Monday 26 January 2015

Talking about tomatoes, part 1 - Jan 2015

 It's tomato time... finally! We had a cold, late start to spring last year. I sowed my seeds inside and usually I just need to put them on a sunny windowsill and they sprout fine. Not so this time - they sulked, refused to come up, and those which did poke up a sprout wouldn't go any further, so I had to resort to putting them in the hot water cupboard. That worked, but I was well behind schedule, and even though the weather's been great for the couple of months they've only just started ripening. Better late than never though and I am now going to gorge myself on fresh tomatoes for hopefully the next three months at least. (Pictured above: Juliet)

 Tomato notes - glasshouse

  • Juliet - first to ripen as usual. Always reliable, has lots of green fruit and flowers.
  • Brandywine - I noticed very sporadic fruit set with a lot of unfertilised flowers on each truss.
  • Brown Berry - looking promising with lots of ripening fruit.
  • Black Cherry - lots of fruit. Starting to ripen. I'm not sure how dark the fruit has to get - I tried to pick one and it didn't want to release so I'll wait a bit longer.
  • Black Krim - sporadic fruit set as well. Is this typical of beefsteaks? I grow Black Krim every year... I think it is normal as they grow so big.
  • Yellow Pear - not much fruit yet, still flowers. As I recall it was one of the last seedlings to pop up.
  • Green Grape - still lots of flowers. The fruit is starting to ripen too.

 The potager is filling up. The tomatoes are right next to the glasshouse. They are a forest of leaves and laterals... I need to spend some time in the evening pruning a bit!

Tomato notes - Potager

  • Kumato - I was given two cuttings of this by a friend. I'm not sure of its qualities, but it's grown faster and developed fruit faster than the other tomatoes planted outside. Also it's less bushy than the other plants - I wonder if this is because the plants are lateral cuttings. Fruit is not ripe yet, but looking promising.
  • Green Grape - has flowers and green fruit
  • Brandywine - no fruit yet as far as I can tell
  • Juliet - the winner again. Just started ripening.
  • Brown Berry - some green fruit and flowers.
  • Black Krim - some fruit.
So that's how the tomatoes are faring so far. It's also worth noting that so far, I haven't had any trouble with pests like caterpillars. I did add neem granules at planting and have also top dressed with neem granules again. I've used Tui Novatec as a fertiliser along with sheep pellets and compost.


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3 comments:

  1. Hi, Ruth!
    Thank you and happy belated birthday to you too!
    I love your greenhouse, I thought I need the same space in front a door and I remembered we have tiles stored in shed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Nadezda! Yes, I couldn't do without my glasshouse, I count myself lucky to have it!

      Delete
  2. Ooh... Happy belated birthday to you Ruth... I wish you all the best..

    Your potager always look so lovely and make me want to go there to see,, can't wait to see your tomato harvest..

    ReplyDelete

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