This is all Random Orbital Bob's fault...

[Random Orbital Bob]

Hurray...that's a good start Steve.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well the watering system worked well enough, but whilst I came home from holiday expecting lots of ripe tomatoes, most are still green - very green.

Still, some of the Sun Golds are pickable and, as Rob promised me, they taste most very excellent.

And quite a bargain at £530/kg

The Ailsa Craigs and the Romas are much bigger, but don't look as if they even close to starting to ripen - not a suggestion of a hint of a tinge of red.

A couple of the plants still have some flowers on. I take it that they are never going to make fruits, so should I remove them?

S

 

[Racers]

We have started to pick them just as they turn pink and put them in a cardboard box to fully ripen.

I pinched out the tops a couple of weeks ago.


Pete

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Great news Steve. Definitely pinch out any flowers, side stems or in fact whole trusses that look small and spindly now. What you want the plant to do is focus it's now dwindling energy as the sun runs out, into the larger, existing trusses to try and finish growing and ripen them. 4 or 5 max trusses per plant is what you want with nothing else being allowed to grow.

Worse case, don't chuck the green ones because they make great chutney or as part of piccalilli ingredients.

 

[Steve Maskery]

When you say "nothing else should be allowed to grow" do you mean remove most or all of the foliage?

 

[rafezetter]

He means don't let the plants start any "new" stems or allow it to flower anymore. This will force the plant to concentrate on the crops you have already. Basically take off anything that doesn't already have tommies on it. If they are small, less than a £1 coin take those off too. You're close to the end of the season and nothing that starts now will come to anything and will just divert from what's growing already.

I'd love to claim credit, but larger planter decided it wanted to give me some tomatoes and spuds from the composting material I throw in there and my horticulturist friend told me to do the same.

You're right about the taste too, amazing.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

What he said

You should definitely also remove any leaves that are looking knackered or diseased. My sungolds have done well this year but the larger variety "money maker" have all got blight and it's ruined the crop. Really hacked off with that!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

And make chutney of everything as soon as you see blight.

 

[AES]

Cor blimey, I dunno, still MORE work to do!

"My" offer still stands Steve, 350 gr BEAUTIFUL-tasting cherry tomatoes, CHF 4.50 (PLUS postage)! A - - N - D available all year round.



AES

Edit for P.S. Well done mate, they look really good.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well a couple of the round ones are finally starting to turn red, but the one I harvested didn't have a lot of flavour. The bell/pear-shaped ones show no sign of ripening and indeed, some are starting to rot on the vine. I did cut off one truss and put it in my south-facing window, but no joy yet and they've been there nearly a week. I'm a bit disappointed, actually. The SunGolds have been great, though.
I had a friend round last weekend and I cooked some of the unripe ones as Fried Green Tomatoes, with a cajun ranch dressing, and although I couldn't get any cornmeal (I used a mixture of cous cous and panko), they were delicious.
I think I'm going to salvage what I can and remember to start rather earlier next year.
Thanks for all your help and advice, chaps.

 

[lurker]

TBH my outdoor ones have not been great this year, they needed a sunny warm September really, and like you, I did not get them started early enough.
That early rotting on the vine has been quite widespread this year.

My green house ones have been quite good but are starting to tail off.

Your costing made me laugh!
I think your main problem this year was you let too much foliage develop (all newbies make the same mistake).

But.............here is a plan of action to get plenty next year, at much lower costs.

1. Get some planters like RO Bob's made this winter.
2. As you have found, you need to devise a more robust frame to tie the plants to (should be a walk in the park for Mr. Jig!). Mine dismantles so I can use it year after year and is basically lengths on untreated wood off a skip ripped down to 1/2" square
3. Next spring keep your eye out for early deals (usually at B&Q) for multi-buy bags of compost (NOT growbags)
4. Start off with seeds in Feb in that nice conservatory of yours.
5. I'll bring you a variety of seeds I save every year.......I have some of a "Siberian" strain that can start to ripen as early as late May. But sun-gold is a favourite of mine too.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well I took some of the trusses off the vine and put them in a sunny window. Then I went to Gdansk for the weekend. Brilliant weekend, if a bit harrowing. I knew a bit about Lech Wałęsa, but I didn't know anything else about its history. First bullets of WW2, the initiation of the end of European Communism. Just fantastically interesting.

But I digress.

I came home to my sunbathed tomatoes. Not.

Would you want to eat those? I don't.

Not a Happie Chappie

 

[AES]

Steve wrote, QUOTE: Would you want to eat those? I don't. UNQUOTE:

No mate, neither would I. Are they any good for chutney??? (I KNOW you'd need "a few" more).

BTW, I s'pose I've got my just deserts - after taking the mick out of you unmercifully, going on about our superb supermarket toms, the blooming idiots have stopped that particular brand/variety, AND the replacements not only cost even more but don't taste half as good either! Oh how the "mighty" are fallen. Serves me right (hammer)

AES

 

[Steve Maskery]

LOL!
Yes, they are very disappointing. But the SunGold ones have been delicious and there are still a couple more ripening.
I might try again next year. I've recently planted some red and white onions and some garlic in a large planter/raised bed, and something is already coming up. Not sure what it is because I didn't label the rows...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... the blooming idiots have stopped that particular brand/variety, AND the replacements not only cost even more but don't taste half as good either! Oh how the "mighty" are fallen. Serves me right (hammer)
AES

It's called the end of the season.

 

[AES]

No it's not phil. These days, with airfreight, there are virtually no seasons any more - not with most things at least.

Anyway, after posting the above, I found exactly the "correct" toms in another branch of the same supermarket just 5 miles down the road.

AES

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They are grown to suit the time the grower wishes to sell them, some early in the season, some late. They don't grow the same varieties all year round even they harvest all year round. The best are still the ones that grow in their natural season.