Tomato Growing Thread 2022

It's not the most practical tomato, but it always makes me smile.

 

Not sure what she, the gardener that is, means by sending this to me, across the conservatory, from a website called GrowVeg

 

Had our first Sweet Million tommy today, scrummy.
Tigerella will be along soon.

 

What great looking set-up! Not sure whether marigolds or tomatoes look the best! Must be said I tried the marigolds to keep off the Whitefly and the insects won!!!

 

Tidy up day today, removing all branches below flower clusters so sap can be focussed on fruit.

 

Another wonderful setup! It all looks so logical and modern! Lots of fruit I'm sure!

 

Wow that's looks very good! But I thought the Marigolds were used in the open soil to discourage some nasty nematode or something that can deform the roots of tomatoes. I used them once on the allotment & they were still flowering when the tomato plants were taken up! Never used them in the growbags or pots on the balcony but then I've never had whitefly on the balcony either! My main pest is thrips! But they don't seem to cause more damage than white marks on the leaves. The plants never seem to become ill.
.

 

I'm again not getting much success. Yes, we had a few sungolds, black cherries and hundreds and thousands alreadya couple weeks ago.
And my name tomato Alice's Dream. Beautiful and delicious. One only so far, and plant itself... to hug and cry. No bumper crop for me again this year...
Here is this beauty, already eaten by now

 

@Alisa that's a very pretty looking tomato !

 

@Glynne Williams thank you glynne, not sure it is as logical as I'd want it. I did some random stuff this year in leaving some spaces between plants...And as luck would have it there are one or two with such thick stems that I will double stem them onto adjacent poles to fill the gaps :-).

Busy crossing varieties at the moment, so I hope the choices made will bare good for next year f1.

 

@Balc yuk, I had masses of thrips one year and I am sure they were to blame for infecting so many plants. After researching about them it dawned on me I should not have had gladiolli so close to the tomatoes. They are now gone, move to a place away from the tomato beds.

 

Need to assist with the pollination this morning so recharged the electric toothbrush overnight. I've made things a little easier with crossing this year by selecting a parent with potato leaves. In the f1 plantings I know I will have had a successful cross if I get a regular leaf on the seedlings as the other plant is Tasmanian Chocolate RL.

The indigo cross f3 is very vigorous and outstrips every other tomato plant for growth, remains to be seen how much yield it will deliver, the fruit so far are starting to show the antho trait. Last year I got two growings by planting early for this cross, taking the seeds from the first early fruit and then sowing in the greenhouse to get a second generation in the same year. Not sure I could do that on a larger fruit though.

 

Evening everyone...tonight I had to sacrifice my Frankentom, the combined weight of that at 316g and some other toms proved to much for the stem to take and it buckled, so in trying to save the other toms on the stem Old Frank was given the chop.





With the stem not snapping I'm hoping now I have raised it up back into a straight position it will continue to supply nutrients to the remaining toms on the stem, fingers crossed.

On a plus note, I've started feeding the plants with the CAL-MAG so we'll see if it makes a difference, I'm using it as a root drench rather than in the Quadgrow reservoir.

For those that have used it before, how many times a week should I be using it?

I gave each plant 500ml at the recommended dilution.

 

@Sheps sensible move, I am watching a couple of my frankentoms , which incidently are generally the first early blossums, in case they too cause a buckle, they already cause a bend...

There are better looking toms further up, but it is always a dilemma whether to cut it off first to allow better nutrients to the rest. I guess I just can't do it...