Tomato Growing Thread 2021

I’m probably guilty of overcrowding them a bit…18inches or so! They are all planted in bottomless tomato pots so I can ensure that feed gets to each individual plant. They seem to do ok!

 

Might be essentiall to preserve some tomatoes this year

Spag bol under threat from worldwide shortage of tinned tomatoes – Metro

I use one of these, also useful for pasteurising apple and other fruit juices, etc.

 

i always thought woodchips were bad for the same reasons (stealing nitrogen).
However this year i could not get my usual compost so i ended up with some simply dreadful stuff full of woodchips (stated on the package) which i mixed with coco coir and worm compost and my toms are growing great and i have harvested several types and they all taste great.
I am feeding with organic feed and seaweed and i also mixed FB&B, calcified seaweed, seaweed meal and some rock dust into the mix. I also buffer the coco coir with Cal/Mag to prevent it stealing same.
To date i have had
Steak sandwich
Sungold
Tigrella
Juanne Flamme

Regds Sandy

 

A little behind but my tomatoes were finally planted out a few days ago.


Morrisons' Plum Cherry Plum tomatoes in the ground.


And, in pots.



Here is how leggy they were.

 

Picked my first outdoor toms today, probably slightly cheated as they were kept in the greenhouse longer than normal due to the cold May weather.

One was my overwintered cuttings of a Morrisons seed from last year, and the other was from a variety called Garden Pearl, its one of those very untidy hanging basket types.

Both are cherry types.

 

I bit the bullet and went for it too. Looking good so far,plenty flowers and not nearly as much watering required. Feeding with the tomorite,seaweed and will add some nitrogen if required.

 

Costoluto Fiorentino were my first fruit set, however they are still small whereas these Cherry "Dattero" are steaming ahead. I bought these seeds (Franchi's Piccolo Dattero) after trying "Datterini" tomatoes from Waitrose and loving them. Hoping these are a similar flavour.



These plants were sown a good month after my initial crop, and they are the second tallest (behind the naturally lanky Purple Ukraine). Not sure if its due to vigorous growth or just spending more time under intense light.

Going to start pruning lower leaves today. Found a few runaway suckers I missed, some with flowers, so going to clear the first set of branches on my plants.

Also need to switch all my cane supports out from 4ft to 6ft I think, as many plants are approaching the top. How many trusses do you allow before topping? I see 9 is a common number (4 trusses on each side of the plant plus one on the leader).

 

I've been saving up for a pressure canner, ordering in from America. We're trying to save for a house deposit so I've not been able to buy any new gadgets for a few years now, but we've officially reached our target now so I'm allowed to buy one. Very excited as my current pot for water bathing doesn't hold much. Wish we had a bigger freezer though because I end up having to do batches as I pick the fruit, whereas I'd rather harvest and freeze until they're ready to preserve.

 

Still a bit of a way to go for me then. I'm getting 4 trusses on my tallest, so definitely going to have to buy new canes!

 

Terenzo tomatoes starting to produce. Ferline looking keen to give a good crop.

On the lookout for big jars to hopefully store the San Marzano II toms.
Been hoovering up the good quality tinned toms in Sainsburys, reduced to 20p a tin .
An embarrasing amount now stored in the garage as the shortage looms and we use a lot of em

 

So its you that's causing the looming shortage of tinned tomatoes.

 

Maybe

 

Some appear to have sprung a leak.