2017 Tomato Growing

I have some to go in as well

 

I use strimmer line and electrical connector blocks for clamping. Its strong enough to support fully loaded 7ft gardeners delight at a 45 degree angle without any trouble

 

Angelinas seem to have survived falling over

Don't think i'm gonna have enough plums for the show though

 

I have caterpillars munching my tomatoes! Found two - one green one brown, same species - tomato moth! I confess there is far too much foliage and the things are all crammed together - I don't usually take green leaves off - but is it advisable? Also all plants are now bending over at the top of the greenhouse with some even poking through the window - can I stop them growing so big?

 

Yep, cut them at the top. Not good for them to squash themselves like that anyway. Have a clearance there

Picking off the caterpillars is ideal. I found it would be just the odd one or two and not a mass of them

I remove all lower leaves then leaves surrounding or smothering the fruit. I have a net over the gh door and one over the open window to stop flying pests. Seems to work well.

10 days or so ago I thought I had blight......suddenly overnight there it was ....so I removed every leaf. naked as a baby. If it was blight (I wasnt going to hang around) I wanted to protect the fruit and I think I have. Masses of green, ripening by the day and delicious ripened fruit since then.

For me now is the time to concentrate on ripening fruit.....already almost into second week of
August !!! ......summer is fast running out so no more fruit will form and ripen now. Without leaves the toms ripen quickly and they are dry with plenty of air circulation. I usually remove all the leaves in mid August anyway and never have any unripened tomatoes

So how much fruit do you have there? If, like me,you want fresh toms and not chutney etc, I suggest you too expose as much fruit as possible and concentrate on that.

 

6x8 greenhouse... 15 plants... Too much fruit to count and many more flowers appearing every day...difficult to even get in the door now... Foliage has gone crazy... Probably because I forgot to feed them....

 

Oh yes! Remove quite a lot of that foliage. Too much there!
I would settle for the fruit you have and ripen it

 

As a minimun, remove not just foliage (leaves) but stems and flowers above set fruit on 1/2 to 2/3 of the plants, plus lower leaves to just above first truss. Anything other than tomatoes already set are unlikely to ripen, but leave some just in case of an 'Indian summer'.

Feeding with tomato fertilizer will accelerate ripening of the tomatoes.

 

I'll chuck some tomorite on them tomorrow, denude the stems from about two feet from the top down and snick off their heads...

 

Taken off most of the new flowers on this Cherry tom, need 9 decent shaped ones to ripen for the show

 

Good luck for the Show Zigs

 

Have this weird feeling I am being watched!

 

Me Angelinas are on the floor but cushioned with moss

 

That's quite a pair there, @Zigs !

 

The Rhino has been a great success only the Melon seems to be behind, male flowers only. 5 varieties of tomato all now producing, 3 chillie/peppers and the sweetcorn is growing out of the roof vents(that's some 8 feet high.