If you grow tomatoes…

I don't think that I'll solve World food problems with my fruit , salad and vegetable growing talents .
There is one tomato on my plant !

TBH I’m amazed at how well these (only 2) plants have done - I just stuck them in a bed with empty spaces, haven’t fed them at all. One of the initial pair was almost immediately stripped to a bare stalk by slugs*, the other (from Asda) was an Alicante, and would seem to be exactly the same as the first.

*I soon went to war with those, courtesy of beer traps! Which worked astonishingly well.

I always grow many more tomatoes than I need, both in the greenhouse and outdoors. This year I have grown four plants indoors and six outside in pots, growbags and raised beds. I usually leave them on the vine as long as I can, some are still ripening at the moment. I either use them fresh or bottle them whole and also make loads of tomato sauce for pasta and bottle that. I keep an eye on the weather forecasts and if frost is forecast, I pick them all and try to ripen them indoors. If all else fails, green tomato chutney is a good standby!

I think I may as well bin mine.
I usually have tomatoes until about November, too.

This year, zilch.

Most of my veg have been very poor but the tomatoes are doing OK. Strangely those outside have ripened at the same rate as those in the greenhouse. We have had a really heavy crop of blight resistant plum and big beefsteak ones with many kilos still left to ripen. They are really tasty this year. I grew from seed with seven plants in the greenhouse and twelve on the veg plot.

We have hung the plants upside down to ripen the tomatoes but that was in a greenhouse.

Putting them in a drawer works and bananas do help as they emit ethane.

Mine have just about stopped ripening, but lots are splitting, so I have picked them all and taken up the plants. They have been in big pots outside, we haven’t had any rain to speak of here in Essex, so it’s been a struggle to keep watering them. I grew two varieties, Crimson crush and cocktail crush and had a good crop from both, but I really like the big beefy tomatoes which sadly are usually susceptible to blight. Will make soup as they ripen.

A few of the small ones are ripening, one beefsteak, a 3 in 1 odd tomato, that’s it so far, cucumbers ok, but less than usual, beetroot ok, courgettes great and early spuds lovely. I’ve got leeks in, 🤞 no leaf miner and a few parsnips now.

I haven't had so much as one tomato this year.

Neighbours kids using my plants as a goalpost, plus the wind and rain.

All I have is a couple of miniscule plants, with no idea what to do with them or where to put them.

ours are still in the greenhouse and we are still getting new fruit
we haven't really had a massive crop this year compared to others

Jaxjacky

It’s been my worse year for tomatoes, even in the greenhouse.

Same here. In fact, it's been a really poor year for most of our veg, with the exception of our tatties and beetroot. I just finished pickling the last of the beetroot this week, in fact. Also made a spiced carrot chutney.

BevSec

Ours are all harvested. I have found a tomato sauce recipe by Delia for pasta which I have made pots of and frozen.

Different recipe, we've frozen many pots of sauce already.

Granmarderby10 thank you, I will look it up. 😊

BevSec Delias’ meatloaf recipe with that tomato sauce and pasta is truly 😋

Ours are all harvested. I have found a tomato sauce recipe by Delia for pasta which I have made pots of and frozen.

karmalady

I would think that leaving them outdoors, unless blight resistant, is dodgy. Could be a devastated crop. I used to bring mine in from early september and kept them dark, they always ripened eventually

I have had a lot this year, very impressed with the varieties

Thanks, I will watch like a hawk for blight! Had it before with some in pots - I know it goes through like wildfire.

I would think that leaving them outdoors, unless blight resistant, is dodgy. Could be a devastated crop. I used to bring mine in from early september and kept them dark, they always ripened eventually

I have had a lot this year, very impressed with the varieties

Mine are all ripened or ripening. The smaller the variety, the quicker. They are all blight resistant. I have frozen the big ones. I grew too many plants. All outdoors but sunny place by a wall

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202409/medium-242799-img-3186.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202409/medium-75473-img-3185.jpeg

Mind are ripening at last , so tasty , I am eating them off the vine
I accidentally cut a vine off , brought it in its ripening at the same rate
The tiny ones won’t grow much now though

It’s been my worse year for tomatoes, even in the greenhouse.

Mine are still in the greenhouse. DH puts a red card beside them to help them ripen, he says. Don’t really know if it works. I check every day and just bring them in if they look edible. Not many this year though .

We bring tomatoes in before the first frost.

Apart from draping at sundown, frost is enemy.

Ours a ripening very slowly. Strangely the outside ones are ripening at the same time as the ones in the greenhouse.
About 50% are still green.

Thanks, everybody - I didn’t know that about putting them in with a banana!
So they can stay outside for now.

Meant to say that we are a bit further North than you I think Witzend, in Bedfordshire. We haven’t had the heavy rain the South coast has had the last couple of days and it has been warm.