GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

Sacha[_1_] · 14-09-2006, 03:23 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 14/9/06 15:13, in article , "michael adams"
wrote:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 14/9/06 14:41, in article , "michael
adams"
wrote:

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
I though I'd mention this to help any budding allotment growers.

Seen on our site this year...
1. Tomatoes not staked sufficiently strongly for the more exposed open
allotment site so they collapse when covered in fruit, it rains adding
weight and it's windy. Make a sturdy wooden/steel goal post type
structure
and tie the canes to that.
2. Indeterminate Tomatoes not pinched out and allowed to do their own
thing.

That's nothing. Tomatoes were first introduced into the UK in the 16th
century from South America. However up until the early 1800's they were
regarded as poisonous and of decorative interest only*. Both on account
of
their membership of the nightshade family and maybe (guess) the fact
that
they're not eaten by any birds or animals. In the UK at least.

You're kidding about birds not eating them, aren't you?! Blackbirds
especially seem to go mad for them!

Oops! I forgot. All mine are under polythene.

So our ancestors were even more dumb than I thought.

Or like me, they only grew them under glass.

;-) Ours are under glass - admittedly with a lot of room for the birds to
fly in and out - so they seem to have everything on tap - a good feed, a
cosy perch and a load of seed and peanut feeders when they fancy a change!

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/