Growing tomatoes

[didds]

Does anybody here successfully grow tomatoes in this country? If so - what is your trick?

I've/We've gropwn tomatoes for 20+ years now everyear. Indoors (greenhouses) , outdoors, different varieties, lots of water, not much water. all sorts of variations. What we get is sometime in mid July onwards sporadic red tomatoes appear but the vast majority resolutely remain green until september when we either make yet another tonne of green chutney or throw them away or they just rot on the vine. Self sown wild tomotaoes around and about the garden do "as well" (HA!) as the cultivated ones.

If after this gloriously hot early summer hasn;t produced any more red tomatoes in any greater abundance than in wet, cold and miserable years is it just that tomatoes really are not a british fruit worth bothering with?

didds

Moderator Message:
Relocated to Natural World as suggested down topic (chas49)

[madhatter]

the vast majority resolutely remain green until september

I don’t know about getting ripe ones to appear on the vine, but I believe that the ripeness can be induced after picking by exposure to ethylene gas.

On the face of it, that probably doesn’t sound very helpful (unless one has a cylinder of ethylene kicking about, which most people probably don’t) but I understand that the same stuff also ripens bananas, and indeed is given off by ripe bananas.

Could try bunging some in a bag wi’ a few ripe bananas, as an experiment?

Disclaimer: never done it personally.

[jackdaww]

weve grown tomatoes in the greenhouse 30 years.

now in a standard black bucket in aldi compost fed by chicken manure pellets.

variety gardeners delight .

outdoors ours would ripen 2 years out of 5 .

outdoors they catch blight here in damp west wales so rendered useless.

green tomato chutney seems a total waste of sugar and vinegar to me , just admit defeat and dump them ...

[Breelander]

Does anybody here successfully grow tomatoes in this country? If so - what is your trick?

You'd probably get more answers on The Natural World board (wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets)
viewforum.php?f=59

...My first red(ish) tomato appeared today in my 'greenhouse' (well, propagating tent actually) but then they have had to be watered copiously at least once a day.

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=12861&p=155374#p155374

I'm in S/E england. This year's crop hasn't been as heavy as previous years, but I've been eating well for this last month with the remaining few looking like they'll ripen soon. So far I've picked about six pounds or ripe tomatoes. Last year I had too many, so ended up making about four pints of tomato, garlic and basil soup in September.

Not bad for four plants crammed into a grow tent similar to this....
https://www.charliesdirect.co.uk/gardma ... rced-cover

My trick? Start early, the sooner you can get the flowers to set and tomatoes to develop the more time they have to ripen. I plant seed indoors in pots mid-February, then plant out into the grow tent (with the door closed for protection) late March. Constant watering, never let them dry out or you'll get blossom end rot - a misnomer as it's not a disease but a physiological reaction to erratic feeding/watering.

I always have more plants than I need, the remaining ones I plant outdoors. Don't bother - I'm lucky if I get more than a couple of tomatoes on them.

[Sobraon]

Located in Lincolnshire. Growing Gardener's delight, Alicante, a yellow variety and beef tomatoes in pots on gravel in the greenhouse and outside against the railings. Never had any problem over the last 30 years. Cucumbers, peppers and chillies are grown in the same greenhouse. Sometimes the earliest and latest need to be ripened off on the kitchen window cill.

As an alternative to green chutney for any that do not ripen we use a dehydrater and then blitz in a bullet blender and use the powder in cooking.

[didds]

green tomato chutney seems a total waste of sugar and vinegar to me , just admit defeat and dump them ...

indeed - that's in fact where we now are. I was intrigued by whether growing useless tomatoes was a British thing where we all know its a waste of time but its what we do anyway.

didds

[UncleIan]

I was intrigued by whether growing useless tomatoes was a British thing where we all know its a waste of time but its what we do anyway.

It's probably that the smell of tomato plants in a greenhouse is so evocative and comforting it's like a drug, it just doesn't seem right to walk into a greenhouse and not have *that* smell come and give you a nice gentle comforting hug.

[kempiejon]

I had a few great seasons with the fruit, back in 2000 I used to live on the fifth floor of a block at the top of a hill with a south facing balcony, a big enough balcony to put a couple of deck chairs and a table out and have quite a little container garden with a 9 tomato plants in grow bags - 3 to a bag, a couple of aubergines and a few pots of herbs and salads. No pests that high up nor blight, there was a problem keeping the bags watered in the hottest summer months but on subsequent years I double growbagged and used bottomless pots and watered evening and night so was able to prevent most fruit splitting. For 3 or 4 years I lived there I was cropping so many tomatoes I used to roast them by the tray load to make sauces or sun dry them in a mini lean to green house.
I think I grew Gardeners Delight, Shirley and Moneymaker and got the best from the cherry Gardeners Delight though I might be mis-remembering. From my subsequent experiences in allotments and 3 other gardens I was never able to repeat that success. Being very high up avoided the pests, wasn't shaded out so I had sun from dawn til dusk so the fruits ripened and I was able to leave the fruit on well past the normal season but watering was a routine morn and night.

Lidl do some tasty and reasonable priced tomatoes.

[TedSwippet]

I think I grew Gardeners Delight, Shirley and Moneymaker and got the best from the cherry Gardeners Delight though I might be mis-remembering.

This. Mrs S and I have tried several varieties, and Gardener's Delight are definitely the most blight-resistant ones found so far. Also one of the tastier ones, to my mind -- a little smaller than some varieties, but with all the flavour and perhaps more. These are the only ones we use now.

We grow them outdoors, and not just that but also in a relatively shady garden plot that is due north of the house. We usually plant 12-16 seeds indoors in late Feb, expecting maybe half to germinate. Invariably they all do, along with a few 'feral' ones in the garden. So maybe 20 plants on the go, all in large pots/planters which makes it possible to move them around to sunnier spots as the season changes (or against the fences in case of gales). We're inundated with tomatoes this year -- of course, right at the point where they are dirt-cheap in the supermarkets!.

Most years have been decently worth the effort. The only really bad year I can remember is last year, so damp and rainy that we lost most of the crop even before we had the chance to turn it all into chutney. Nearly didn't bother this year because of that, but it would have been a mistake.

[kiloran]

I always grow 5 different varieties in a greenhouse in west-central Scotland and generally have good results. They are in tomato ring culture pots in growbags, and the growbags are supported above water troughs with capilliary matting to the water.

The small cherry tomatoes like Sungold tend to be the most reliable for ripening, though the golden varieties tend to over-ripen quite quickly. Shirley, Moneymaker and Gardener's Delight tend to have more variable ripening but generally quite acceptable. I have had some problems this year with a lot of very small (pea-sized) fruit.

--kiloran

[malkymoo]

Can't help thinking that the OP is making some sort of fundamental error, it is not that difficult to grow tomatoes.

Are the plants being fed?
Are they being over-fed or fed too early, resulting in too much foliage?
Are all the side-shoots being removed and the plants limited to a single stem?
Are they getting enough sunlight?
Do you know anyone who grows tomatoes who might be able to give you advice?

It seems much too early to give up on tomatoes ripening, leave them until the end of September at least. If they still are not ripe, put them in trays somewhere it is reasonably warm. Provided the fruit are well-formed, they will ripen eventually. I have used fruit well into November.

This year I have grown 9 plants in a greenhouse, Sweet Million (cherry tomato), Alicante, Shirley and a Bulgarian variety for which I bought the seed on holiday last year, very large good-flavoured fruit but prone to snail damage. Despite various problem I have been picking since about 20th July, more than we can eat, have been having tomato soup a couple of times a week!

[didds]

all of those things.

they just don;t bloody ripen. we gets lots of fruit - that isn't the issue. Good healthy plants. In a greenhouse exposed to the sun all day, or in an open plot ditto. watered evening and morning, not over watered. etc etc etc. Clearly its just us.

we just get maybe at vest 10% go red over a summer. We would never ever be in a position to cook them down to make sauce/salsa/pulp/whatever.

at best a couple at a time to go into a salad.

didds

[didds]

Oh - my mum used our greenhouse for a few years as she was retired with more time.

I can't say she had any more success.

didds

[malkymoo]

I'm baffled, you have clearly been doing the right things! Have you tried thinning the leaves to expose the fruit to sunlight?

What varietie(s) are you growing?

[scotia]

I'm baffled, you have clearly been doing the right things! Have you tried thinning the leaves to expose the fruit to sunlight?

That was also my thought. In my youth, I remember that one of my pals who worked in a commercial greenhouse growing tomatoes in Central Scotland, around this time of year he would have stained hands from stripping the leaves off the tomato plants - presumably to allow more sunlight on the fruit.

[quelquod]

I have had some problems this year with a lot of very small (pea-sized) fruit.

interesting.

East central Scotland. We generally grow bush tomatoes in large hanging baskets in the greenhouse as all the rest of the space is taken up with benching and other plants. Never have any problems ripening fruit. No problems this year either but the bushes are still flowering like mad and lots of smaller fruit (maybe not so small as peas ). Seems to me that more of the flowers have progressed to fruit this year, more than the plants can really support.

[Pipsmum]

Mine were all from the many varied varieties of Asda's own finest spat out pips this year. Then all the planted up strikes, and the strikes of the strikes. Lots of toms, but only a few are beginning to ripen. The Tomkins wrinkly ones are going red first and the others are all still green so far.

Most times in our garden soil they get blight so I put them in troughs this year and many got blossom end rot from the troughs drying out. I just pulled all the black bottomed toms off and the others seem to be ok so far.

One year I just picked all the large and tiny green ones just as the blight struck, and put them in a huge bowl on the windowsill. Then put some pre-bought ripe red ones with them. As mine went red, we transferred them into another bowl so they didn't all go at once. Seemed to work.

Then once we had loads of the tiny ones go red. We cut them in half, sprinkled sea salt and rosemary onto them and then roasted them very, very slowly in an aga as a sort of sun dried substitute. Then submerged them into olive oil. They lasted for a few years quite successfully.

[sg31]

West Midlands

I've been growing tomatoes for 3 years. The first 2 in a tatty aluminium greenhouse inherited from the previous owners. It was 8x6 and had low head height. I stopped the plants at the 4th truss and 80% were ripe by the first frost.

This year I've replaced the greenhouse and now have a 10x8 I can stand up in. I've grown 24 plants of various types and let them go to the 7th truss to see what happened. With the very hot weather they have ripened well to the 4th truss mostly, Gardeners Delight, Shirley and Nimbus are lagging a bit. On the others I've got some tomatoes ripe on the 5th and 6th trusses. No sign of ripening on the 7th truss.

In case it is of any use to others I will add the following...

I grew 11 varieties to try and find something that tastes like a tomato should. I trawled an allotment website and picked the most recommended varieties. Bear in mind that this is an exceptional year weather wise therefore totally different results might happen next year. These are the varieties and my findings so far

Sungold, yellow cherry, not a heavy crop but superb flavour, outstanding.

Rosella, cherry but a bit bigger than Sungold, heavier crop, excellent flavour but not quite as good as Sungold but not much in it.

Tiger Red, slightly bigger cherry than the other 2, skin is a bit thick but very good flavour, heavy crop.

Sweet Million, Lots of small cherry tomatoes, very sweet but not much acidity, not much real tomato flavour.

Sweet aperitif as above but less flavour.

Nimbus standard size, moderate flavour, best of the standard sized tomatoes but not good enough, heavy crop.

Red Alert, OK but nothing special

Shirley, standard size tomato, some flavour but watery. Quite late to crop.

Gardeners Delight, It didn't. Cherry , late ripening, small crop, bland

Maskotka, Bush type, bland, early cropper. supposed to be a cherry but they turned out mid sized, watery lacking flavour.

Black Russian, a beef tomato, gross, watery, only fit for frying, I wouldn't grow it again. Shame because it was highly thought of, I expected much of this and it didn't deliver.

I will plant more of the first 3 next year but haven't found a good standard sized tomato yet. The search will continue next year

During the very hot weather I was watering 3 times per day and still had problems with blossom end rot. The greenhouse is unshaded. Last year I did put white stuff on the glass and found all the tomatoes bland. I was told that this was probably due to lack of sun so this year I left the greenhouse unshaded. At times temperatures were over 100 even with the doors and vents wide open.

[kiloran]

The best-tasting tomatoes I ever had were from my uncle's smallholding, about 50-60 years ago. It was in a coalmining area in Derbyshire and there was a permanent sulphurous smell in the air. Maybe that enhanced the flavour. We were told they were just standard Gardener's Delight or Moneymaker.

I once bought some tomatoes from M&S in Durham, and I am totally convinced they were my uncle's (I know he did supply M&S), the taste was just so distinctive. Never tasted anything like them since. Maybe I should try a coal fire in the greenhouse

--kiloran

[sg31]

I had a similar experience. My father was a member of an allotment society and one year he bought some tomato seedlings from there. The tomatoes were amazing, just full of flavour, like nothing I'd ever tasted before. He'd been told they were a Polish tomato but he couldn't find out anything more about them.

The following year we were back to ordinary tomatoes.

I've believed for a long time that tomatoes don't taste like they used to, hence the attempt to find one that does. I was starting to believe it was my taste buds that were the problem, I've bought a lot of specialist tomatoes at the supermarket and been unimpressed. I've even bought Sungold and thought it ok but not outstanding. This years home grown crop have been wonderful. I pass surplus tomatoes to friends and neighbours and they have all commented on how good they have been. I passed some spare seedlings to my next door neighbour and hers have turned out as good as mine.