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Tomato Puzzlement !
We've been picking tomatoes for the past two weeks or so and whilst the
quantity of fruit per truss is normal, the size of individual toms is very small this year.......about 60% on a truss are the size of cherry types such as Gardeners Delight ! We've never had this problem before. The compost mix, watering, feeding, greenhouse ventilation and variety (Shirley and Gourmet) etc are all as previous years, but the toms are just small ! Even my single plant of Beefsteak type has undersize fruit. No signs of disease or pests. Peppers and chillies using the same compost are great. As most of the toms are ripe or colouring nicely its probably too late to do anything about increasing the size this year but I wonder if anyone has suggestions to prevent this happening in future. Plants are in 3gall buckets on the greenhouse floor. Best Regards...pp |
Tomato Puzzlement !
p. pleater wrote:
We've been picking tomatoes for the past two weeks or so and whilst the quantity of fruit per truss is normal, the size of individual toms is very small this year.......about 60% on a truss are the size of cherry types such as Gardeners Delight ! Same here. Also the total crop is well down on last year. The weather perhaps? Too wet and damp? Mine grown ring culture in very large re-cycled plastic pots about 4 gallon capacity. Peter -- He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled. P.G. Wodehouse 1881 -1975 |
Tomato Puzzlement !
"p. pleater" wrote in message ... We've been picking tomatoes for the past two weeks or so and whilst the quantity of fruit per truss is normal, the size of individual toms is very small this year.......about 60% on a truss are the size of cherry types such as Gardeners Delight ! We've never had this problem before. The compost mix, watering, feeding, greenhouse ventilation and variety (Shirley and Gourmet) etc are all as previous years, but the toms are just small ! Even my single plant of Beefsteak type has undersize fruit. No signs of disease or pests. Peppers and chillies using the same compost are great. As most of the toms are ripe or colouring nicely its probably too late to do anything about increasing the size this year but I wonder if anyone has suggestions to prevent this happening in future. Plants are in 3gall buckets on the greenhouse floor. Best Regards...pp Same as mine also, must be the weather |
Tomato Puzzlement !
"p. pleater" wrote in message ... We've been picking tomatoes for the past two weeks or so and whilst the quantity of fruit per truss is normal, the size of individual toms is very small this year.......about 60% on a truss are the size of cherry types such as Gardeners Delight ! We've never had this problem before. The compost mix, watering, feeding, greenhouse ventilation and variety (Shirley and Gourmet) etc are all as previous years, but the toms are just small ! Even my single plant of Beefsteak type has undersize fruit. No signs of disease or pests. Peppers and chillies using the same compost are great. As most of the toms are ripe or colouring nicely its probably too late to do anything about increasing the size this year but I wonder if anyone has suggestions to prevent this happening in future. Plants are in 3gall buckets on the greenhouse floor. Best Regards...pp Same here, last year the Gardeners Delight were almost golf ball sized, this year they are tiny, like marbles!! And the trusses are extremely elongated. I'm glad it's not just me, I was worried. Kase Manchester |
Tomato Puzzlement !
On 4 Aug, 21:43, "Kase" wrote:
"p. pleater" wrote in message ... We've been picking tomatoes for the past two weeks or so and whilst the quantity of fruit per truss is normal, the size of individual toms is very small this year.......about 60% on a truss are the size of cherry types such as Gardeners Delight ! We've never had this problem before. The compost mix, watering, feeding, greenhouse ventilation and variety (Shirley and Gourmet) etc are all as previous years, but the toms are just small ! Even my single plant of Beefsteak type has undersize fruit. No signs of disease or pests. *Peppers and chillies using the same compost are great. As most of the toms are ripe or colouring nicely its probably too late to do anything about increasing the size this year but I wonder if anyone has suggestions to prevent this happening in future. Plants are in 3gall buckets on the greenhouse floor. Best Regards...pp Same here, last year the Gardeners Delight were almost golf ball sized, this year they are tiny, like marbles!! And the trusses are extremely elongated. I'm glad it's not just me, I was worried. Kase Manchester- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Am I right in thinking this year's summer has been generally colder than last year's (which was, if anything, more rainy)? There've certainly been lots of north and east winds. Maybe it's that as well as lack of sun. |
Tomato Puzzlement !
"Ornata" wrote in message ... On 4 Aug, 21:43, "Kase" wrote: "p. pleater" wrote in message ... We've been picking tomatoes for the past two weeks or so and whilst the quantity of fruit per truss is normal, the size of individual toms is very small this year.......about 60% on a truss are the size of cherry types such as Gardeners Delight ! We've never had this problem before. The compost mix, watering, feeding, greenhouse ventilation and variety (Shirley and Gourmet) etc are all as previous years, but the toms are just small ! Even my single plant of Beefsteak type has undersize fruit. No signs of disease or pests. Peppers and chillies using the same compost are great. As most of the toms are ripe or colouring nicely its probably too late to do anything about increasing the size this year but I wonder if anyone has suggestions to prevent this happening in future. Plants are in 3gall buckets on the greenhouse floor. Best Regards...pp Same here, last year the Gardeners Delight were almost golf ball sized, this year they are tiny, like marbles!! And the trusses are extremely elongated. I'm glad it's not just me, I was worried. Kase Manchester- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Am I right in thinking this year's summer has been generally colder than last year's (which was, if anything, more rainy)? There've certainly been lots of north and east winds. Maybe it's that as well as lack of sun. That's a good point regarding temperature. One of the things we particularly noticed this year was the very rapid and wide temperature fluctuations in the g/house. We were saying only recently that this year seems to be a never ending cool April season....showers and shine. Low dull weather GH temps would rocket within seconds to almost 100 as cloud cleared the sun, then drop to chilly just as quickly. Of course temperature changes are nothing new, but it does seem the swings are maybe more extreme so far......but it could be just imagination and me clutching at straws here? Another thing we've noticed is that the fruit have tougher skins, particularly the smaller ones. pp, in Notts. |
Tomato Puzzlement !
On Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:29:25 +0100, "p. pleater"
wrote and included this (or some of this): That's a good point regarding temperature. One of the things we particularly noticed this year was the very rapid and wide temperature fluctuations in the g/house. We were saying only recently that this year seems to be a never ending cool April season....showers and shine. Low dull weather GH temps would rocket within seconds to almost 100 as cloud cleared the sun, then drop to chilly just as quickly. Of course temperature changes are nothing new, but it does seem the swings are maybe more extreme so far......but it could be just imagination and me clutching at straws here? Another thing we've noticed is that the fruit have tougher skins, particularly the smaller ones. Colder temperatures = harder/thicker skins (Compare outdoor and greenhouse tomatoes) -- ®óñ© © ²°¹°-°² |
Tomato Puzzlement !
In article , p. pleater
writes Another thing we've noticed is that the fruit have tougher skins, particularly the smaller ones. pp, in Notts. That's what we were thinking about the tumbler ones or something similar which we are growing as an experiment in a pot on the patio. They thrived much better and have been cropping for three weeks yet my sungold on the vegetable beds up the top of the garden have yet to get very ripe. We thought it was the variety but maybe I'll have another go next year then as they certainly are earlier. No sign of blight yet! Fingers crossed! -- Janet Tweedy Dalmatian Telegraph http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk |
I grow only Gardeners Delight and in 8 litre pots. I've been cropping for 6 weeks. No problems with size, but I do feed well and cut back if I think they are growing too big so that they won't lose their flavour. Out of a dozen plants one decided not to grow more that 2 trusses. Most of the tomatoes on the second truss were a bit small - down to about one inch- but contained about a hundred tomatoes. Too many to want to count
bigal west wales. |
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