TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2020

Thank you!

 

The most successful of them is the Morrisons Grape tomato:

Planted over the late May Bank Holiday weekend.





I can't remember the original cultivar name but they do resemble the current Morrisons Baby Plum Funtelle tomato.

I also grew the Morrisons "Savers" (ie cheapest) tomato last year, however, although a good cropper, not many ripened in time so I am not growing them again.


New trial for this year: Sainsbury's Picolo mini plum.

Planted on 28th May.





They are vine type (indeterminate) so are supported by strings.

Alternating in between each pot of Picolo are bush type cherry tomatoes. Half of the bush types were donated to us, the other half are Tumbling Toms which I propagated myself.

 

Might be a frost here on Saturday morning. The forecast is for 5 deg C around dawn and it's normally a few degrees lower at my edge of village plot. If it does, it'll catch a load of people out, including those who got hit by the sharp frost in mid May.

No toms being planted out until that's passed.

 

Tomatoes are growing like mad, some with three trusses and some peppers have buds.

 

Forecast for tomorrow morning now 4 deg C, all plants under cover with heating on.

 

Supposed to go down to 7c tonight although I don't have any toms outside but I have just shut the greenhouse doors mainly to protect the chillies.

 

Forecast is 6C at night, but who knows how much it will go down in my garden.
I went back covering my outdoor tomatoes, however I cannot find some of the sheets, so I had to leave two out and the tomatilloes too.
They are all doing really well, with up to 7 trusses on the aviditas which I let fork, and many formed tomatoes.
I was really hoping to start enjoying the fruits in a few weeks, but between the cold and the wind I am keeping my hopes low.
The tomatilloes are actually quite resistant to cold, they were still alive outdoor last november, when the tomatoes had already given up the ghost since weeks.

 

Mine seems fine too!
I was a bit worried
Tomatilloes, cucumbers, courgettes and patti pan look ok too. At least, flowers and fruits have not fallen off (yet).

 

@strongylodon Your plants look very happy indeed!
What size of pots and compost mix would you recommend for peppers, if I may ask?
I never had any luck with peppers outdoor, either weather or pests wiped them off.
So this year I was planning to shelter a few in a cupboard-size greenhouse, and see how they do.

 

Peppers and chillies are in the greenhouse, I have never tried growing them outside.
Peppers are in 4 or 5lt pots and in B&Q mpc, fed weekly with Miracle Gro until buds appear and then Tomorite or similar.

 

@strongylodon Thanks so much!

 

Dont think it went below 8.5C here last night, and I think the lows are for such a short time at this time of the year the plants can take it.
Bearing in mind the soil temperature is probably above the overnight low.

 

It can be colder at the surface of the ground than above causing bush tomato plants lying on the ground to get frosted whilst cordons remain untouched, which is why I always grow early cropping Red Alert bush, with the cropping followed on by cordon varieties. Using plastic sheet mulch can make this worse, sometimes having a frost on top when there none anywhere else.

 

Well I think the ground frost effect is more likely earlier in the season when the ground is still cold and nights are longer.
After the warm weather we have been having the ground temps must have warmed giving us less chance of ground frost.
Admittedly the dryer the ground the faster it probably cools.