Tomato Growing Thread 2021

I had never grown Gardeners Delight toms. before and they were so full of sweetness and flavour I will be growing them again…….I have been missing out imho.
I usually grow tumbling toms for a cherry tomato and for main crop Shirley .
All Mr Fothergills of course.

 

As for Jeyes Fluid it’s only a shadow of its former self ,they have had to change the recipe and I think ,not so powerful.

 

Just looked it up @roders .

My old can says it contains 21% tar acids and methanol,the new stuff seems to say 5-15% soap and (chlorocresol 0.3g/100g). Limonene.

So yeah, its different stuff entirely I think.

 

Mine is labelled similar to Pete's but doesn't specify limonene.
Limonene is extracted from citrus peel and is used in many cleaning agents and such like.
With the old stuff the main problem was the tar acids which contained phenol, cresols plus other stuff, many of these are carcinogenic. Not that different to old fashioned creosote really.
The methanol used as a solvent is also toxic.

 

Thanks for the explanation Nigel.

The way I see it is, we all know it was toxic, that was the reason for using it.
But do you think the new product is likely to be as effective?

I cant help wondering how many people got cancer using Jayes fluid?
The school toilet always stunk of it as I remember it.

I actually think its wrong that they can sell this under the same name.

 

Polytunnel tomatoes are slowing down, today's picking of cherry toms



The reason for the trusses with green ones is that another plant has succumbed to botrytus. This will only get worse as with the cooler weather and chilly nights I''ve now closed nearly all the vents.

So I've stopped watering, cleared the ground of debris and removed nearly all leaves below eye level and even some higher ones amongst green trusses to improve air flow.

 

Remember the old tar oil sprays, often used to use them during the winter, you can see why pest and diseases are piling up.

The thing nobody seems to be able to explain is why, when we were using all these so called nasty substances, there were masses of insects around.
Now days we are all having to be super green and use ineffective products and insect life is struggling.

It confuses me as to where we are heading.

 

I never used those green ones for chutney, but kept them until ripened. None developed any signs of blight, so that was probably a false alarm, but best to err on the side of caution and I probably only lost a dozen tomatoes that were too small to ripen, but no big deal when I've been pushing them home by the barrow loads.

So no blight at all this year.

 

Looking back through previous year's images there's been ones of polytunnel tomatoes being finished by now, but with nights like the last one forecast for the foreseeable future should continue cropping for some time yet.




Biggest tomato now approx 2lbs 11ozs and still growing. Estimate based on formula for volume of ellipsoid [1] x weight factor [2] (this variety/shape [3] are 0.9 x weight of water), condensed to horizontal girth x shortest vertical girth x longest vertical girth (in centimetres) x 0.66 = Weight in grammes.





[1] V=4/3πabc, where a, b, and c are the radii where the 3 girths/circumferences have been measured.

[2] Simple to establish using the Eureka method.

[3] Plain spherical, double lobed, triple lobed, etc. all require different weight factors.

 

Thats a pumpkin lol

 

My culinary journey.

Harvested the last Sweet Olives and set for making a lovely sauce, bursting with flavour. Slow roasted the toms with some garlic, own chillies and lots of good oil until they started to char.



Then added seasoning, blasted the stuff into a smooth sauce, and reduced on the hob to concentrate flavours. Home grown herbs, more reducing, serving with posh pasta and nice mozzarella...

The verdict: Spaghetti hoops! For some reason the natural sweetness of the toms intensified in the process and now the sauce indeed is almost sickly sweet, hiding any lovingly nurtured other aromas. D-oh... well, everything has to be tried once.

 

Running out of jars for preserving the tomato glut, might have to freeze some.