"Chookie" wrote in message

I am unhappy wiht my tomato results. Hardly a tomato from any of my
plants.
The three that I have eaten so far were nice, but that's not much of a
crop
from 7 plants!

:-((

For once, I have have got a superb crop of tomatoes. Mind you, I've waited
about 15 years to have a return of the Great Tomato Glut. They had a rocky
start. I planted on Melbourne Cup day (the time for planting here) and then
because it was still cold, I put plastic sleeves around them and every cold
night I rushed out and covered them and they still managed to get bitten by
frosts in late November. I added 4 more plants after that frost because the
originals looked so sad, but they came back so I had about 10 or 12 plants
all up. I x cherry tom - "Sweet Bite" - superb, will plant it again. 1 x
'Russian' - black one from a friend - also delicious. 1 x 'Monster' - a
beefsteak which normally doesn't grow well here because of the short season
,but it's still powering on and producing well. Several 'Grosse Lisse' -
always a good reliable tom. 1 x 'Tigerella' - hopeless - flavour not good
and too few fruit - won't bother again. Several 'San Marzano' - good and
prolific. Several 'Roma' ditto.

I've bottled puree and made Tom Sauce and today I do Rich Fruit Chutney and
later this week it will be bottling of tomato chunks for use in winter
stews.

This year zucchinis were not too good - also experienced by a friend in
Melbourne - not a lot of them and slow to produce. Corn went beserk - must
be the Elephant poo. Potatoes growing strongly but as it's not time to
harvest yet, I dont' know if the tops indicate a good crop, but if the tops
are anything to go by, I'll have lots of Purple Congos (under a pile of
weeds thrown on top) and whatever other ones my husband planted. Have
rockmelons on vine and couldn't be more thrilled! If I can only get a nice
long Autumn, I may even be able to eat some. Tried to grow these now for
several years but this is the first year I've had a vine produce fruit. I
had sex with the vine by way of a brush so that may be the answer to non
fruiting. Lebanese cucumber in plague proprtions - giving them away like
confetti. butter bean only now beginning to set pods - may not get too many
but they were planted late after inspiration from you Chookie. Silver beet
doing well after a slow start. Chinese veg did well but need to plant
more - now on for young and old as it's time to get in winter/spring stuff.