Tomato plants aka Triffids!

We bought Epsom salts in the supermarket, I think it was Asda, it's with the bath stuff.

I'm growing tomatoes for the first time.
What's magnesium deficiency?

Anybody know anything about aubergines? Plenty of flowers but no fruit.

And why won't the teeny tiny ridge cucumbers grow?

Think I need a gardening for beginners thread.

I’ve grown a spaghetti squash for the first time. It’s in a window box type plastic pot but it’s going rampant!!! I’ve never cooked or eaten this type of squash. ?

Ha, @jusnoneed, I went to Boots for Epsom salts - success! - but then went to the Asda right next door where I saw them in the bath stuff aisle! Had never noticed them before. Will spray tonight and ?.

Illte, it’s shown by yellowish patches on the leaves. Apparently common. Mine are in pots, since I have no room in beds (titchy garden) so minerals are more likely to run out. If you google it you’ll see, there’s loads of info online.

One lot of ours are doing well, the others not so. The pepper seeds I took out of a red pepper are growing and have flower buds (the seeds I bought failed to germinate).

We have cucumbers Illte. They are very hungry, thirsty plants; we've picked about 4 so far but the ones in pots are a bit slower. You could try Tomorite, not just on tomatoes.

Good to hear about your peppers, @Callistemon.
My few did eventually germinate but growth was then so painfully slow, it was obviously going to take so long for them to even think about producing fruit. At that rate it would have been November and we don’t have a greenhouse - so I ditched them.

The tomatoes are making up for it, though - that is unless some horrible tomato-virus sneaks in and blights them good and proper.

Whether they'll ever produce red peppers is doubtful. Witzend. Last time I grew them they produced a green pepper each which never ripened from green and each seemed to have a hole in.
It's more of an experiment. They're in pots in a greenhouse.

I've got 2 tomato plants growing in a grow bag that was specifically for tomatoes and, so far, no sign of magnesium deficiency but I've got the Epsom salts on standby. But the amount of growth on them is more than ice seen in previous years and when the reached the roof of the greenhouse, I ended up popping off the tops. Looks like a good crop... if the ripen up.
I've grown a Passandra cucumber in a 20 litre pot and have cropped about a dozen so far. They don't grow bigger than 6 inches and are perfect for GC to pick. I give them at least 2 litres of water a day and feed 3 times a week on Tomorite.
Peppers have been a disaster this year. Had some flowers but they withered off and no sign of budding fruit.

The other thing to watch out for is Blossom End Rot. We had it a couple of years ago after a hot spell.It's a calcium deficiency, and the fruit starts rotting from the tip. We got this from Amazon, which did the trick. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01H6ZG8I4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=gransnetforum-21&ie=UTF8

That should say a calcium deficiency.

Re calcium deficiency, before I planted them out into big pots, I read online about adding crushed eggshells to the compost. So I carefully saved a load of crushed eggshells - and then forgot to add them!
Such a prize twit!

I usually grow my tomato plants in the greenhouse but with the amazing weather this year I moved them outside. They are going potty. It's hard to keep up with them. I grow the little bite size ones so I do tend to
pick a few everytime I walk past them. Really great year for them & the whole garden too.

Yes, I’ve used Epsom salts and this year for the first time I spray them each month with a much diluted solution of soluble aspirin - apparently this produces more fruits and they are also sweeter. They are not quite ready yet, so I’ll have to wait and see. Your variety sounds like ‘Gardner’s delight’ but there are so many varieties, it could be one of many. Bon appetit.

If it’s the older, bottom leaves it may just be that they’re old and it’s natural. I’ve been growing tomatoes for about 10 years and found this is more likely than magnesium deficiency. In the early days I tried Epsom salts but didn’t see any improvement (sorry). I have more trouble with blossom end rot....not this year so far?.
With regards to the variety, they’ll be similar to whatever variety the supermarket ones were but are unlikely to come true as commercial ones are F1 hybrids and don’t breed true to the parent. But you’ll still get some lovely tomatoes and maybe even better than their parents. Good luck!

Patticame123, I used to grow Gardeners’ Delight in big pots many years ago when we lived in Oman - no lack of sun there! Had to get my mother to send the seeds, couldn’t buy any such thing locally.

Neighbours on our construction camp (dh is a civ eng) were mostly Greek Cypriots who initially scoffed at my tomatoes, because they were so small - ‘Like grapes!!’

But that was before they tasted them - I had so many, I often gave them away.
One of the initial scoffers even asked me for some seeds!

Yes, I read about spraying the tomato plants with 1 aspirin dissolved in a litre of water, strengthening the immunity towards diseases like blight and mildew.

I've got 3 varieties of tomatoes: Alicante, Gardeners Delight and Tumbler. All going very well but I'm struggling to get to the 2 in the greenh because the cucumber is like something out of Little Shop of Horrors!

We are fighting mildew on the tomatoes. Managing it so far, but if it gets a hold you lose the whole crop, has happened to us twice in 15 years. Trick is to keep up with copper sulphate (it's o rganic). Especially if it's rainy, hot and humid. We're spraying it at least once a week at the moment.

Even here in SoF, although quite high, cucumbers are a lot better under glass, tend to be a bit bitter without.

Green peppers won't turn red without lots of sun.

Bit early for aubergines.

I remember seeing fabulous tomatoes growing on waste ground in Madeira. I think a house had been demolished there and perhaps veg had been left in what was once a garden. I'm trying chilli's this year from seeds I took from a scotch bonnet chilli. They germinated within days. Love all this experimenting we're doing.

Bought a red pepper plant. Doing well with plenty of fruit but, golly, they're staying a very dark green and it's been ages now. Can't decide if I'm being too impatient or the plant was wrongly labelled initially. Any experience, please?

Try using a paintbrush to transfer the pollen from the male to female plant on the aubergines.The female has a bump behind it

Twin tomatoes from one flower! Is this at all common, dear experienced growers, or is it a sign of some disease/deficiency I haven’t heard of??
All the others look perfectly normal and healthy.

Tomatoes grown from seeds given free with magazine in 2009, recently found in drawer.

My tomatoes are nothing to write home about this year, but I planted three date stones in April - one from a date I picked up in the Al Ain oasis in Abu Dhabi last November and two from a box of dates given to me by a friend in AD for Christmas.
They suddenly pinged into life about a month ago in the airing cupboard and are now each about a foot high. Should I be worried?. ??