Tomatoes

[Doug99]

I'm growing tomatoes for the first time and have a couple of trusses where a single red tomato is ripening alongside its green neighbours. Is this normal? I was expecting the truss to all ripen together.
Cheers all.

 

[KenGMac]

Doug99, good evening.

Fast answer is that your red / green on same truss is perfectly normal, it happens loads of times, almost like a cut and come again lettuce.

Must admit, I ignore the "advice" on the tomato feed products, I feed a small volume of tomato feed with every watering, right from planting them in the greenhouse or in a trug, some of my tomatoes are well over 7 feet tall, makes it easier to pick the fruit at a higher level?

Ken.

 

[Mottie]

I’m a first year allotment grower and I’ve got hundreds of tomatoes. Haven't done any pinching out or staking up. Bit of a mess to be honest but I pick any that have a slight redness about them, stick them in a dish on a windowsill and they are ripe in a couple of days.

 

[sodthisforfun]

The best flavour is when allow them to ripen on the plant

Doug, tomatoes take ages to ripen, more than people expect and one or two to start with is normal. But all of a sudden you'll end up with more tomatoes than you know what to do with!!

 

[KenGMac]

Might be a bit of an old wives tale? but if you leave a ripe [or very nearly ripe] fruit in amongst a truss of green tomatoes it is claimed that that truss will ripen faster??

Likewise at the end of the season. when you pick all the remaining green fruit on the plants, yes you can make green tom chutney, but ahead of that place several ripe tomatoes in to the green ones and a lot of the green will turn red for you?

Ken.

 

[Doug99]

I have a couple of trusses with large tomatoes which has caused the truss stems to bend down due to the weight. They haven't snapped. but have a severe crease. Should I be worried?

 

[sodthisforfun]

Support them if concerned, small cane and tie them up. Sorted!

 

[KenGMac]

Agree with sodthisforfun totally.

Toms seem to be very resilient to bending, slightly damaged truss branches, it is almost as if so long as there is even a small area of the stem that will allow nutrient to get into the branch / truss then it survives?

I had a young Starling in the green house that flapped about everywhere and as a result a stem plus several promising looking trusses collapsed over on itself I have simply lifted it back up and tied it to another stem, the damage was about ten days ago, all is well and everything is still going well [with the patient??]

 

[conny]

I didn't do any this year but last year I strung a catenary wire above the stems and supported them from this. As they grew just simply put more ties off the vertical drops.
Secret is not to tie them tight! LOL

 

[Doug99]

My toms are coming along nicely. Is it the heat of the greenhouse or sunlight that ripens them?
I have a couple of trusses where the occasional green cherry tomato will fall off the truss if shaken slightly, should I be worried?
I also have trusses where some toms have ripened fully red but other toms on the same truss are still green. When should I remove the whole truss?
Cheers all

 

[Mottie]

Picked these the other day. Dropped the same amount round my sisters on the way home. Still have more than that to harvest and that’s just my regular toms. I have twice the total amount of plum tomatoes and they are twice the size but as yet, not one of my plum tomatoes has started to ripen.

 

[sodthisforfun]

My toms are coming along nicely. Is it the heat of the greenhouse or sunlight that ripens them?
I have a couple of trusses where the occasional green cherry tomato will fall off the truss if shaken slightly, should I be worried?
I also have trusses where some toms have ripened fully red but other toms on the same truss are still green. When should I remove the whole truss?
Cheers all

Heat is the thing that makes toms ripen quicker, not sunshine.
Don't worry about losing the odd tomato. Totally normal... and I'd personally just pick the ripe toms off and leave the greens on the plant to ripen, but that's up to you.

 

[KenGMac]

OK may not work but???

I feed my Toms right from the moment I plant them, the result is that i end up with very few green Toms late in the season, and I tend to get a "reasonably" steady flow of ripe Toms?

None of my Toms have refused to ripen, OK some species will ripen later, I have a couple of Yellow Tom plants that ripened several weeks later than my reds?

Could be that the plum Toms are late to ripen, relative to the reds, to assist if it were me I would feed every watering?

As an aside i feed a small amount of feed with every watering, as above right from plantinf in the greenhouse, or outside? not what is advised on the bottle of feed, but after several years I find little and every time gives massive results, both in plant growth and fruit bearing?

Ken.

 

[sodthisforfun]

I find plum and beefsteak toms very late to ripen - I gave up with beefsteak toms in the end as they'd just never get there before the low temps saw them off.

Am not sure about feeding them every day, I don't suppose it's needed if they're grown in good soil, and not growbags. May just be an expense that isn't needed? I may try it next year though and see if it helps!

 

[KenGMac]

As the above post from sodthisforfun.

Beefstake produced for me 2 Toms? but the cherry type i have found produce hundreds of high intensity flavour Toms.over a long fruiting period at times July to now and a fair bit longer.

Ken