My Thoughts

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.

Posted by Dean at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well all in all the past seven days have been pretty glum. Being a bank holiday weekend I suppose it is not that much of a surprise. Mid week we had some sun, but the rest of the week has been overcast and extremely wet. The pond in the back garden is nearly overflowing because of all the rain. Any tan I had from my holiday in Italy has been well and truly washed away!

Still it is not all bad news, I have found fruit on my tomato plants! Only a three at the moment but it is a good sign no less. Once the second truss starts to set I will begin feeding the plants once a week with fertiliser.

Plant feeding, particularly for those plants with flowers, fruit or large leaves, is an important job which must not be overlooked. In nature, important minerals such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) amongst others are absorbed by the plants through their roots during the cycle of death and decay from rotting plant matter. Since my plants are grown in a grow bag the likelihood of the plants being able to absorb the required levels of nutrients is minimal, this is why you must fertilise once the fruit begins to set to ensure the plant gets all the goodness it can to maximise the tomato's growth.

I know from last year feeding the tomato plants will ensure they are stronger and healthier. It is important to choose the right fertiliser for the tomato plants. I used Levington Tomorite last year which seemed to work well, as I ended up with a real bumper crop.

I will investigate a little over the coming weeks and see if there are other kinds of fertiliser which I can use or whether Tomorite is the right product for the job.

Posted by Dean at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well I think I picked a good week to go away on my summer holidays, whilst my family and I have been sunning ourselves on Lake Garda in Italy my tomato plants have been exposed to some real heavy rain fall. Apparently in 2 days there was 80% of the entire months average rain fall. The good news is though having added the extra string to support the plants last week, the grotty weather does not appear to have affected my plants at all.

In fact the heavy rain seems to have helped bring the plants on, there are now 3 trusses of flowers on each plant and the signs are encouraging for yet more to starting setting over the next couple of weeks.

The weird thing I have noticed is that the plant on the left appears to be significantly smaller than the other two plants. Up until now the plants have all been of equal size.

Posted by Dean at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The tomato plants have been growing at a steady pace, the sun has not been shining that much compared to a few weeks back, but I know they have grown because I have had to add more string to the plants to help keep them sturdy when the wind gets up.

It looks like the second truss of flowers are just starting to appear at the top of each of the plants, I will have a much better idea next week of whether this is the case.

Posted by Dean at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well we have had a sprinkling of rain this week, and the skies have been a little gloomier than the past few weeks. However the tomato plants have been still growing at a steady rate and the first flowers are beginning to open.

The aphid problem seems to have settled down without too much intervention, in fact I have not seen one for a few days prior to writing to this post, so hopefully they have moved on to pastures new and will leave the tomato plants to continue their development in peace.

There is not much else to write about this week, so it looks like it is a short and sweet one!

Posted by Dean at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The good weather has continued to hold, lots of sun, and hardly a cloud in the sky for most of the week. The wind however has been quite strong at times, on one evening I found one of the plants was leaning over on its side. To prevent any further damage being caused by the wind I have loosely tied each plant to a cane to give them a bit more stability.

As you will see in the photos the plants have grown significantly in the last week, I have already got my first buds/flowers appearing on each plant. It is these flowers which after blooming become the tomatoes, the flowers die and drop away and the tomato begins to form in its place.

The tomato plants had become really bushy as well as taller this week. I have had a good prune to remove all the extra leaves and internodes which were either too close to the base of the plant or just not required. By pinching out the internodes you allow the plant to spend more energy producing tomatoes and not waste time growing leaves.

I had mentioned in week three, that I would experiment with one of the tomato plants and leave the internodes to grow at the base of the plant to see whether I would get tomatoes coming in earlier or remove the internode once it was a few inches long and plant it elsewhere. I have decided against this, it occurred to me the plant which has lots of leaves close to the base of the plant will be too close to the damp soil, if these leaves did start to decay or get disease the disease could spread to the healthy pruned plants. To avoid any disasters I have pruned all the plants.

Posted by Dean at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week we have again been extremely lucky with the weather, it has been glorious, everyday has been sunny and warm for the entire week. As you can see in this week photo the tomato plants are flourishing, I have noticed however a few aphids starting to take up residence on the plants.

Aphids are sucking insects which just love to slurp up the sticky sap from plants, they are particularly fond of new tender shoots on many garden plants, including it would seem tomato plants! Aphids are small, soft-bodied, pearl-shaped insects that have a pair of cornicles (wax-secreting tubes) projecting out from their abdominal segment. The aphids I have on my tomato plants are green, but aphids come in various colours including black, red, yellow, pink, white, brown, grey, or lavender.

Aphids feed in colonies, and if their numbers rise too high the aphid colonies can cause discolouration or mottling of foliage, weaken the plant and effect the size and amount of fruit a plant can produce. Furthermore the aphids excrete honeydew on which mould grows, as I have mentioned in previous posts, anything which encourages mould and disease is a serious threat to your tomato plants welfare.

I have not done anything yet with the aphids on my tomato plants, I had a similar situation last year and I found that natural predators kept the numbers under control. I will be keeping a close eye on the situation, if the numbers begin increasing I will remove the aphids from the plants myself. I do not spray my plants with insecticide simply because any kind of chemical you use on your plants will end up in or on your tomato. A tomato laced with chemicals does not sound very appetising to me. It may be a more time consuming process but physically removing the aphid ensures the best results.

Posted by Dean at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week we have continued to have some beautiful weather. The weekend was an absolute scorcher, getting into the mid 20's on both Saturday and Sunday. The tomato plants have enjoyed the sun and have grown considerably. Of course the tomato plants are still susceptible to the cold, if the warm weather is replaced by a cold snap the tomato plants could still die.

I have noticed that the tomato plants are already developing internodes or suckers. Last year I removed the first sets of internodes from the base of my tomato plants. The reason behind this was because I felt that if left, the trusses of tomato which would have grown, would be too close to the damp soil and could start to rot. Any tomato grower knows that tomato plants are prone to different kinds of fungal threats, so to ensure the base had room to breath and did not become damp / humid (the kind of environment which bacteria just loves) I pinched out the first few internodes.

I am not sure if this technique is recommended by other growers, I have certainly not come across any mention of it in books or websites, so it may be me just being over cautious, but it certainly worked and the trusses which did set further up the tomato plant were full of fruit and did not hang too close to the soil.

This year I may experiment with one plant and leave the internodes in place and see what happens. It will mean I will get fruit from that plant earlier, but will the lower branches be more susceptible to rot? Only time will tell.

I have heard it is possible to replant your internodes, I did not try this last year, but apparently if you leave the internodes to grow to about 3-4 inches before pinching them out and plant the internode in another grow bag it is possible to get tomatoes from the internode. I may try planting an internode this year to see whether any fruit is produced.

Of course one way to ensure your lower trusses of tomatoes do not hang down near the soil is to support them by loosely tying the branches to a cane or trellis. I have heard of people creating cages around the plants, made out of chicken wire or similar material, so they can train the branches out through the cages. Once the fruit sets, the cage helps support the branch and prevents it drooping on to the ground. Since I am growing my tomato plants in a grow bag and space is limited between each tomato plant, fashioning some kind of cage was not possible.

Well that is enough this week, let's hope the good weather continues.

Posted by Dean at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The tomato plants have not wilted, thank goodness! Over the past seven days there does appear to have been a modest amount of growth compared to the photo I took last week you will see that all three plants do appear slightly taller. We have been lucky with the weather, lots of glorious sun shine and quite mild nights have helped to ensure the plants settle into their outside environment and will have no doubt helped with their growing.

Fingers crossed the nice weather will continue. It is the wind and cold which will do the damage at this time of year.

Posted by Dean at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last year I had a go at growing tomatoes in a grow bag. The whole experience was really enjoyable, nurturing the little seedling through out the spring and summer and then harvesting the tomatoes at the end. I thought this year I would choose the Gardeners Delight variety as I have heard good things about this type of tomato both on TV and in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's cook book. I found that 2 of the plants I grew last year were quite tasteless. The one which did taste sweet was one of these dwarf plants called Totem which I left to grow, and did not require any intervention by me whatsoever. This kind of plant is not of use when you wish to indulge your green thumbs.

According to the bumph that came with the plants, Gardeners Delight has a true tangy flavour of tomatoes from a century or more ago. The plant is packed with bite-size fruit, ideal for salads and sandwiches and full of vitamins.

Today I planted up the 3 seedlings into their grow bag and have popped in a cane for each to grow up. If they are anything like last year I will have to add a trellis at some point so they don't start to topple over with all the tomatoes. One of the plants last year grew to over 5 feet and produced huge fruit. However they did lack any kind of taste, which is why I have researched this season to ensure the end result will be more flavoursome.

It is my intention to post an entry every week from now on, with a picture of the plants so we can keep track of how these plants are fairing over the next few months.

Posted by Dean at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)