[Bear]

If I get a chance I'll upload some pics but I'd thought I'd mention that we had a mass harvest of toms today.

We've been eating them for a few weeks - but today was the first mass harvest.

8lbs 2oz   :shock:

and that's about half of what is on the plants. 17 plants to be exact.

[Beetroot queen]

Thats a huge amount are you planning on doing a chutney or something tasty with them  

[Bear]

Just about to fire up my tomato pulper to make Passata.

[Elcie]

That is brilliant, well done!  First year (well first month!) on the plot, we have 9 tomato plants.  My 10 year old son and I were so excited the other day when we spotted two tiny tomatoes on one of the plants!  Then, yesterday, we found that 3 of the plot holders have blight and have lost their entire crops.  One is very, very close to our plot.  Not feeling hopeful of keeping ours.  Anyone know what the chances are of us losing the lot?

[Sadgit]

grrrrrr....rrrrr...rr.r.r.r.r.r..r.r.r.rrrrrr

anyone for green tomatoes??? got 100s here!!!!!!

[wighty]

Well my tomatoes have finally decided to do what tomatoes should - go RED.  Had 4 lb today of a mixture of cherries and big beef tomatoes.  Even those in the greenhouse have finally decided to play ball.

[braders1234]

Noticed that some plot holders have taken all the leaves off the plants just leaving the ripening tomatoes.  Does any one know why they are doing this and what affect it has?

[agapanthus]

Noticed that some plot holders have taken all the leaves off the plants just leaving the ripening tomatoes.  Does any one know why they are doing this and what affect it has?

It helps with ripening and also lets more air circulate around the plants

[GrannieAnnie]

Some say to take the lower leaves off to help the sun get to the fruits to ripen them quickly.  I don't always do that, but I have done today as I've found a bit of blight in my polytunnel, with some fruits having it and quite a bit of foliage.  So I've taken off almost all the leaves to try to get the rest of my fruits to ripen before they get it too.

I know why I've got it, because Brian has had to give his workshop to the turkeys, he's put the lawnmowers adn the rotavator in my polytunnel, with instructins to make sure I close the doors at night so no one can see they are in there, but the humidity has been high, so that's why I think I've got it

3 years ago I had 200 tomato plants, and had frozen 80lbs of chopped tomatoes ready for my winter soups and pasta sauces, and our big freezer in the garage broke down, but we didn't see it for a month, and I lost the lot plus about 40lbs of runner beans!!!!  

[Skip]

G'Day Bear!

Well done.  I'd love to hear which tomato varieties you grew out and which had good flavor.

Cheers.

[Bear]

We had:

Tumbling Toms - a staple of ours as they are good producers and nice flavour cherry toms.

G. Delight - These are outside and are only just producing ripe toms  - loads on the vines still to ripen. Unfortunately, these have been hit by the high rainfall this year and are a bit watery with a poor flavour.

Rosada F1 - An experiment this year. I posted
here when I planted them but nobody seemed to know much about them.
Well, they have been a revelation! They are delicious!! sweet but with a little acidic bite, very thin skins, have come up unblemished and are producing huge amounts!! of the 8lbs we harvested, 4lbs were Rosadas.

They are a bit rampant - they have been very difficult to keep control of even after pinching out the tops many times (however, this means they keep producing!)

and, of course, they are expensive. £3 for 6 seeds. unless you go to Wyevale and get them for 50p like I did yesterday (4 packets).

[sclarke624]

My Gardener Tom is a delight and very sweet.

No seriously most of my Gardeners delight have been luverly just one or two watery.

There is a couple of bush toms I am growing as well as usual mixed up lost labels some are Money maker and some are sub artic (got a free jpacket) ............one of those two are not too great.  The not too good ones are what I think they call meaty i.e not much pips but a lot of flesh but that flesh is mushy.  My money is on those being the sub artic.

Got some Sungella in the Wyevale 50p sale anyone tried those supposed to be next step up from sungold.

[braders1234]

Thanks for the replies, I have stripped my toms down, shame is that most of my toms are just coming ripe now and I am on holiday for two weeks soon and will miss them all!  Still it is better than them all being wiped out with blight like last year!

[Janeymiddlewife]

Thanks for the replies, I have stripped my toms down, shame is that most of my toms are just coming ripe now and I am on holiday for two weeks soon and will miss them all!  Still it is better than them all being wiped out with blight like last year!

have also just come back from 2 weeks away to find my toms suddenly ripening/ripe, picked about 2 pounds yesterday in the pouring rain before they rotted!
I moved them into a shady area and asked neighbour to water them if weather was dry to keep them going and prayed the 1 hour sunlight a day they got would slow down ripening - it seemed to work - might help? Of course, the cra%p weather we had probably helped too - depends if you're holidaying in the UK or not i suppose