Beef Tomatoes

Never grown beef toms beef before can anyone on the forum tell me how to grow them,according to the old codgers where i live say they can be quite difficult to get it right.

Cheers

 

Just the same as any other tomato plant? Only thing is, the fruit are larger (read heavier) than other varieties, so would need to be well supported. I'm growing some at the moment

 

Was told by one of the old codgers that you have to strip all the leaves with the exception of the top ones so all the toms get the nourishment from the plant.

 

You only get about 3 to a truss and I always reduce it to 2. It's easier to get them from a shop but they're fun to grow and if you reduce it to 1 a truss they get huge. Like "palm of the hand" size. Great fun.

 

What I find about beef tomatoes, Shimsham, is that unless you get the watering perfect - and I never do - is that you end up with blossom end rot (BER) and wasted tomatoes.
But do enjoy the challenge and let us know how you get on.

 

Thanks everyone, Yes i have been told the results of growing them can be poor.

 

Hi shimsham. Not sure I'd want to be stripping off the leaves. I grew some last year (Faworyt, or something), four to a truss. They weren't huge, pretty much the same size one would buy in a supermarket. One or two had BER, but otherwise ok.

Cheers...freddy.

 

About stripping the leaves Shimsham - yes I strip leaves from tomato plants.
Once it gets late in the season and you want the tomatoes to ripen I strip the leaves from the bottom up. Don't denude the plant. Just remove some one week and a few more the next week. Leave the leaves at the top. It helps the tomatoes to ripen.

 

I also strip the leaves but in a different way. As I grow 9 plants each side of an 8ft greenhouse, I cut the leaf at the second double branch leaving a short leaf. The shortened leaves then grow bigger to make up for the lack of length. I usually grow Alicante, Shirley and/or Moneymaker. I usually get fairly heavy crops which need support by the truss being tied to the top of the cane, about halfway along.