Saturday 15 June 2013

Tomatoes - a progress report

My tomatoes are looking very strong now. Many of them are about three feet tall, and some of them have their first flowers, though no fruit has set yet.




I have started feeding them now, because they have been in those pots for a few weeks now and the nutrients in the compost will have been considerably depleted. I use "Tomorite" proprietary tomato-food, though later in the year I will try to make some home-made Comfrey Tea (although my comfrey is looking very sparse this year, so it probably won't amount to much!)


This is a flower on "Cherokee Purple". It's a very complex flower for a tomato - almost "double".


Do you see how the upper leaves of the plant in the photo below are curled inwards, almost bunched-up? I used to be worried when this happened, but I researched it and found that this happens when the nights are too cold for the plant's comfort. We humans do the same when we are cold: we wrap our arms around ourselves and clench them tightly. No real harm is done, and the plant will unclench in due course.

6 comments:

  1. What a strange flower, Mark it's rather attractive.
    I am a little concerned that your first flowers are on three foot high plants. I had better get to my greenhouse and measure mine! I'd swear that my flowers are on 15inch high plants.
    Looking again perhaps yours are outside?

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  2. Looking good. I've been doing a bit of tomato maintenance today, tying in and nipping out side shoots.

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  3. Cherokee purple grow great here in the Florida panhandle along with mortgage lifter variety. Our tomatoes are already coming in with temps in the mid 90's ( not the temps that tomatoes like). Your tomato plants are rocking. Thanks for sharing the progress with us.

    Velva

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  4. I like your cuddling in the cold analogy. I'm experimenting with growing tomatoes over winter here, I will have to look out for the cuddling. I'm not sure its a particularly useful experiment as I think we are too cold over winter for them to fruit but we will see.

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  5. Ours are much smaller at the moment.

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  6. Well they do say you learn something new every day!
    I often wondered what I needed to do or what I was doing wrong when my toms curled. Now I know they just needed a cuddle to keep warm ;D

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