoes which have been perfect & really delicious, why has this happened so quickly & what's caused it? Any help/advice will be greatfullly received.
Ps I'm also battling with a mouse in the greenhouse! Mousetrap set!

 

I've tried several different watering methods/growing methods this year! I had a growbag with self watering containers, bags of compost, & pots. The least effected is the growbag with self watering containers, but they are suffering a bit too?
Think I'm going to pick off all the rest of the tomatoes & give the GH a good clean & try again next year....all is not lost like I said I've had some really yummy tomatoes thus far & hope the rest will ripped indoors, if not green tomato chutney here I come!

 

I downsized my greenhouse pots this year...big mistake resulting in lots of BER cos they dry out every hot day. I've tossed a good sprinkling of bone meal around my tomatoes. That should give them calcium. Certainly when I've done that in the past 2 years, it's cured my BER. I waited too long cos last year it happened and I just got hard black discs on the bottom of my Roma. This year I've got black discs then rot creeping up the fruit.

 

These are the toms on the lottie - still nowhere near ripening...

These are some of the toms in the garden - some have, some havent

The wind has battered these the last couple of days - will sort them out later.

 

I hope it's not too late in the day to join this thread.

Like Monty Don, we too of the Stamford Hill Estate Community Garden suffered the dreaded phytophthora infestans last year and were seeking remedial action.

So, this year, I made a concerted effort to atleast produce some decent tomatoes and thus my mini project was started in mid-February with the germination of Tumbling Tom and Legend seeds.

And, waiting for atleast five consecutive night-time temperatures to reach atleast 10°C (according to BBC Weather) before planting out - that day came...


... on 7th May 2015

 

It is predominantly sand, specifically 1.3 tonnes (approx. 1066Lt) of Wickes sharp sand, 9x20Lt of multipurpose compost and 10Lt of vermiculite all mixed together and contained in a pallet wood planter (not a raised bed).

Why sand? Well, the universe conspired to give me an opportunity (ie freebie sand) and I just took it.




About two weeks prior to the planting out of the tomato seedlings, I did a little preparation to gauge the condition of the growing medium as I was unsure about it. So, I planted French Marigold seedlings in the centre and in the corners of the boxes, and 4 Pot Marigold seedlings in the middle channel.

As you can see, all of the guinea pigs survived. Most of the green leaves turned purple (indicating self-preservation chemical changes kicking-in to guard against too much harsh sun light) which was not surprising because I didn't harden them off to begin with. The important thing was that the seedlings didn't die and so knew the tomatoes would also survive.

Btw, you are correct about the clay. The soil in the grassy areas is a very dense clay type soil.

 

30th May 2015


The Tumbling Toms in bloom


Properly hardened off guinea pig French Marigolds doing nicely


Some of them have set fruit

 

Hello misterQ,

What are you doing for nutrients? As you presumably know, sand doesn't contain nutrients. Also it doesn't hold water like organic matter (compost etc) and clay do.

The plants are well down in the bed. Unfortunately those high beds do need a lot of material to fill them (I made a 8ft x 4ft x 1ft bed earlier this year and crikey it took a lot of soil). If I were you next year I'd try to get some soil into that bed to raise the level. With tomatoes you can actually put soil in while the plants are growing because they grow adventitious roots from the stem.

 

A disadvantage I've heard about (but not experienced as I'm on heavy clay) of very sandy soil, is that it's more prone to frosting of plants grown in it when temperatures drop overnight.

 

Some colour in the greenhouse at last