Tomato Growing 2025

Steady crop this year, but not as large as they have been in the past. Picking the first of the British Breakfast, which is earlier than usual, all the heat I guess, but the crop is less than last year, maybe not so good pollination?

 

How handsome is this mystery variety? I visited the town of Montrichard, France, on holiday last year and "sampled" a little striped plum that was growing outside a restaurant. It was rather tasty, so I saved a few seeds to bring home. I'm guessing it was a hybrid, as the resulting fruits are round and slightly blocky rather than a slender oval and the trusses are far denser than on the French plant. The skins are a little tough but otherwise it's a very decent tomato.

 

I don't have a greenhouse so am restricted to outdoor varieties. Outdoor Girl is just starting to colour, so it shouldn't be long now before I'm picking.


Plenty of fruit on the Veranda Red bush tomato, but still firmly green!

 

Copper Currant churning out the fruit on the front of the house.

 

Another picking today. Don't know, maybe 6kg plus little cherry sized plus de cayenne peppers. Already have 4l of tomato juice preserved as a test version. Checking jars daily because I added a bit of salt only.
I'm thinking of cutting into pieces and freezing some tomatoes.

 

Wow jealous! You lot are tomato professionals.
I made a delicious salsa today from some nice green savory tomatoes, about equal portions diced small, tomatoes, white onion, red peppers and rocket, then drizzled in lime juice. Yum.

 

Congratulations, what a lovely selection of tomatoes.
So far I have had 3 walnut-sized ripe tomatoes. The skins were rather thick, my fault for lack of water, but good flavour.
I have always frozen mine whole, just remove the stalk, put them in a zip lock polythene bag, then straight in the freezer. I can take out as many as I need when cooking. I have also cooked down and sieved batches for passata, which I have frozen.

 

Great successes on here! So satisfying isn’t it that a tiny seed makes us a bowl of goodies. I’m hoping the warmth and sun next week will ripen my Minbels off a treat.

 

I've mentioned before, with this heat the outdoor tomatoes are just as good as the greenhouse ones, possibly better as no BER issue outside.

Inside

Outside.

 

My self-seeder job turned out to be a vittoria - the orange one. I squished a supermarket one last year.
I like the taste well enough, but I was hoping for something more interesting

 

My tomatoes haven’t done at all well this year. Usually by now the GH is a jungle of foliage but they are very weedy. We have had a few fruits but not very impressive. I’m not sure why

Edited to add : mine are grown in the ground so I suspect the soil needs boosting (GH has been up 8 years) but it’s the sudden drop off from last years performance that surprises and puzzles me

 

That is really surprising @Butterfly6. Ours have performed better than I can ever remember. I'm attributing that to the great weather and of course the variety - in our case Maskotka. The four plants in our greenhouse have been producing punnets of tomatoes daily from early June. We've been giving them away to family & neighbours and still have more than enough for ourselves - and they don't look as though they're slowing down either.

Maybe it is your soil @Butterfly6. Ours are in tubs filled with grow-bag compost.

 

My one green house plant didn't do well this year I threw it out a few days ago.

Same variety has been really good outside and I'm having the best crop for years.
Of course if it starts raining it could be the end of those pretty quickly.

 

I ended up picking heavy baskets. Tomatoes frozen, dried, marinated, tomatoes in tomato juice, pure tomato juice. I have no jars left anymore.
But to admit, it's kinda of extensive, as opposed to intensive, method: I have 28 plants between greenhouse and outdoors, and 6 that were planted into pots now removed. Only lower tiers set fruit. The season will end soon.
Today:

 

I have two plants over 3ft tall with no flowers on at all.
I'm using the same compost mix I've used for years.