How are your tomatoes doing ?

Farway

Did anyone make a note of the best tasting tomato mentioned during this weeks's Beechgrove question time? It was a blackish odd looking one but best tasting they said

I know I could look at iplayer and find it, but just wondering if anyone had noted it down?

Primrose

No I didn,t see the programme but often the "Russian or Crimean" blackish varieties often do well in taste tests. They seem to have a slightly different slightly smokey flavour. The skins arn't black but so have blackish tinges on them

shortcrust

My tigerella toms have done really well this year. There are still quite a few green ones left. I don’t have a greenhouse so they’re still outside. Should I pick the lot and ripen inside now or leave them as they are for a bit longer? I’m in Sheffield.

Farway

shortcrust wrote: »

My tigerella toms have done really well this year. There are still quite a few green ones left. I don’t have a greenhouse so they’re still outside. Should I pick the lot and ripen inside now or leave them as they are for a bit longer? I’m in Sheffield.

Given where you live I'd keep a very close eye on weather forecasts for frost & be prepared to nip out sharpish & pick them

Primrose

Youre further north than me and I picked mine a couple of days of days ago - probably just as well as the few small ones I left on the plants have started to develop blot he's on the skins due to cooler overnight temperatures which would probably meant they won't store well and ripen.

If you,re at home all day I,d suggest picking them, putting them on trays which have been covered with newspaper first and putting them outside in the sun if it shines. The newspaper will catch any nasty bits which seep from cracked or split fruit , make the tray dirty and helps to encourage other nearby fruits to rot.

Farway

To answer my own question about the tasty variety mentioned on Beechgrove

The answer is Rosella
Another was Orange Pear

Grandmama

Had loads of green cherry toms still not ripe, outside not in greenhouse. Have cut the vine off near the root leaving Tom's on. Laid on paper on a tray in window two weeks ago. Now all red, using mainly in cooking.

pearl123

shortcrust wrote: »

My tigerella toms have done really well this year. There are still quite a few green ones left. I don’t have a greenhouse so they’re still outside. Should I pick the lot and ripen inside now or leave them as they are for a bit longer? I’m in Sheffield.

I’m down south an mine are still outside. I’m going to give it a few days more and pick half.

slinga

I always buy two tomato plants each year for fun and plant them outside in the garden.


Always get a couple of kilos of each so happy with that.


This year bought Gardener's delight and Roma.


With all the hot weather we had was expecting a bumper crop, always fed and well watered but both varieties were very poor and late with maybe only 0.5 kg ripening on each plant.


Loads of green fruit still on both.


Why didn't they ripen early with the good weather.

malebolge

slinga wrote: »

I always buy two tomato plants each year for fun and plant them outside in the garden.
Always get a couple of kilos of each so happy with that.
This year bought Gardener's delight and Roma.
With all the hot weather we had was expecting a bumper crop, always fed and well watered but both varieties were very poor and late with maybe only 0.5 kg ripening on each plant.
Loads of green fruit still on both.

Why didn't they ripen early with the good weather.

The high temperatures this year could have affected them ripening. Above a certain temp, the chemical that tomatoes produce to give them the red (orange etc) colour isn't produced as well so they take longer.

Also, perhaps you helped them too much in the drought - obviously they needed to be watered more, but did you overwater? As well as slowing them ripening, this can make tomatoes taste bland because the fruits take up more water. Alongside watering more often - did you feed them more? This too can prevent ripening. I usually leave my outdoor toms till they just start to wilt before I water them and cut down on the food when I have ripening toms on the plant. They need food to initially produce decent fruits once the first ones have set, but once they're full of decent sized toms I barely feed.

Another thing I do, not sure if it helps or is an old wives' tale (actually something my 90 year old dad used to do), is add epsom salts to the mix when I feed them. He always swore by it so I just got used to doing it too.