Tomatoes for north-facing garden

I grow a couple of beds of toms outdoors and the season is much shorter compared to under glass. There are a couple of things you can do to get outdoor plants to ripen earlier.

One is to provide protection against the weather, so maybe you have room for a plastic greenhouse or could rig up a DIY shelter. Even if this is just for the start of the season when they first go outdoors in late May/early June that would help the plants get off to a good start.

Secondly you can limit the number of trusses, so I 'stop' my outdoor toms at three trusses ('stop' mean pinching out the growing tip), that way the plant puts all it's energy into swelling and ripening the fruit rather than vegetative growth. There will be less fruit per plant but at least you will get them ripened.

 

Growing on north facing walls is always difficult. Particularly as toms need a lot of sunshine to help them ripen. All the above suggestions are good, and worth a try.

 

£15 is the standard limit. So if you tell them to write the value as less than £15 there should be no problem.