My Toms

For the last 15 years or so I 've not bothered with greenhouse toms.
We water and feed them in order to get the largest crop possible from the smallest space in the quickest possible time.

It all sounds very commercial.

I tend to like those small "santini" toms that are sold in places like M&S these days.

So I just buy some in April, take the seed from one and sow it immediately in a propagator, by late May I have plants ready to plant out on the allotment.

This I do into ground thats had a few chicken pellets scattered over it and raked in.

A few stakes for support and sit back and wait, perhaps a bit of weeding now and then.

The first fruits are now ripening, I've not watered, (and its been pretty dry lately), nor fed the plants, but they are growing more than enough fruit for me.

So, I would say give it a go next year, either with a known variety or just seed from a supermarket tom, they taste much better grown hard, and a lot less trouble.

 

"I've convinced myself that the outdoor ones taste nicer"

Classic!

My Gardeners Delight are the first to ripen in the greenhouse ... but I'm only comparing them to convention, larger fruit, varieties like Shirley, Ailsa Craig and Moneymaker [not growing that any more - tasteless!]

 

Well, its only my opinion but I'm convinced that to get good tasting toms the plant needs to struggle a bit.
A good lush tom is not a good tom.

Too many leaves are the usual problem, which causes all kinds of diseases.

I used to grow Marmande out side, and that always did well, bit later ripening though.

I'm also convinced the flavour has more to do with the growing conditions than the variety.


As to blight, yes its been a problem for me in the last two summers, but I'm hopeful this year I might get away with it.
Last two years I've used a copper spray, just one, as a preventative, and its kept the blight away until late September.
I also think allowing enough room between plants and keeping the airflow around them is a good idea.

 

That's the organic argument in a nutshell! For instance, carrots that have suffered an attack of rootfly and lived to tell the tale, will have responded by making defensive chemicals which make the carrot taste good.

Although I confess I tomorite my toms a bit (shame).

 

I agree with you Pete ... did I just say that .... :cnfs::hehe:

My friend who gave me the cherry tomatoes from Madeira (he brought them back with him when he went o a Permaculture course last year) has his trailing and climbing everywhere .... up through his banana tree (which has three lots of mini bananas on it already) so must be 4-5 feet tall and trailing through shrubs and borders and they are heaving with fruit. These he planted last year and they over-wintered and I don't think he feeds or waters them as he's not on mains and relies on RAIN water :ntwrth: :dh: ... that's a word I've heard of .... :lollol:He also does not take out the sideshoots. He has so many toms they are rotting and seeding where they fall!

I have done nothing to the ones he gave me except water (no feed) as mine are in a strawberry pot but I plan to stick some toms in the rockery this winter .... when we may have some RAIN .... there's that word again ....

When I have done toms in the past, only cherry, I have always just stuck one in the ground, watered and left it to it's own devices. I do have an Italian plum another friend gave me in a pot and I just water it and it has fruit on it already.

And they all taste devine ...

 

Think what your saying, (and me) is that its only if you try growing them like the commercial growers, that you get real problems.

Not saying that blight and split fruit are not a problem when grown outside, but in a good year they will rival anything grown in a greenhouse.

 

Do you mean too many as in "lush growth" or that they produce too many leaves, and need some removing?

I reckon my Toms always produce the same number of leaves between trusses, so apart from growing too quickly, and being leggy between trusses, I don't think they will vary how much leaf they produce.

I don't feed mine any Nitrogen (no feed until first truss, and then a proprietary Potash-rich Tom fertilizer).

Mine have been in the greenhouse border for the first time this year, always grown them in pots before, and they have had much more neglect as a result of not needing watering three times a day!

I think they are much-of-a-muchness with previous year's pot-grown, but with a lot less work.

There again, maybe mine have no flavour compared to other growers - perhaps we should post each other some fruit for a tasting comparison? :D

 

P.S. I think my ham-lettuce-tomato-cucumber lunch sandwich tastes better if I make it first thing in the morning, and let it "marinade" :D rather than if I go out at lunch time, pick a couple of leaves and a Tomato, and make it "fresh"

 

I put the yeast in first, then the flour ... and finally the water :D