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How are your tomatoes doing ?

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  • I get blight. I tried once to grow tomatoes outdoors, got the makings of a really good crop then the blight hit them really bad - didn't get a single useable tomato from the outdoor plants. Fortunately I'd still got my greenhouse crop, so in the general scheme of things it wasn't anything like a disaster

    I'm in Newcastle and strangely I get better crops outdoor than I do in the greenhouse albeit later. This year my outdoor tomatoes are coming on a storm, loads of healthy fruit. My greenhouse ones are producing huge trusses but around half have developed blossom rot. Same happened last year. Tried various remedies and precautions but it still appears. Any tips.
  • unrecordings
    unrecordings Posts: 2,017
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    I seem to always get blossom end rot at the start of the season then it tapers out on fruit that develops later in the season. It seems to be variety specific - it always happens on my Alicante, but very little if any on my Ailsa Craig

    You can still use them though - pick them early while they're still orange, or cook with them (cutting the bad bit off obviously). I made a curry yesterday using mainly tomatoes with blossom end rot and a couple that had split - it was well over a tins worth

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  • sam.4000
    sam.4000 Posts: 1,396
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    My tomatoes were doing really well since middle of July always different cherry tomatoes as I prefer them including us gold. However I have blight for the first time ever in growing tomatoes in the last 12 years. I have yanked the first 2 plant out but all have got it ( 12 tomato plants). I am just wondering whether this is the end of growing tomatoes for me? I will bin all the support sticks to prevent contamination for next year but have a feeling that I will look at blight resistant tomatoes for next year Has any got any recommendations?
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 13,120
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    sam.4000 wrote: »
    My tomatoes were doing really well since middle of July always different cherry tomatoes as I prefer them including us gold. However I have blight for the first time ever in growing tomatoes in the last 12 years. I have yanked the first 2 plant out but all have got it ( 12 tomato plants). I am just wondering whether this is the end of growing tomatoes for me? I will bin all the support sticks to prevent contamination for next year but have a feeling that I will look at blight resistant tomatoes for next year Has any got any recommendations?


    Were they inside or out?


    Blight arrives on the wind and thrives in hot & humid conditions, were known as "Smith periods" but like most things horticultural are now Hutton criteria, about which I know nothing except from here https://www.hortweek.com/new-criteria-replace-smith-periods-potato-blight-forecasting/fresh-produce/article/1418388


    The point I'm getting to is no matter what you personally do, the spores from your neighbour 5 streets, or next county, away will still get you outdoors


    I've tried some of the blight resistant, not really much better. I now grow in my conservatory, with a few spares outside on the off chance, so far I OK outside
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  • sam.4000
    sam.4000 Posts: 1,396
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    Farway wrote: »
    Were they inside or out?


    Blight arrives on the wind and thrives in hot & humid conditions, were known as "Smith periods" but like most things horticultural are now Hutton criteria, about which I know nothing except from here https://www.hortweek.com/new-criteria-replace-smith-periods-potato-blight-forecasting/fresh-produce/article/1418388


    The point I'm getting to is no matter what you personally do, the spores from your neighbour 5 streets, or next county, away will still get you outdoors


    I've tried some of the blight resistant, not really much better. I now grow in my conservatory, with a few spares outside on the off chance, so far I OK outside

    They were grown outside and always have. Such a shame to have been lucky for over 10 years growing tomatoes without blight. I am wondering whether the hot summer and evening watering has not helped this year. I don't have a conservatory or greenhouse or will I. I will see how next year goes and if I get it again I will stop growing them. Thank you for your response.
  • Primrose
    Primrose Posts: 10,620
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    edited 9 August 2018 at 8:14AM
    Blight is the most dreaded disease for all tomato growers. Over the years I,ve used a belt and braces approach, as I dont have a greenhouse and grow mine outdoors. However Im growing a combination of bush/tumbling varieties and cordons and start my tumbling varieties (tumbling Tom red and yellow) very early and Plant them out under individual cloches.

    This means they fruit and ripen much earlier than the cordon varieties and I'm always sure to get a crop before blight tends to strike.

    For my cordons I grow a varieties of types but these days at least 50% of my crop are Ferline which are supposed to be blight resistant. They,re an F1 variety which means the anti blight characteristics don,t necessarily come true to type the following year if yiu save some seed but I still sow a few of them and keep my fingers crossed. I have to say though, there isnt a truly blight resistant vanity.

    After this year,a hot weather I,m expecting blight warning soon and will be covering my outdoor plants with fleece if I get a warning . Not sure it will make any difference though. One can only try !
  • Farway
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    Update on my Harzfeuer toms. I reported earlier they were OK, but now they have really ripened on the vine I can upgrade the taste to very nice, will grow again.

    Beats my Gardener's Delight easily.



    I read somewhere they are blight resistant, but can't vouch on that claim
    One other plus, seed is cheap & available in Lidl, which is where mine came from, they are F1 so saving seed is probably not good idea when the packeted F1 seed is cheap anyway
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  • Blackjack_Davy
    Blackjack_Davy Posts: 567
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    edited 12 August 2018 at 1:37PM
    yogi_brrr wrote: »
    ...And how long should it take for tomatoes to get ripe on the vine? My biggest tomato (Gardener's delight) finished growing over 2 weeks ago but is still rock hard and totally green. It's outside.
    Has the recent heatwave made any difference to your tomatoes. I am in the East Midlands and we have had very warm weather - about 30 degrees. Maybe it's too hot?

    The ones in the greenhouse have had split/cracked skins for the first time ever, its the extreme weather this summer they've definitely suffered.

    The oudoor ones (gardeners delight) have been great been picking them for weeks. Been feeding and watering regularly though and they're still growing (need to pinch the tops out infact).

    n.b. no blight yet but with this recent wet weather it'll probably arrive sooner or later its just a matter of time (the greenhouse ones never get it but they're watered from the base only, the leaves never get wet its rain/water on the leaves that spread the spores)
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  • Living_proof
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    edited 12 August 2018 at 3:42PM
    My tumblers outside on the decking are beginning to flag unsurprisingly and today I picked just 83 small fruits, whereas last week it was up to 200. There aren't that many green ones now so I have seen the best of it. Normally they are in the greenhouse but in the hot weather they took off at such a rate I had to take them out as I could hardly move for them hanging all over the place.

    I have had to leave the greenhouse for a while as a young sparrow has come in through the automatic windows and is very flustered. The tomatoes can wait another hour or so until it eventually finds the open door. I am freezing all the fruits although I did dry three trays earlier in the week but the skins were awfully tough so I don't think it's the best use of the cherry varieties.

    A further 38 mixed fruit from the greenhouse now the sparrow has escaped. The plants are all looking a bit weary and the allotment ones, although much later to fruit, seem a lot healthier now. I won't be short of tomatoes over the next few months anyway.
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  • malebolge
    malebolge Posts: 500
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    skogar wrote: »
    1st year growing tomatoes, outside as no greenhouse. I didn't really expect it to work. Tomatoes are red alert and 2 types suitable for hanging baskets losetto and 1 that I've forgotten the name of. The red alert was supposed to be a bush tomato but because it didn't seem to support itself was tied to a cane as were the ones that I originally intended to plant in hanging baskets. I didn't really know what Ielse should be done as I wasn't expecting to grow them as cordons. I've had some splitting - it's a struggle to keep up with the watering especially when away for the weekend but the tomatoes seem to be doing well and we've had a reasonable number off so far and plenty still to ripen. The problem is that this year has been so atypical I have no idea if I will be able t get tomatoes to grow outside next year or not. if anyone could give me some basic tips for next year it would be much appreciated as this year has been a bit haphazard. Are you supposed to do anything with bush tomatoes to make them grow more bushy or is it common to have to stake them?
    I've grown Red Alert for some years now outside, and always had decent results, even in cool wet summers like last year. I live in the North West so not a particularly hot part of Britain either. I grow them in large pots, not grow bags and this does have advantages - the plants are raised from the ground so less likely to get slug damage. It's easier to move pots around to take full advantage of sun/move out of areas prone to damage from wind. I've tried using grow bag contents and ordinary compost in the pots and not noticed any difference. Another reason for using pots concerns stakes - much easier to use them in a pot as you can push them in deeper. I've always had to stake my Red Alert; but rather than using 1 cane like I do with my cordon tomatoes, I use 3 or 4 shorter canes. This means I can give the plant support but allow it to spread out more. Other than that, make sure you feed regularly, and remove the lower leaves if they start to yellow as the plant gets older. Not really applicable this year, but in average years, keep the compost moist but avoid overwatering. This can have an effect on the taste of tomatoes, making them bland. HTH :)
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