Tomato Growing 2024

This season I've (tried to grow) Alicante, Shirley & a supermarket one.
The Alicante has grow over 3 ft with no flowers ( not been fed)
The Shirley fruit is small but very tasty.
The Supermarket one has grown well but hardly any taste.

 

@john558 Sounds a bit disappointing. Just out of interest what medium are you growing the toms in and are they in a GH or outside ?

 

50% my own compost & 50% Coir. I have used this method for years with good success.
They are in plastic grow-houses.

 

Thanks @john558 It's certainly been a weird year for many of us re fruit/veg.

 

I had a look at my toms yesterday. Plenty of fruit coming, but alot of them are small. Not really a problem though.
The experiment with leaving two stems on two plants, and the usual one on the others is quite interesting. The plant on the far right [two stems] is every bit as vigorous as the one next to it [single stem] and both have plenty of trusses. The one furthest left [two stems] isn't bad, but not nearly as vigorous as any of the others. The remaining one with a single stem [next to that one] isn't as vigorous as the other two on it's right, but is doing well.
All growing in the ground in the gr'house, and treated the same. There isn't any difference in the amount of light they get either, as it's only a small gr'house. I think the two on the right side probably have a bit more protection from the house wall with slightly less exposure to wind/weather. The poorest plant is more exposed as it's at the end, which is almost at the corner of the house, but I'd reckon the effects would be still be minimal. Maybe just enough for that difference though.

 

I checked my tomato plants yesterday. It is going to be interesting to see if I have any fruit ripen this year because I was so late sowing the seed.
For the first time ever, because I had a couple of weedy leftovers, I planted them in the same pot rather than just bin them. One has developed a double leader so I am leaving it to see what happens. I always remove side shoots. Also this year for the first time I have potted the plants in my own compost but gave them all a sprinkling of Fish, Blood and Bones in the planting holes which they seem to appreciate. They are now on Tomorite, other brands available, with a dash of nettle soup. All of the plants have finally started growing properly but flowers are sparse. I have also at last got some fruit setting although one or two plants seem very shy to produce flowers. Big Mama especially. Usually I leave them to grow to the ridge of the greenhouse and train them along a cane sideways but because the growing season is going to be short this year I have removed the growing tip from the tallest plant when it reached the roof of the greenhouse. I "might" have a Sanjit Indian Curry tomato to taste if it ripens, should be interesting. I had to weed the pots yesterday as they had produced a lovely crop of weeds, chickweed and nettles primarily.
Isn't gardening exciting!

 

My plants have caught up and are steadily producing.






I've stopped the plants at five trusses which I think still might be a little too optimistic if I want all of the fruit to ripen before the second week of October.

 

My greenhouse ones are producing well now, the outdoor ones less so (a lot less if I'm honest). We were at a kitchen garden last week and they were growing all their toms in a double span polytunnel. They said they do usually grow some outside as well but the late start to the season meant they grew them all inside this year
Garden near Oxford, so not exactly harsh conditions.

 

My green tomatoes are only 5p to pea size so I have to wait a bit longer before they are ready to change colour.

 

Both my Sungold and Choc. Cherry are ripening at a fair rate after a slow start. Whilst the trusses have plenty of normal sized fruit on them, I've noticed a lot more pea sized ones on the end of each truss this year - mostly on the Sungolds. They ripen well and actually are just the right size to pop into your mouth whilst picking the normal sized ones

 

Outdoor Girl ripening. We've got warmer weather forecast for next week so expect them to start coming thick and fast!

 

Pulled out a sungold, it was getting botyrtis badly

 

Had a good little harvest today, going to freeze some tomato sauce with the toms we still have not got through last week.

 

My tomato plants have finally got going. I think putting the plastic tarpaulin over for shading was a very big mistake, as well as atrocious weather.
I am giving each truss of flowers a shake each day to help pollination. There are a few beefsteaks slowly getting bigger, now around walnut size.

 

Quite a lot of tomatoes here, but none ripening yet and some are pea sized. We have hard,y had our blinds down this summer @Goldenlily26 usually they are permanently down from early June. This year they were up and down at first and air just not bothered for the last month or so as sunny hot days seem to be infrequent and rarely a few in a row.

I’ve mainly beefsteak varieties growing and at present the largest are tangerine sized but a lot of walnut sized ones too.