[sharpie]

I'm growing greenhouse toms for the 2nd year running. Last year's crop was ok. Grew Gardeners Delight & Shirley. Now I've followed an 'advertisers link' on this website which was interesting and talked about stripping the plants of all but 3 leaves to boost productivity and reduce diseases.......is this true and if so can anyone give me simple tips like thes which stops me from buying expensive books, etc? Thanks a million.  

[richyrich7]

Here's how I look after mine:

 water well, once 1st trusses have set feed weekly with tom food and seaweed extract.

 Pinch out side shoots if needed depends on type Gardeners delight you don't Shirley you do.Sorry both are cordon see later posts

 Once fruits have formed continue to water and feed don't let the compost dry out ( else when you water again fruit may/will split ), keep just damp if you can, I'm convinced that too much water makes them tasteless.

I don't "stop" them I just let them grow as they will, stake well damp down the greenhouse floor in the morning with a bucket of water.

I don't remove the leaves cant see the point, they are what make the energy for the plant.

Near the end of the season I cut down the watering almost to nothing just to make the taste stronger, this could be coincidence but I've never bothered/remembered to try varying it :roll:

Everyone has different ideas so they will be more answers  

[Alex 98]

Interesting tip about reducing watering towards the point of harvest
I'll try that this year
 
Alex 98

[666]

I only heard of pinching out the side shoots well into last session and I was therefore suprised when I got a great harvest of toms.  I now know why!  They were Gardeners delight-I didn't realise that you didn't have to pinch out.  

So should I just let them get on with it this year too?

[gobs]

Interesting tip about reducing watering towards the point of harvest
I'll try that this year
 
Alex 98

Not only interesting, but also very good tip.

I'm doubtful about defoliating, plants need some leaves at the end of the day, which amongst plenty other things protect the rest of plant from sun and other elements.

[millie C]

now I am really confused - I thought that you did need to pinch out Gardener's Delight - I looked it up the other day but now I'm not sure ?  :shock:

[millie C]

Just looked it up again! on info pages of this (brilliant) site it says that indeterminate toms need pinching out, and T & M describe gardener's delight as indeterminate. If anyone has found it better not to pinch out GD's please post a reply, as I always find other peoples advice really useful on this site. Cheers

[vegmandan]

Indeterminate just means that the plant will keep growing upwards and you grow it as a cordon, determinate is a bush type which reaches a certain low height and stops growing from the top,so you leave the side shoots to devellop into a bushier plant.

But if you dont pinch out an indeterminate type you will just get a massive tall bushy plant.

Basically pinch out a cordon type and just leave a bush type regardless of variety.

I don't know why these seed catalogues dont just call them Bush or Cordon instesd of determinate and indeterminate. :?

[millie C]

Thanks for that - it says GD are cordon so will keep pinching out.

[richyrich7]

Just looked it up again! on info pages of this (brilliant) site it says that indeterminate toms need pinching out, and T & M describe gardener's delight as indeterminate. If anyone has found it better not to pinch out GD's please post a reply, as I always find other peoples advice really useful on this site. Cheers

 :oops:  :oops:  spot on you are right sorry folk's, I'm sure I never pinch out my GD's  :oops:  any way T&M say they are cordon so go that way  :oops:

Interesting tip about reducing watering towards the point of harvest
I'll try that this year
 
Alex 98

Alex please note that I do this towards the end of the season if you do this at any other time you risk splitting your fruit, It's best done when there's just a few well formed trusses left, I also harvest all my green tom's before 1st frosts they keep and ripen well if stored in boxes in a cool but frost free place.

Try this Illustrated Index of tomatoes for double checking bush or cordon varieties.

[Trillium]

Last year was the first year I pinched off most of the plant leaves. I waited until the fruiting side shoots were apparent, then nipped off the non-fruiting shoots, a few at a time as the plant grew. I had to do a number of trips to the tom patch to do this but I think it paid off. I was reluctant to trim them down to a sparse 3 or so, but did keep the lower areas bare. It gave the plants lots of air below which prevented any leaf rot and vermin from feasting on lower toms (too exposed).
I found in the past that whenever tomato hornworms hit my tom patch and I didn't catch onto them fast enough, the stripped areas still put out flowers, leaves and the fruit kept growing.
But you must keep up the steady moisture as Richy says, and really feed the soil well with manure, etc. I also mulched my plants heavily with shredded leaves, which they seemed to prefer, and I got a LOT of very nice toms.

See my pix in my personal gallery.

[millie C]

I guess you already know that if you have lots of green toms at the end of the season that you want to ripen, a banana skin (or whole banana) or an already ripe tom in a brown paper bag with the green ones helps to ripen them (something sciency and technical that I don't understand - I'm sure someone can explain it!)

[DD.]

I guess you already know that if you have lots of green toms at the end of the season that you want to ripen, a banana skin (or whole banana) or an already ripe tom in a brown paper bag with the green ones helps to ripen them (something sciency and technical that I don't understand - I'm sure someone can explain it!)

"Clears throat". The skin of the banana gives off ethylene gas, this is naturally occuring in the skin and is asborbed by the fruit of the banana, hastening the ripening process in nature.

Ethyene will also hasten the ripening of tomatoes.

If you've ever wondered how Tesc* can get all those fruit to ripen on the vine at the same time when we can't - here's your clue.

Oh - and it's not a big bag & a lot of banana skins!

[Alex 98]

I've found that keeping the watering consistent with toms is the biggest problem in terms of getting fully developed ripe fruit
Any tips?

Alex 98

[compostqueen]

I thought you had to take some of the leaves off so energy was diverted into tomato production rather than leaf production  :?  I don't like to take too many off though as the plant looks orrible     Does get the air round thm though and light too, cos some of em have huge amounts of foliage don't they  :shock: