Tomato Growing 2025

@Allotment Boy I think I squished a vittoria from Sainsbury's but I've been using my own weedy compost so there could be anything in there. I believe tomato seeds can last quite a while.
Edit
I've just remembered that the vittoria were orange ones and it was hard to tell if the were ripe. Tasted nice though.

 

Ah well it will be a fun detective episode for you.

 

my first toms are still two weeks off I think. The tomatillos even further though the plant is so big it must have a hundred flowers on already. The calyx seems to inflate first and then the berry will fill it out. Its quite ornamental if you like geometric plant growth. Every stem splits into 3 more with a flower on each and it just keeps doing that over and over again.
If they all set by october im going to be over run by them.
My peruviana physalis is doing great and has lots of big calyxes already. Im sure itll make a lot of fruit by autumn, whereas in the first year it only ripened by november indoors. Its growth pattern is wierd also, it just grows in any direction and the flowers start forming on long shoots after the first few leaves. It doesnt seem to branch, just have side shoots like tomatoes do. Its extremely hairy and almost sticky, unlike the tomatillo physalis. Youd think it would be drought tolerant as a result but I wouldnt say it rivals cactii or anything.

 

All my tomatoes are outdoor since I don't have a greenhouse. I have Outdoor Girl which is a non-determinate type, and then 3 different types of bush tomato, two of each in individual pots: Veranda Red, Gartenperle and Ola Polka. I grew Veranda Red last year. All of them are flowering now but no fruit set yet.

@BB3 I have very weedy compost too. I have just been around the bush tomatoes and pulled out 15 young Outdoor Girls, all beautiful little plants and looking better than the ones I sowed and tended did at that stage. Feels like such a shame to chuck them in the compost! There's Veranda Red coming up all over the place too. I only use a small proportion of garden compost in the mix for my pots so it must be absolutely loaded. I'm beginning to think next year I should just fill some pots with the compost and be done with it.

 

@Escarpment . Perhaps you could keep a veranda and paint it a different colour. A nice place to sit and watch your tomatoes grow

 

I'm the same @Adam I - around a fortnight [at least] for first toms. I haven't looked at mine for a couple of days, but they'll be fine. There's a few fruits appearing on the Toddler one. I have one plant outside [Garnet] but it's quite well tucked in. It may not survive well, especially with the recent weather here, and it was a bit odd to start with anyway as it forked and has two leaders, but I'll have plenty of toms with the undercover ones.
I'd love to be able to grow them outside, but it just isn't reliable enough here, even with the obvious changes in the climate. We've had o'night single figure temps here in the last week, which isn't unusual. It just sets them back.
Perhaps it was just those first few Sungolds that were a bit poor @burnie . I can remember some being a bit 'different' early on, but I don't have much sense of taste or smell these days, so I find it hard to tell!

 

My first sungold turned today. Bloody butcher was very tasty, although being the first homegrown one of the season probably accounted for that.

No BER on any of the green fruit even san marzano, so far at least which is surprising as the earliest usually show signs of it

 

Had a couple more Sungolds and the first Gardeners Ecstasy, sun forecast for most of next week, which hopefully ripen more.

 

Spotted my first fruit on the Outdoor Girls this morning.

 

My Minibel seem slow, despite the warm weather. A few fruits starting to appear now and loads of flowers.

 

I am growing Roma, Constoluto Fiorentino and Red Cherry. They are all outside in raised beds or pots as I don’t have a greenhouse. They are somewhat neglected now as every time I have allocated to gardening (I’m a FT working mum) it’s raining! I took great care of them until planting out, as it was lovely weather here in May so I’d move them around the garden to catch the sun then bring them in at night! I haven’t nipped all the side shoots on the Romas (after reading not to) and now they are a big tangled mess of greenery!
All 3 varieties have some fruits now and flowers still to set. I just hope something ripens in time in this climate!
I’ve enjoyed everyone’s updates and will be trying Butchers Blood next time as everyone seems to be raving about it. I love tomatoes and eat lots of them so hoping for a harvest.

 

Hmm well that didn't work then!
I thought I would crack the BER issue by adding some rock dust to the compost mix for the greenhouse toms. I use the Quadgrow system so it shouldn't be erratic watering or lack of water. I have used a two part liquid fertilizer before, but it's not always readily available.
The only other thing I can think of is that it's just been too hot in the greenhouse. I do recall from my RHS course that once temperatures exceed the mid 30s plants just shut down because the enzymes stop working and they can't transpire fast enough to keep up.
These are Shirley.

 

I've had some like that, but I only have one plant in the greenhouse, the ones outside are not far behind and look fine even though they were looking very limp in the 30 + days we had a week or so ago.

 

Hi

I looked up rock dust at the start of the year to use , but after researching I realised it’s a waste of money and it has little value in the garden

spruce

 

rock dust can be good for soil beds but you need good mycorhizial growth to digest it. i would use fertiliser unless you were planting a huge area in bad soil