Growing tomatoes

droopsnoot

One of my tomato plants has got a bit top-heavy and the main "trunk" broke. I've strapped it up to a cane in the hope that it'll last long enough for the tomatoes (which are all above the break, of course, and probably making it a bit top-heavy) to ripen. Noticing this made me go around the rest and see which needed shoring up. It's not broken off completely, but it had snapped a little. It reminded me of a badly-wounded giraffe.

LessImpecunious

droopsnoot said:

One of my tomato plants has got a bit top-heavy and the main "trunk" broke. I've strapped it up to a cane in the hope that it'll last long enough for the tomatoes (which are all above the break, of course, and probably making it a bit top-heavy) to ripen. Noticing this made me go around the rest and see which needed shoring up. It's not broken off completely, but it had snapped a little. It reminded me of a badly-wounded giraffe.

I've seen people elsewhere suggest using some masking tape or similar around the break to support it - worth a try if you have some...

droopsnoot

^ Cheers, I've put some around the break with an old wooden lolly stick to act as a splint. The flowers and stuff above the break haven't died off (yet), and the break happened on Sunday, so perhaps there's a chance for it yet.

GlasgowExpat2

The wind has knocked over my tomato plant 😢 and I now have lots of unripened tomatoes. Is there any way to ripen them, if not what can I do with them. They’re cherry sized tomatoes 

Nobbie1967

GlasgowExpat2 said:

The wind has knocked over my tomato plant 😢 and I now have lots of unripened tomatoes. Is there any way to ripen them, if not what can I do with them. They’re cherry sized tomatoes 

Has the stem snapped completely? If not it’s worth tying it back up to a strong support. Otherwise try putting the full size ones on a windowsill or make tomato chutney.

RobM99

Put an over-ripe banana with them. Apparently it works!!

Nobbie1967

I’ve been waiting for my purple cherry tomatoes to ripen and wondered what that would look like as they were already mostly purple. Turns out that the bottom bit goes red. Just had a couple and can’t say I’m that impressed with the flavour. Unless they improve I won’t bother with them next year.

Farway

Nobbie1967 said:

I’ve been waiting for my purple cherry tomatoes to ripen and wondered what that would look like as they were already mostly purple. Turns out that the bottom bit goes red. Just had a couple and can’t say I’m that impressed with the flavour. Unless they improve I won’t bother with them next year.

I was mentioning this on another thread, but in my case it was yellow cherry plum toms, look lovely but plenty of ones with better flavour.
Bred for eyes not palates, look nice on plate or a shop shelf

Murphybear

I’ve had 2 big bowls of my tomatoes yesterday/today.  They are all small and utterly delicious.  I also had the same problem about broken stalks so have quite a few green ones.  I’ll try the trick with a ripe banana, sadly I threw out some over ripe ones yesterday.  

Novice_investor101

I found today that my first Rome plum tomato to properly ripen isn’t actually attached to the plant anymore. It’s just been sat on a stalk after being knocked off some time. The warmer weather & sun has kick started the ripening & I’m looking forward to getting a decent enough amount to put in my salad soon. 

Quite a few of the plum toms have been lost to blossom end rot. I water consistently at the same time each day, more in hot weather. The GD toms haven’t suffered at all, so internet assuming all the rain didn’t sit so well with the Roma ones.