ate my first tomato today!

shebrett

Congrats, am growing my first tomatoes as well, only flowers so far......the most watched flowers in history I think

Lotus-eater

Damn, I'm still a couple of weeks off yet. One of the most looked forward to days of the year

Nice one.

pookiewn

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

Has anyone grown 'thai pink egg'? Mine are starting off ivory coloured, rather than green - they are quite pretty!

Where did you get those? They sound fantastic... off to google...

Primrose

It's a funny thing about we gardeners but I feel really excited for those who have been converted to the 'grow your own' concept and are growing tomatoes for the first time this year. It is such a rewarding activity, with the anticipation every day of watching the first flowers arrive, the first baby tomatoes appearing and then the first light flush of red appearing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have a blight season and that everybodys' hopes arn't dashed. That would be so disappointing.

morg_monster

My mum was at ours this weekend and was astounded by our patio! Think it is because I have grown so much in pots and a new raised bed ; so they are all in compost rather than hers which are mostly just in garden soil (although she does dig in manure each year). Our tumbling toms have so many green tomatoes on already and hundreds more flowers. Some bushes which i put in a large windowbox are nearly 3ft in diameter! The Alicantes each have several trusses already with fruits 5 or 6 cm in diameter. Also have a Brandywine which i picked up from homebase for 30p - its got really cool flowers and I can't wait to see the toms; although worried they might not be too huge as the plant is smaller than the alicante ones! Hope it catches up! They all just seem to be absolutely loving this hot weather; the watering is a bit of a pain though isn't it!

ETA: as you mostly seem quite experienced growers, can I ask, when should I pinch out the growing tip on the alicante ones? I have been trying to keep on top of the side shoots but looking at them last night, there isn't a clear "main" stem anymore on most of the plants, so I think I have missed some! However as many of them now have flowers on, i don't want to pick them off. I would say the plants are about 4'6" at the moment

rhiwfield

So far eaten 3 gardeners delight toms in greenhouse and 4 gartenperle grown outside, with more coming. Both types good but gardeners delight has a clear edge in flavour.

Harbinger and San Marzano some way off though.

All grown from seed sown in Feb this year, transplanted into buckets and filled with the free compost from Cowbridge Compost.

Primrose

morg-monster. If your Alicante tomatoes have developed more than one stem and they''ve all got four flour trusses I think this will be more than enough for the plant to cope with, so suggest pinching out all the top stems now. As the plant will have more fruit than normal to support, give it a generous liquid feed at least once a week as soon as the first little batch of tomatoes appear.

morg_monster

Thanks primrose, I'll do that tonight. They are already getting tomorite once a week.
Just need to find some good "glut" recipes now!

katiel

Well done to all those who are already eating their tomatoes. Mine are still just starting to form fruit. But to be honest I haven't got time to watch them yet - I'm still on strawberry ripening alert.
BTW, one of our local garden centres was giving away tomato plants last week. I got one of each of 8 different varieties. Planted outside so may not ripen before the frosts, but worth a punt for the price I thought. And green tomato chutney is very nice.

danielle1977

Hi everyone,
My tomatoes are beginning to grow, lots of little green ones, largest is about size of a 10p in diameter, they are being grown in a grow bag in one of those plastic things. My Oh half says I need to chop the tops off, I'm not to sure, they are near the top though. We are both thinking about what our grandfathers used to do-wish they were still around to help-our dads have no interest in growing veggies. So I have read the bit above about pinching the tops off-what exactly do you do-just chop off a bit of the top?

I have 3 different plants growing, moneymaker, gardeners delight and ferline (all from homebase)-I
tried growing seeds last year but they didn't grow.

Any help is really appreciated (and if your close to junction 28 of M1 I can drop you some eggs of for your help!)