Which come first, the ripeness or the slug?
 

Hi,

struggling to get my outdoor pot grown tomatoes to ripen this year (apart
from the cherry tomatoes which are doing fine).

Each time I see a ripe tomato and pick it, I find that it has been 'got at'.

I am now pondering if the tomatoes are attacked just as they ripen, or if
the damage causes them to ripen more quickly.

No need to water them today, although I will need to right the ones which
have blown over once the wind eases.

My mini-greenhouse (plastic bag over a frame style) has just blown right off
my pepper plant, which seems to be doing better than the peppers growing out
on the patio.

What a nasty day :-(

Cheers
Dave R

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On 13/9/04 10:34, in article , "David W.E.
Roberts" wrote:

Hi,

struggling to get my outdoor pot grown tomatoes to ripen this year (apart
from the cherry tomatoes which are doing fine).

Each time I see a ripe tomato and pick it, I find that it has been 'got at'.

We find it's blackbirds that go for the tomatoes.
snip
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in news:2ql7stFv6banU1@uni-
berlin.de:

I am now pondering if the tomatoes are attacked just as they ripen, or if
the damage causes them to ripen more quickly.

I'm not sure about tomatoes, but I have observed the same phenomenon with
my strawberries.

After some pondering, I decided that they *probably* just spot the ripeness
quicker than I do: after all, if you are a slug, you can sit underneath the
fruit all day long, just watching...

(for those with long memories, the ants that made a speciality of hollowing
my strawbs out from the inside seem to have vanished.

I'm now feeling really guilty, because I used one of those evil anti-ant
sprays in the greenhouse in a fit of fury at being scuttled over one day.
I didn't think it would spread its evilness abroad, but *all* my ants seem
to have up and left me now. :-(

I'm hoping it's either the rain or that they objected to being posted about
in urg: I did not intend an ant genocide!)

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
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