The tomatoes are looking very good. They’ve been through the ringer a bit this year as i potted them on late, and quite a few got leggy due to being moved indoors. I forgot to water quite a few aswell, and, being in pots, this meant lots of droopy tomatoes.
Most finally ended up in one of the 3 grow bags we bought and are now huge! I put the spares into a bit pot at the garden, but they aren’t doing hugely well.
I’ve always been confused about this sideshoot lark, but went for it anyway. The plants looked a little mashed up by the time i’d finished, but the little yellow flowers have come up nicely.
Last year we only had 2 hanging baskets of tunmbling tom tomatoes so having 12 plants growing well means we will have a lot of tomatoes. I’ve just watered them with ‘Tomorite’ now that the little green toms have set…so it’s just a waiting game now.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Lookin’ good! Ours are at about the same stage, and I am already planning out what I’ll put on the first tomato sandwich of the year.
July 5th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
There’s no such thing as too many tomatoes — when in doubt, make chili sauce.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
All we need is some sun to ripen them - I don’t mind dealing with too many red tomatoes but I’m not too keen on loads of green ones (there’s a limit to how much green tomato chutney you can deal with)
July 8th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
They look really good. We’re never sure about the side-shoot thing either (although we do it every year!) nor the nipping out the top after six trusses have set thing. Still, we get tomatoes so we must be doing it reasonably right. We’ve got cherry and vine tomatoes ripening nicely but the beef tomato plant we bought is a real disappointment - the tomatoes are only the same size as the vine ones so far.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Our toms look a couple of weeks behind yours, the first signs of some flowers but none actually open yet. I’ve not been very good at keeping up with the whole ’side shoots’ thing this year but I’m hoping they’ll sort themselves out if I just nip them out every now and again…
This being our first allotmenting year we’ve experimented by growing them out in the open rather than up against a nice warm wall in a place of shelter like we did last year in the garden and it seems to be working ok so far… Having said that we may get no fruit, but the plants look ok!
July 16th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Meg - That makes it all the more fun!
Nancy - Too true!
Easy - I’m not a huge fan of it, i much prefer Nancy’s suggestion…chilli sauce!
Allotmentblogger - The Beafsteak ones might catch up…i chopped the tops off mine yeaterday so that they put their energy into fruiting rather than growing up.
Paul - Believe in the fruit!!
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Hi
This year I’ve used Tomorite grow bags which are much thicker than normal bags. The plants are planted in bottomless pots set in the bags. Regularly fed with Tomorite liquid feed. Just picked 3 1/4 pounds from two plants!
The plants are Gardeners delight which normally produce CHERRY sized toms. this year they are as big as a golf ball!!
I ‘ve been growing toms for over 20 years but this year is exceptional. Any comments would be appreciated.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Are you sure you haven’t been feeding them growth hormones?! It probably is the Tomorite that has led to your bigger than normal tomatoes…sound like something i want to try…might be because you fed them too!
August 4th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Thanks Veg monkey - as my plant supplier said “Instead of being fed on water, they’re dining on steak & chips”!!!!
Apart from using a different grow bag, I don’t think I’ve really done anything different to previous years.
May write to Tomorite to get their views.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Good idea. Could you, next year, do half normally and half in Tomorite bags as an experiment?
August 5th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Good idea - as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained!