Tomato Growing Thread 2022

You can see how I have 2lt bottles of water behind the tomatoes which I use for watering. (Some of those bottles are nearly 20 years old!)

 

Yes, I lit candles night before. I had vanilla scented only. Hope tomatoes appreciated it .
I have full watering cans in the greenhouse too, and 5 l bottle.
So far:

 

Your Greenhouse will smell very nice

 

I hope my tomatoes don't overhear you, Alicia, or they'll start demanding posher tea lights.

 

Eek! Everything still portable is coming back into the house tonight. Double bubble wrap and double the tea lights for what's left.

 

They forecast 3c here as well, I'm not moving stuff in the greenhouse, just hoping there is enough built up warmth in there from the day to make the temperature drop a short period around dawn.

Although to be honest, with no sun PM its not been overly warm in there.

 

Hopefully this is the last time this year I'll feel the need to take stuff indoors. It's a jungle out there...

 

Wow! You are far too easy on these 'soft' plants! I go in and deliver a lecture regarding the temperature! "Look here you lot", I say, " you have a really nice place here, with everything you need, so stop this grumbling, NOW!" Seriously though each garden is its own eco system. Each garden has different zones and a general weather 'fore' cast is just that, a forward prediction of what might take place. Definitely NOT to be ignored, particularly in extremis!
The recent 'water bottle' radiators have been a revelation! OK they'll hardly change things much if we had a minus 10 degrees sudden drop but I can see it helping on a drop of a couple of degrees. Whether this is so important is a matter of conjecture!
Things are changing because of a general rise in temperature. I've suddenly become aware of aphids AND whitefly! My idleness has allowed them to grow and some small Tom seedlings have succumbed! Dreadful!!! Must do better!!!! So it's out with the sprayer and opening up the Pyrethrum! Yes I've found that it's the least problematic way to combat Whitefly. I tried Biological Control which, for me, worked until a sudden lowering of the temp killed the control insects! Thus for me this particular control didn't work that year and I havn't taken this control again. It wasn't cheap though IF it had worked COMPLETLY I'd have been VERY pleased. This is why I'VE gone back to insecticide anyway, and after many years of non-chemical methods. Oh dear!!

 

I've put some toms out in the cold frame now, up till now some have been in a small heated section of the greenhouse kept above 10c at night, some have been in the unheated part of the greenhouse.
I dont like moving stuff around all the time so they only go outside when they can pretty much stay outside, which is where the cold frame comes in because its easier to just close the lid, depending on conditions, than keep moving stuff.

 

With the forecast as it is now, it's so tempting just to leave the non-greenhouse toms outside from tonight.

 

I like to ease most plants into outdoors slowly, so not just toms but most stuff goes from greenhouse to cold frame then outside full time, before planting, if the lids are up they are basically outside anyway, but in two minutes they are in a cold greenhouse when I close the lid, frost warning and I can throw a blanket over it all.

I like to be in control but can remember getting caught out in some years by warm Mays followed but very cold wet Junes, the toms just sit there and do nothing, it takes ages for them to get going again after that.

But its the chance you take with outdoor growing.

 

Wonderful examples of what you could call 'pampering' but really just excellent gardening! Wish I could still do it! Seriously that's what it's about IMHO! If you want healthy plants that will give you good healthy produce then you OBSERVE and ACT! OK if you just sow, prick out, then plant, stuff will grow! If you really work at it stuff grows better! Not space science, just horticultural science!!
Swarms from your bee colonies can be a nuisance if you don't anticipate them. The June gap is a period of wet/cold weather that keeps the bees 'indoors' so to speak. In a big colony this causes massive overcrowding. The bees can't all have access to their queen and don't get to lick her hormones necessary to keep them growing and satisfied! Thus the talk goes out, "we havnt got a queen any more!!!" Thus they start to produce a NEW one. As she develops, the old queen is induced to fly off by some of her followers along with many newly hatched bees who've never been outside before. So the first dry warm day towards the end of June they're off in a 'swarm' to find somewhere else to live! At least our plants just SULK for a few days when we suffer a 'GAP'!!

 

I've only been close to a swarm of bees on two occasions, I found them to be interesting but scary.