Tomato Growing 2025

Harvesting continues:

 

Some cherry rosella trusses and sungold

Also loads more from both outside and in

 

That's a nice crop @Hanglow
I pondered about getting Rosella - is the flavour good on it? I got Garnet instead as a dark one. It's quite nice, and I'm getting a small crop now. I only have 2 plants as I gave one away, and one is outside, so it's pretty slow, but the fruits are fairly similar in taste to the Sungolds, which I love. I'm getting a sudden crop of Toddler, but I'm not very impressed with it - a bit tasteless, even when left to ripen really well.

They've all been slow this year, so they're all arriving a bit late, and it's getting to the point where salad isn't really going to be eaten much - soup will be more often consumed. I think a lot of sauce will be getting made with those Toddlers too!

 

My Veranda Reds are suffering from Tomato Moth. I found the caterpillar a couple of days ago, didn't know what it was and googled it. Hmm, the fact that it's actually called "Tomato Moth" doesn't bode well!

I haven't been able to find it since to dispose of it, but I'm seeing plenty of evidence of its presence in chewed up tomatoes. So, if you see one of these fellows, pick it off and chuck it to the birds immediately. I'm now going to pick everything as soon as it starts colouring.

 

Today's harvest:
At the top, the red is Outdoor Girl and the yellow is Ola Polka.
The 4 at the bottom are Gartenperle.
The rest are Veranda Red (and I've just found and ejected a caterpillar, though I'll be surprised if there aren't more lurking in there).
Plus the obligatory courgette - Defender - they've been producing very well.

 

I think tomato moth is an American beastie, however I do have issues with Silver Y and Hebrew Character moths most years, generally nocturnal and like the Mullein moth big hungry caterpillars and small moths.

 

Not done brilliantly with tomatoes this year, crops have been relatively small, don't know whether it's the growing media, the hot weather, the cold spring or some combination of all three.
Black Opal has done well, tends to split as does Gobstopper (thank you @eatenbyweasels for the seed) this has also cropped well. Everything thing else has cropped sparsely, but with good flavour.

 

It's a native species, also called the Bright-line Brown-eye.

Bright-line Brown–eye or Tomato Moth and caterpillar (Lacanobia oleracea) | Wildlife Insight

 

The Americans have this Manduca quinquemaculata which is what Google AI flags when you feed it Tomato Moth.

 

Well, that's the greenhouse almost done for this year. Just three dwarf plants and some peppers left.

 

This is the first year in a long time when we haven’t grown at least one tomato.( we only have a small greenhouse but big enough for us). After seeing everyone’s harvest now I am regretting it so am determined to get a plant again , next year, and resume play! Plus I miss eating them straight from the plant.

 

wow cool! never seen any damage on my toms other than disease and slugs. i imagine this guy has tastier plants. perhaps also because i grow in pots there would never be a 2nd generation the year after.

the one pest i do get on tomatoes is a thrip, but only tiny marks. it seems to avoid peppers and physalis but really likes my black nightshade which is closer related to tomatoes.

speaking of, after last years failure i bought some more seed and had success! they are now forming little fruitlets in only 2 months from sowing

 

My plants are in pots too. I have Veranda Red, Ola Polka and Gartenperle all lined up against a wall, and so far I'm only seeing the problem on the Veranda Red. I picked off another caterpillar this morning and noticed that they are munching the green tomatoes too. I'm not going to fret about it too much as I'm already picking faster than I'm eating!

 

For those interested in heirloom varieties, there is a new site with lots of interest. They are taking orders and will fulfil them as soon as the DEFRA official gets back from his holiday.

The Tomato Lab | Heritage and Heirloom Tomatoes