Tomato Growing Thread 2023

At long last my tomato seedling seem to be getting a bit of a move on! There's a notable difference to them since the weather became warm enough to put them outside in the mini-greenhouse on the balcony. During the coming week I' going to be taking down the table & mini-greenhouse so then they will be on their own.

 

I'll swear that some of these triffids have grown several cm overnight.

 

I wish I could say the same about mine!

 

Those look great @eatenbyweasels mine are growing at a steady rate too.

I recently joked about not planting out until June, but maybe I should have said July, these single figure nighttime temperatures are forecast right into the middle of June and maybe even later.

 

When I checked my local forecast first thing this morning, tonight's low was 9°c. Checked it again and it's been downgraded to 6!

 

GH got a massive watering today as I had to empty the water butts as they were leaning a bit too far and re seat them. No fruit set so shouldn't be a problem. The scapes have just formed on the garlic so I'm hopeful they can be harvested fairly soon

Also have these two crimson crush out under a very old blowaway cover that needs to go in the bin really as it's degrading pretty fast. Hopefully will help bring them on a bit more

 

@Hanglow , so what do you do with the scapes on garlic?
I've got some coming and usually just dump them.

 

I cook with them, use them in place of garlic although in larger amounts as they are quite mild. They are good in stir fry too, kept quite crunchy

If I was growing more hardnecks I might try fermenting them, I ferment the flower buds of wild garlic and they are really good, I imagine the relative mildness of the scapes chopped up would be similar

 

My first post this year. Happy tomatoes all . About these single digit night time temperatures..? Is 8 degrees so much different than 10? I have my plants in a flimsy cold frame but I don't know if I can hang on like that for another 3 weeks! What would happen if the seedlings were planted out now? Would it be a disaster??

 

Sub 10°c, your plants will be okay, but pollen production can be affected so you could find some of your flowers falling off, unfertilised. If the forecast is below 8°c, I tuck a bit of garden fleece around the outdoor plants.

 

Planted most of mine out early last week, I've got a few of those water bottles that are used on water coolers, cut the bottom off and you have a circular cloche and the stick goes through the narrow end hole.

 

Do i remove any suckers from a bush tomato plant?
I have tomato 'amateur' variety growing in polytunnel, about 1ft tall and the top part has has formed into two branches and flower buds beginning to form.
On the lower leaves there are suckers at the leaf joint, about 1 inch long, do i remove these?

 

Normally you leave all side shoots on bush varieties but I sometimes remove a few if the plants become too congested.