Hi, love the blog. I've been growing tomatoes outside for a few years, all the plants produce a decent crop but as you've already said the challenge is getting them to ripen before the dreaded blight or winter gets them.
I got a great tip a couple of years ago and it seems to do the trick, buy a large bag of bananas each week from July onwards, eat a banana a day (healthy for the gardener too) and then hang the banana skins on the tomato plant branches, i believe they give off ethylene which triggers the ripening process on any surrounding fruit, (has also worked with sweet peppers and chilli peppers). It does look a bit odd but they soon dry and turn black. I started doing the banana skins a few weeks ago and nearly all the plants have ripe tomatoes on them now. Unfortunately the first signs of blight have also appeared, may battle commence :)
I planted them out as soon as the weather allowed which was very late this year. I grow the plants against a west facing garage wall in Brandlesholme, 3 plants to a 'decent size' grow bag, with 2 empty 6" plant pots sunk into the grow bags inbetween the plants for easy watering, I fill each pot once a week with tomorite/water and that seems to keep them happy. I pinch out regularly and trim about half the original foliage off. They're supported with 6 ft canes lent against the wall. In previous years, i've followed advice to cut the top off the plant above the 4th or 5th truss, as this was also supposed to encourage earlier ripening but i'm leaving them this year as i've been given the opposite advice!
Hope this info is helpful in some way. I'll upload some current photos of them and post a link so everyone can see my strange tomatobanana plants.
I got a great tip a couple of years ago and it seems to do the trick, buy a large bag of bananas each week from July onwards, eat a banana a day (healthy for the gardener too) and then hang the banana skins on the tomato plant branches, i believe they give off ethylene which triggers the ripening process on any surrounding fruit, (has also worked with sweet peppers and chilli peppers). It does look a bit odd but they soon dry and turn black. I started doing the banana skins a few weeks ago and nearly all the plants have ripe tomatoes on them now. Unfortunately the first signs of blight have also appeared, may battle commence :)
I planted them out as soon as the weather allowed which was very late this year. I grow the plants against a west facing garage wall in Brandlesholme, 3 plants to a 'decent size' grow bag, with 2 empty 6" plant pots sunk into the grow bags inbetween the plants for easy watering, I fill each pot once a week with tomorite/water and that seems to keep them happy. I pinch out regularly and trim about half the original foliage off. They're supported with 6 ft canes lent against the wall. In previous years, i've followed advice to cut the top off the plant above the 4th or 5th truss, as this was also supposed to encourage earlier ripening but i'm leaving them this year as i've been given the opposite advice!
Hope this info is helpful in some way. I'll upload some current photos of them and post a link so everyone can see my strange tomatobanana plants.
Hi again, took these photos a few days ago. Since then the blight has gone mad, must have thrown 30-40 tomatoes and hundreds of leaves in the brown bin. Eating all the ripe ones straight off the plant and about to do my first batch of green tomato chutney with the tomatoes most threatened (i'm determined to get as much produce from them as possible after all the hard work). Been growing tomatoes for many years now and this is the earliest and fastest outbreak of blight i've had, don't think the banana skins are going to save me this year. Not a happy bunny. anyway the photos... http://www.flickr.com/photos/13952468@N03/
ReplyDeleteThanks Lee. Astonishing! Never seen so many pots. You are clearly a dedicated gardener. As you say it is now a race to grab all the fruit you can and do something with them. I think I am escaping the dreaded blight so far and wonder if it is due to seaweed feed? I read something earlier in the year about watering/feeding with seaweed extract as it helps control all sorts of things including blight. Didn't do it with my potatoes this year and Swift was decimated before it ever flourished! My International Kidney have been fine (in the same bed!) As for the tomatoes I bought Tomorite with seaweed extract in it - so who knows this may have been their saviour. I am doing the banana skins - control test - one pot with and one pot without. Will let you know the results if I haven't left it too late.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing the results of the test. I've not heard of seaweed helping with blight, but it makes sense so will give that a go next year ( it's all about next year :) ) ive got a big drum of concentrated seaweed extract my neighbour gave me for my lawns, perhaps ive found another use for it!. My potatoes have been ok considering the years weather until now but I lifted 3 buckets today and they were either rotten or covered in scab, so got about a meals worth, would normally get 6-8 meals worth. Oh well, keep calm and carry on.
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