Tomato: Gardeners Delight » Week Ten
The tomato plants keep on growing, the one on the left is still significantly smaller than the others, but I think I now know what has happened. When I was pinching out internodes a few weeks back I may have inadvertently pinched out the top of the plant. Pinching out the top of the plant is how you stop a plant from growing once you have about five to six trusses of fruit to ensure the plant continues putting energy into the fruit rather than into sprouting new shoots, unfortunately I did it to this plant way too early with only a couple of trusses set.
I may be lucky and the plant will shoot again from the top which will mean I may possibly get another truss or two before the end of July, only time will tell. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.
The plant on the right is doing really well, truss after truss keep on setting and the fruit which has already started growing is getting bigger and bigger. Hopefully when the weather cheers up we will see a lot more flowers dropping off and little tomatoes will be appearing in their place.
Talking of the weather, April was the warmest ever, with the average temperature being 6˚C higher than normal in the South East of England, and the plants had wall to wall sunshine giving them a great start. However May 2007 was in contrast the one of wettest ever on record, and June does not appear to be showing much promise of improving either. Whilst I sit here writing this blog it is dull and overcast with mist.
I am still investigating the different kinds of fertiliser on the market for tomato plants, and will have to make a decision soon, as the feeding will need to commence in the next couple of weeks.