Tomato Growing Thread 2021

Maybe a picture of all the plants would help @Sheeprug , are all the plants in the same condition.

 

I've had partial mesh doors on for the last month, so even with the them closed it hasn't been getting too excessive. In the last two weeks its been max:33.8; min:6.1, avg:18. Prior to that max was 39max for a couple of days.

 

Here's a couple more pics. First is another plant just starting to suffer - note yellowing leaves and dead tips. 2nd is a more general pic.

Regarding herbicides, I did spray a little Roundup on the driveway about 5-6 weeks ago, but the doors were shut and I was VERY careful. Does the damage look consistant with glosophate contamination, or maybe the hormone-type weedkillers that have been reported in some composts?

 

But surely they have been planted for a few weeks and grown some since being there?

 

Must admit the yellowing around the edge of the leaf before it dies looks a bit suspicious.
You dont store glyphosate in the poly tunnel do you?

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts everybody. It's looking like I wasn't quite careful enough - I'd no idea tomatoes were quite so sensitive to glosophate. But it's good news you don't think it's hormone based or anything contagious, and the possibly good news is some of them have started throwing up some healthier looking sideshoots, so maybe they'll be able shrug it off. I think I saw some tom plants in my local tesco today, so maybe I'll replace some of the worst hit ones.

 

A very good warning to anybody reading this JWK. Some years ago I got an infestation of greenfly in my greenhouse so decided to spray with insecticide which I rarely use.I used the same sprayer that had had weedkiller in it. Despite washing it out what I thought thoroughly enough ( you know what thoughts did)literally within hours all my MANY tomato and cucumber plants were keeling over. I lost the lot. I went to the shops the next day and bought another sprayer. Never again will I use a sprayer that’s has had weedkiller in it for any other task. A hard lesson learnt!

 

I think my tomatoes are quite late this year.
Very tall and robust plants, plenty of flowers too, but not a single ripe tomato in sight.
I blame the weather, lots of rain and little sun compared to the previous years.
The week after the next is supposed to be sunny, fingers crossed.

 

Today I have a question about determinate varieties. For the first time I have planted a row of determinates (Apero and Golden Nugget) at the very front of my tomato bed, where there is most sun. The logic was that they would be shorter than their cordon cousins and so shading would be less. They have grown up so fiercely though, that not only are they taller than the cordons (also doing fine - bit like Aldo's situation above), they are also much taller than their inverted cone support systems. I'm beginning to worry that they will outgrow the supports and the stems could break. In short, should I be thinking of taking out the tops of my determinate plants? Thanks for help : )

 

Epsom salts or magnesium sulphate, depending where its sourced, can be so pure it is classed as "FCC" grade. The link below is actually a business selling Epsom salts to put in the bath, they say on their site you can use it on your garden, which is correct. With it being so pure, it is the "FCC" grade, which is the Food Chemical Codex. FCC grade meets international standards on purity for using in food ingredients.

In the link, the 25kg bag clearly has FCC on the top right hand side of the bag. They could actually sell it as a food ingredient, but then you would have 2 different prices. Selling it as a food ingredient will be zero rated.

Pure Epsom Salt FCC 25kg Bag | 100% natural | Top Grade (justasoap.co.uk)