[Goosegirl]

We're convinced that a liquid fertiliser made from 6X is great for outdoor toms, but not so for greenhouse ones, as it pongs too much. They just motor away with the stuff!

I nearly had a heart attack - as much as I like tomatoes I do believe I like 6X more  http://www.6xale.co.uk/home6X.html

Thankfully I remembered that I'm on an allotment gardening forum and you were referring to http://www.6-x.co.uk/

I'm going to have a pint of comfrey tea and head to bed methinks... 

Pip pip,
Balders

I mis-read that Balders because I know nowt about ale - oops!!  I've just wormed my cats and have some left over if you want it! 

[Robster]

All this talk of tomato flavour has really got me going.  I've grown gardeners delight in my greenhouse for years and been totally happy with them.  Grown in the border soil refreshed with horse muck every year and watered and fed with commercial feed.

So all this talk there could be a better flavoured tomato out there Wow!  I like them firm tart and sweet.  So I visited John's page as suggested.  So I'm going to have 50% singled in the green house next year.

Growing Super Mamande and Incs's as well outside.

[Growster...]

Forgot to say that I also chucked handfuls of BFB around the toms on The Patch...

One Black Krim has branched out to two perfect stems, (one was a side-shoot), so they seem to be determinate, although I do make most of them grow to a cordon habit to keep them under some sort of control!

(I found one side shoot 2 ft long on a Sungold in the greenhouse! They really do get away once your back's turned)!

[sunshineband]

Forgot to say that I also chucked handfuls of BFB around the toms on The Patch...

One Black Krim has branched out to two perfect stems, (one was a side-shoot), so they seem to be determinate, although I do make most of them grow to a cordon habit to keep them under some sort of control!

(I found one side shoot 2 ft long on a Sungold in the greenhouse! They really do get away once your back's turned)!

What with the escaping Sungolds and the Chocolate Cherries last year, the greenhouse was a bit of a jungle 

Both very tasty tomatoes though and worth growing. Sungolds did well outside too    Intrigued by the molasses idea 

[New shoot]

What with the escaping Sungolds and the Chocolate Cherries last year, the greenhouse was a bit of a jungle 

I'm going for semi-tamed jungle in the greenhouse this year.  I was late sowing tomatoes due to the cold spring and they were then late going into their builders buckets.   

Mine are in MPC with a good handful of pelleted chicken manure mixed in.  They have been getting MiracleGro up to now, but they will be switching to tomato food, as the first fruits are setting.

The plan is shorter plants with mutiple branches and so far, so good.  They all have 2 or 3 growing points and there are flowers all over them.   I'll do some pinching out and side shooting if they start getting too silly.

Last year I spent ages trying to control them as cordons and they looked really neat, but I'm sure I didn't get as much fruit as previous years, when I have been a bit more tolerant about them doing their own thing 

[Goosegirl]

Forgot to say that I also chucked handfuls of BFB around the toms on The Patch... One Black Krim has branched out to two perfect stems, (one was a side-shoot), so they seem to be determinate, although I do make most of them grow to a cordon habit to keep them under some sort of control! (I found one side shoot 2 ft long on a Sungold in the greenhouse! They really do get away once your back's turned)!

What with the escaping Sungolds and the Chocolate Cherries last year, the greenhouse was a bit of a jungle 
Both very tasty tomatoes though and worth growing. Sungolds did well outside too    Intrigued by the molasses idea 

I have a very vague memory of my dad making his own tom feed and think he added sugar - um?

[sunshineband]

What with the escaping Sungolds and the Chocolate Cherries last year, the greenhouse was a bit of a jungle 

I'm going for semi-tamed jungle in the greenhouse this year.  I was late sowing tomatoes due to the cold spring and they were then late going into their builders buckets.   

Mine are in MPC with a good handful of pelleted chicken manure mixed in.  They have been getting MiracleGro up to now, but they will be switching to tomato food, as the first fruits are setting.

The plan is shorter plants with mutiple branches and so far, so good.  They all have 2 or 3 growing points and there are flowers all over them.   I'll do some pinching out and side shooting if they start getting too silly.

Last year I spent ages trying to control them as cordons and they looked really neat, but I'm sure I didn't get as much fruit as previous years, when I have been a bit more tolerant about them doing their own thing 

You know they will sneakily do their own thing in the night and surprise you with rampant growth when you come down in the morning 

[Growster...]

One year, some time ago, we grew the greenhouse toms in ordinary bags of compost, like big grow bags.

Big mistake, they went very flourishy, with far too much nitrogen to cope with, and the fruit wasn't all that good as well!

Nowadays, we use big pots, filled halfway with ordinary garden soil and topped up with some good bought compost, and it seems to work...

[Goosegirl]

Using ordinary soil will help to retain moisture better than using just compost, so will try thay next year as mine are now planted in MG with additives.

[Headgardener22]

What with the escaping Sungolds and the Chocolate Cherries last year, the greenhouse was a bit of a jungle 

I'm going for semi-tamed jungle in the greenhouse this year.  I was late sowing tomatoes due to the cold spring and they were then late going into their builders buckets.   


Last year I spent ages trying to control them as cordons and they looked really neat, but I'm sure I didn't get as much fruit as previous years, when I have been a bit more tolerant about them doing their own thing 

As I understand it, the reason to grow as cordons is to improve light and airflow within the greenhouse. If you let lots of sideshoots grow, you increase the number of leaves which reduces the amount of light getting to the fruit. Last year I experimented by letting all of my plants grow three or four vines and training them up. Don't know whether it was that or the weather but I didn't get as many fruit set as I would normally expect, I had an awful lot of aborted flowers. I blamed the weather (too hot at the wrong time) rather than the increased amount of foliage. This year I'm back to my usual way, trying for cordons but when I fail accepting the additional vines and training them up.

[mumofstig]

2 stems per root works quite well, especially if the 2nd one starts quite low down on the plant 

[Growster...]

2 stems per root works quite well, especially if the 2nd one starts quite low down on the plant 

That's interesting, Mum, because about half of our Sungolds have thrown up extra stems from below the surface of the compost, but I've trimmed them off, as I want to keep a better airflow though the greenhouse, and also because there are so many lower leaves to chop out later on, I may as well keep them tidy - while I can...