Tomato

[Neil Bromhall]

I planted my Tomato seeds in moist compost mixed in with some of my home grown compost.
One batch I've potted out in my unheated greenhouse. I've covered them with cling film to keep the mice out and the moisture in.
I've covered them over at night with an old sheet to prevent frost damage.

The other batch I'm growing on my south-facing windowsill.
With the indoor higher ambient temperature and plenty of sunlight I've already got seedlings appearing.
I'm watering with rainwater.

[Neil Bromhall]

The tomato seeds I sewed in the middle of March are now healthy seedlings and ready for planting into larger pots.
In a few weeks I select the largest ones for the grow bag and give the remaining ones away.
In the past have put the remaining seedlings in my allotment but they succumb to tomato blight.
I've just planted a second batch of seeds to see what happens and if this will give me a later crop or if planting Tomato seeds in May is too late.
I'll keep you posted.

[Bluebell]

I've just come in from my greenhouse where I was potting up some of my tomato plants. They seemed to take ages to germinate and even longer for the seedlings to start growing, but the ones I potted up a couple of weeks ago are really doing well now.

[Paul Narramore]

We bought three Brandywine tomato plants at Sarah Raven's garden. These are a very old American variety used by the Amish community since 1885, and are reputed to be the most tastiest tomatoes in the World.

I first heard about this variety many years ago when reading a paperback book (whose title I've forgotten) which tells the story of letters between a lady gardener from Nova Scotia and an Englishman. I must try to get hold of another copy as it was a really good read.

http://www.seedfest.co.uk/seeds/tomatoes/pink/pink.html#brandywine

[Paul Narramore]

Further on the subject of growing unusual tomatoes, the Americans appear to call them Heirloom Tomatoes, tomato seeds which have been handed down from farmer to farmer, generation to generation, and which are generally not commercially available. After the bland pap of some present day types, this appears to be an interesting subject to read more about.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0761114009?tag=gardenbookwor-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0761114009&adid=0C107HRQ8TNC2DYY446V&

[Neil Bromhall]

I'd like to know how you get on.
I'm like you Paul, I'm looking for flavour so if these Brandywine tomatoes are as good as they say, I'll certainly want to try growing them next year.
Let us know how good they are.
Neil

[sue1002]

I'm picking up a couple of tomato plants tomorrow that I've never heard of before, they are white ones called 'White Tomesol', they an heirloom/heritage variety and are supposed to be sweet with not much acidity, I will let you know how they perform.

[Neil Bromhall]

My tomato plants are in flower.
It's important that insects pollinate the flowers otherwise you won't get any fruit.
I've grown marigolds to attract hoverflies to pollinate the flowers and to lay eggs if they find any greenfly. Hoverfly larvae are natural predators for aphids.
I'm concerned about the lack of honey bees and bumble bees this year. The marigolds should have attracted them into my greenhouse but there aren't that many of them.
Maybe I'll have to get my paint brush out and pollinate the flowers myself.

[sue1002]

All the different sort of bees are across here in my garden and greenhouse Neil:)

All the tomato plants have flowers on them, most have tiny toms at the bottoms of the plants and one of the Tigerellas has a tomato on it the size of a marble, we just need constant sunshine now to help them ripen.

[Bluebell]

There are only a couple of flowers on my tomato plants so far - I have marigolds growing next to them like you Neil. I haven't seen hardly any honey bees but my raised lavender bed always has lots of bumble bees in it. :D

[Helen]

Hello folks, just introducing myself here, the names Helen, Im in usa but formally from BSE suffolk in England.... Hi sue, couldnt help but notice the coincidence :-) . Anyway I have just planted two tomatoe plants that I cheated and bought as plants not seeds, I have them on my deck at the back of house which faces south, the temps are usually at the moment in the 90s (phew) which is probably perfect for them, Ive had two toms come so far , we are getting a few little holes appearing in the leaves, Im not sure if this is a good bug or a bad one, we've sprayed it with a solution of a drop of dish washing liquid and water, which is a much used thing for pests here in the u.s.

[sue1002]

Hi Helen and welcome, yes Bury is only half hour up the road from us and don't they have a beauty with Abbey Gardens?

Last year has been the only year so far for me when holes appeared in the tomato leaves, I found tiny caterpillars about which must have come from some moths that were in the greenhouse.

[Helen]

Hi Sue, yes the Abbey Gardens are beutiful, my sister send me some pics last year, and the gardens have got even better, took my kids there when they were little a lot, fed the ducks and such, a frequent pastime lol. I was going to ask you guys about the yellow flowers that appear on the tomatoe plants, I read somewhere about nipping those off, should you nip the flowers off or leave them ? I gather nipping the top bud out stops the plant growing taller but Im not sure what nipping the yellow flowers does can anyone tell me ? thanks in advance, Helen

[sue1002]

Don't nip off the flowers Helen as once the flower has been pollinated the tomato will form in it's place and the flower will fall off of it's own accord. Once the plant has reached the height you want it to grow you can then nip out the growing tip at the top of the plant.

[Neil Bromhall]

Small White butterfly caterpillars Pieris rapae eat tomato leaves.
The caterpilars are light greed and almost impossible to see as they blend in with the leaves.
The caterpillars also eat the tomato fruit.
I don't know if you have cabbage white in the US but I doubt it.

[sue1002]

Thanks for that Neil, I had caterpillars eating some of the fruits last year and as I'd seen moths in the greenhouse I had automatically assumed that they were responsible. We definitely had lots of cabbage white butterflies in there last year too (I had temporarily forgotten about those), they must have got me back as last year I had netted all the brassicas to stop them laying eggs on those and they went for the toms instead.

[Neil Bromhall]

To tell the difference apart
the Small White lay single eggs on the underside of leaves and the larvae are light green.

The Large White lay a cluster of eggs on the underside of leaves. The larvae are yellow and black and go feed en mass causing a lot of damage to Brassica in particular.

I'm adding images of pest, diseases and beneficial wildlife to the Complete Gardens webs site which you might want to check out
http://www.complete-gardens.co.uk/online/online-pests-diseases-wildlife.php

[sue1002]

I had a couple of the green caterpillars last year but most of the ones I saw were smaller white ones, so they must have been from the moths?

[Bluebell]

Hi all, I have just picked the first red tomato from the plants growing outside and when I turned it over it had what can only be described as a big scab on it! :mad: I obviously don't want this happening to all my others so what can I do to prevent it from happening?

[digger]

The butterfly I saw laid just four eggs, so it will be interesting to see which they are

[digger]

A picture would be good bluebell, but from the sound of it, it could be blossom end rot.

[sue1002]

It sounds like blossom end rot to me too, was it a sunken patch of either very dark brown to almost black in colour?

You will probably find that you have a few more affected on the same plant (I've had it happen to me many a time), it's caused by erratic watering and the plant doesn't take in enough calcium when the compost/soil is has gone a bit dry.

[Bluebell]

But I water them in the morning and the evening :confused:

[sue1002]

If it's just the one tomato that was affected Bluebell, I wouldn't worry about it.

I found one in the greenhouse yesterday that had blossom end rot on it, it was the only one on the plant and I know for sure that this year I haven't allowed the compost to dry out, perhaps it was just that one tomato that didn't suck in as much moisture as the rest.

[Helen]

Oh :rollseyes: how silly am I then... I didnt come back to see sues answer quick enough and proceeded to pluck the yellow flower, Um now I know after weeks of watching this plant why I only got two tomatoes :o . The two we did get have taken weeks to ripen, they are sitting on my deck facing south in direct heat and sunlight couldnt really understand why it took so long ? My dads seem to ripen very quickly and its not half so hot in the old blighty as it is here. Today we picked our biggest one of the two and tomorrow we're going to sample it, Ill come back and let you know how it tasted :D of course if I dont return then ..... lol thanks sue and neil x
Ps I dont think we have cabbage white here neil, but there is one little hole in the biggest tom, Im guessing its a little bug of somesort, I dont want to use pesticides, so Ive tried a dab of washing up liquid in water and its not too bad at the moment.

[sue1002]

The first white tomato has ripened and looks good, more of a creamy colour rather than actually white. It tastes like a tomato and is quite sweet and not very acidic at all. I will definitely be saving seeds to grow these again next year.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d134/Sue1002/WhiteTomesoltomato.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d134/Sue1002/WhiteTomesolhalved.jpg

[unique]

All my toms are still very green albeit quite large now. I nipped the top shoot out a week or so ago now but they dont seem to be changing colour. Any ideas why please?

[digger]

They should ripen on the plant but don't worry lots of people have un ripe tomatoes at the end of the season, just collect all the green ones and stick them in a wooden drawer with a banana and they should ripen that way.

[unique]

They should ripen on the plant but don't worry lots of people have un ripe tomatoes at the end of the season, just collect all the green ones and stick them in a wooden drawer with a banana and they should ripen that way.

Thanks for that Digger - I'll do that :)

Have you eaten that chilli yet?? ;)

[Neil Bromhall]

I met up with our encyclopaedic plants woman Miranda and her husband the other evening. They are such a nice couple.
Miranda told me how to save my Tomato seeds - so I'll see if I can do a few photos to accompany her advice.
I'm still getting a few Aunt Madge which come from Mirandas seeds which she gave me last year so I know her advice is right.

[sue1002]

I've been using the same method as Miranda for saving tomato seeds for the last couple of years.

I freeze a lot of tomatoes to use in winter cooking and as an experiment, I sowed some of the seed from three different varieties of the ones that had been frozen and not one seed germinated. It was worth a try but didn't work for me.

[Miranda]

I met up with our encyclopaedic plants woman Miranda and her husband the other evening. They are such a nice couple.
Miranda told me how to save my Tomato seeds - so I'll see if I can do a few photos to accompany her advice.
I'm still getting a few Aunt Madge which come from Mirandas seeds which she gave me last year so I know her advice is right.

Neil, you are too kind :) (someone called us 'special' the other day and we weren't quite sure how to take it ;-)) It was lovely to meet you as well and we both enjoyed it very much.

Saving tomato seeds is really straightforward and only really a matter of fermenting the seed until the gel casing rots away. All you need to do is to leave the seeds in a jar of water until it all smells really horrible, and then give them a good wash.

[Seline]

Hello everybody, you know that i had never grow any tomato, but after reading your posts and seeing these pictures i have decided to have one too in my garden!!

[fastgrow12]

Amend the soil with plenty of compost,cause tomatoes require soil rich in organic matter.