[mumofstig]

The greenhouse is a leaky, damp place

that explains everything, doesn't it!

[Eblana]

Thankfully my tomatoes and Cukes in the PT have started to take off (mad late but better late than never)  The toms from the first trusses weren't great as they had sat for soooo long but I have now started to get some from second trusses and these are much nicer.  Up to last week I was only getting one or two a week but in the last week I have had to harvest every other day.

By this weekend I will have to start to make soups etc.

[FN]

Mine have been pretty good this year. Getting a punnet a day at the moment. Maybe it's a few degrees warmer in London and that makes a difference?
They have much thicker skins than normal though - I assume through taking so long to ripen this year. Has anyone else noticed this?

[goose]

My sungold, as normal, were the first to ripen and have been doing great both inside and out.

Had a few romas, legend outside ripen but nothing special.

However, my coure (sp?), are huge in the greenhouse and are beginning to turn, fingers crossed the are nice when they do.

Its been a rubbish year for most of my crops, but i dont think i am alone there

[potatogrower]

I've read that watering plants with Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulphate) matures green tomatoes?

I've used this but gradual use only makes leaves dark green but i guess that helps with trapping more sunlight making them that little bit sweeter.

[sunshineband]

Strangely mine are doing ok and overall I have a few pounds ready to sauce later this week. A mixture of Amish Paste, Black Sea Man, Ferline,Golden Sunrise (yellow) and Shirley as full sized ones, and Red Pear (not 100s and 1000s as it said on the packet  ) Gardener's Delight and  Sungold as smaller ones which get added to everything at the moment. The smaller ones are ripening well outside despite irregular sun too

Same treatment as last year, when I had very few

You never know how it's going to go 

[oldcow]

Mine are doing much better than last year, when I only managed to collect a handful of tomatoes before all the plants were ravaged by blight.
This year, I've been harvesting lots of Sungold and Gardener's Delight, then I got the first signs of blight on a couple of plants. I cut off the affected parts, sprayed the rest, and this week I harvested the first Ailsa Craigs and Albengas (these last are particularly tasty, very small crop on the one plant I have but well worth it because of the flavour).

[sarajane]

Mine are doing great.  Just come back from camping for a week and had over 6lb in the reenhouse

[Nobbie]

I'm only growing Sungold this year after success the last two years with them both inside and out. Harvesting good quantities from the greenhouse although the outside plants aren't as vigorous as last year. I think it's the sort of year when quicker cropping varieties come into their own.

[Flump]

I had my first tomato today,Tigerella,and I was so excited!!  but it was a bit mushy,anyone know why?

[mumofstig]

because it took so long to ripen 

[Flump]

aw,okay,thanks

[spuriousmonkey]

my first tom started to turn colour early july. I had since quite a decent crop. Thursday I took 1.5kg of tomatoes from my allotment. I have been doing this regularly in august.

In fact, despite that this is the first year I have been growing tomatoes, tomatoes have been my most productive crop so far I think.

My best varieties were stupice (did really well outside) and sweet 100 (did well on my terras where there is a semi protected environment).

Siberian did its best, couldn't really deliver, but gave some crop.

I am still waiting for Subarctic plenty to ripen. A disappointment.

In all, an excellent year for tomatoes for me. Especially considering the location (Helsinki, Finland).

There was only one other person growing tomatoes this year on the allotment. He was growing money-maker, and he put them outside very late: late july. And he had a high maintenance setup up. Didn't look terribly productive though, unless he took away the tomatoes every day in the morning.

I just used one stick for each stupice plant. They didn't grow very high outside and stayed compacted, but gave a decent crop for only 6 plants. The first tomato to turn red outside actually for me.

[Growster...]

That is a fascinating post about toms grown further North, Spurious - worth a lot of Googling to see the types you grew!

Although you're on the same latitude as someone falling off the cliffs on the North of Scotland, there are several people here - Argyllie, for instance, who are very close to that!

Thanks for the interesting points you made!

[mumofstig]

Found disaster this morning the botrytis has gone mad again, with the cooler damper weather, some stems completely rotted through and tomatoes falling off all over the place 

Picked a couple of bowls of toms in various stages of ripening, plus a bowlful for green tomato chutney  Had to take out 6 plants completely, and remove all but the top leaves of the others - hopefully some of the green toms that are left will make it.

It's obvious I'll not still be picking toms til late this Autumn, as I have in previous years - a very short tomato season this year!

Looks as if I better make a start on the autumn sowings soon, cos the greenhouses will be empty sooner rather than later.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so they say