by Sally on March 11, 2010
Grow It! – More beetroot on the cover but inside, the real star of the show is given recognition.
A report commissioned by B&Q, set out to identify home growers’ favourite crops. Up there, at number 1, with 47% of plots growing them: Tomatoes.
And whilst lettuce and potatoes came 2nd the % of plots growing them dropped to 23%.
So how should we look after our home-grown stars ?
April is all about Greenhouse Tomatoes:
If the soil is warm enough and cover provided when needed for late frosts, tomatoes can be planted out towards the end of the month. This sounds like good advice which builds on KG advice.
Although there’s been no frost for a few days here in a mild part of the UK, it’s been a cold wind that blows and difficult to imagine tomatoes flourishing in an unheated environment in just a few weeks time. So I think the advice on end of the month planting and providing protection is worth making.
Border soil gets addressed. The conclusion being, planting directly into the greenhouse border is once more becoming popular due to the option of using plants grafted onto soil borne pests and disease resistant rootstock. I’ve seen reviews and reports on grafted tomatoes but hadn’t made the direct connection to that type of plant bringing border soil back into vogue as planting medium.
Advice on knowing when plants are ready for planting out, is they should be stocky, thick stemmed and the gaps, between the leaves, up the stem, small. This is in contrast to thin weak plants on which the 1st truss of flowers higher on the stem. (Having the truss weight higher up affects the plants ability to support itself).
And guess which better describes my plants last year…I really want to work on seeing if stocky not leggy can be my watch word this year.
So a piece of advice to help me achieve that is to keep the root system slightly dry as this will result in sturdier plants which will be more likely to flower while young….
Was there ever a subject more vexed than watering and how much is too little and how much too much !?
I’m also pleased to pick up a handy term of reference… ‘Cropping position’. Previously I’d not settled on a single term for that final transplant. Now I’ve found one that descriptively fits the bill!
Advice given on how to transplant into the Cropping position is to plant deeper than in the pots the tomatoes are being moved on. This enables the plants to grow a larger root system as new roots will grow from the buried portion of stem. I did this last year, partly to overcome the legginess and it did work. Although it won’t over come the first truss having developed higher up the stem than is ideal.
The bottomless pots get another name check (see also tomato rings or ring culture). Last year I didn’t do this but will. As a method it gets too many mentions to ignore!
When the tomatoes are transplanted into their Cropping position they’ll need a good water to make them feel at home. Like us all, when they feel at home, they’ll spread out and establish roots.
And finally, whilst not yet featuring in top ten home grown crops, I enjoyed the article on growing your own peanuts. Start either by cracking the shell of a shop bought monkey nut and sowing it (nut inside cracked shell) or the serious grower can ‘shell out’ for a specific variety ‘ Jimmy’s Pride’ !
by Sally on March 10, 2010
With so much in April’s Gardening Magazines, I’m going to cover each in turn. Starting with Kitchen Garden; Beetroot on the cover but plenty of tomato titbits in-between.
Handy Tips for Making Life Easier:
- Soft Tie, flexible tie for tying in stems to supports, a quick alternative to cutting length of string and figure of 8 knots.
- Reusable Grow Bags; 23 cm deep, holding 90 litres of compost, an upgrade on the amount held by the ready-mades and your own choice of compost.
Recommended Tomato Varieties:
- Readers Top Choices: Sungold, Gardeners Delight and Tropical Ruby
- Grown by regular contributors, Stream Cottage: Amish Paste, Pink Oxheart, San Marzano.
Greenhouse Tomatoes in April:
If you and your tomatoes dwell in the milder parts of the UK, and have an unheated greenhouse, come April, as long as the temperatures undercover, don’t drop below 10 -15C, (they can cope if they go below but only for a short period) tomatoes can go into their final growing position.
They’re ready for the big move when they reach 20cm high, are sturdy looking and the 1st flower truss is beginning to open. (I didn’t do this last year. I was planting outdoors but they’d been in their final positions quite a while before 1st flowers appeared. I’m going to need to research – did I unknowingly broke a golden rule ?!)
If planting in rows, plant Cordons 45-60cm apart, allowing more room between them if it’s a very vigorous variety being planted. An additional 30 cm, which added to the stated range, would space them somewhere between 75cm and 90cm apart.
Growing in the greenhouse offers 3 options for where to plant:
- The border, directly into border soil
- Grow Bags
- Pots
Different things can be said of each:
- The volume and depth of soil in the border will mean less feeding and less watering are required than with bags or pots. But putting tomatoes in the same border space each year results in soil borne diseases.
- Grow Bags on the other hand mean fresh, clean growing medium every year. The problem of shallow compost can be addressed by the use of compost filled, bottomless pots which sit on top of the bag compost . However what can’t be changed is bag length. And even limiting planting to two per bag won’t allow for the ideal spacing in-between plants.
- Pots: Big is best, a volume of 15 litres and diameter of 25-30 cms. A tip which I’d not come across before was to fill the pot only 2/3rds with potting compost which allows room for top dressing with fresh compost when extra nutrients are needed. I’m not sure how this sits with the fact you start feeding the plants with a potash feed anyway….. I feel more research coming on to see if this method is standard, recommended practice.
More from the April issues tomorrow …
by Sally on March 9, 2010
These were the varieties sown on the programme last week and descriptions given:
Rosado
Cordon, mini plum, lovely flavour, very sweet and very prolific.
Koralik
Bush variety, brand new variety from Poland, vigorous and reputed to be completely resistant to blight.
Sungold
Cordon, yellow, super sweet, classic, grows indoors or out.
Black Russian
Gourmet, heritage beefsteak, purple to black skin and reddish green flesh.
Can’t be grown outdoors, will need to be in a greenhouse.
Apero
Cordon, baby plum, good flavour combination, sweet and acidic.
So 2 of my choices are there – Rosado and Sungold. And I’ll be really interested to see what happens with Koralik . If it’s genuinely completely blight resistant it’ll become an extremely popular variety in next to no time.
Photo by wiccked
by Sally on March 8, 2010
The new spring series of Gardener’s World was back on TV last week. And the first thing they got on with: sowing tomatoes seeds. That’s called getting your priorities right!
This was their advice (my comments):
Timing: Early March is the ideal time for sowing tomato seeds (but if you’re sowing in the house with no greenhouse and planting on outdoors, wait until you can count back 6-8 weeks from your last frost date; it’s no fun sharing living quarters with young, leggy tomato plants, so early March might be a bit too early.)
Compost: Use multipurpose or even better, Seed and Cutting Compost. The reason for choosing specific seed purpose compost is that it’s not loaded with food and so has a low salt content; salts in food inhibit germination. (Seeds come prepared; they pack their own food to see them through the first steps of life and don’t need extra from compost. However when their own resources are gone they’ll need to be in a bigger pot with fresh, food-filled compost.)
Seed compost is also finely sieved which results in smaller grains. Smaller compost grains make the likelihood of contact between the seeds and the compost greater which helps with germination. (Seeds are small, if they get stuck in an air pocket between the granules of compost, they’re not going to get exposed to the moisture they need to make germination happen.)
Fill and Settle: Fill a 4’’/ 12 cm pot right to the top with compost.
Give a little tap down (tap base of pot onto work surface) to make sure the compost settles (helps get rid of air pockets).
Gather the pots in a tray.
Watering: Give the compost filled pots a good watering. Use a watering can with a rose fitted. Once the pots are well watered, check to see if watering has displaced any compost. If so, smooth it out so it’s nice and flat again. (A flat, even surface is good sowing surface.)
Opening the seed packet: Use scissors. If your hands are wet and muddy, you run the risk of getting the seeds wet. This matters if you’re intended only to sow some of the packet and hold some back for next year. ( And if you are keep them somewhere cool and dark.)
Sowing: Put seeds onto palm of your hand and then tap the seed out, from the crease of your hand, down onto the surface of the compost. Spread out evenly. A 4’’/12 cm pot will take about 8 seeds.
Final Steps: Cover with sieved compost. If you don’t have a sieve you can disperse the compost through the holes in the bottom of an empty flowerpot.
Put in a warm spot and they should spout in a couple of weeks.
Tomorrow – The 5 tomato varieties sown by Gardener’s World.
by Sally on March 6, 2010
Two weeks ago I listed some of the other nutrients besides the key three (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) needed by plants. Here are the rest:
Boron
Boron is like Calcium, in that it affects plants in different ways (I.e. insufficient calcium causes Blossom End Rot in tomatoes and Bitter Pit in Apples). Boron deficiency shouldn’t especially be a problem for tomatoes and tends to happen when soil pH is above 6.8.
In the variety of plants it does affect it shows up as the blackening/death of the young growing points of leaves and shoots or if fruit (apples/pears) are affected corky patches inside the fruit.
Molybdenum
Rare deficiency usually occurring only in low pH soils i.e. 5. Only the poor Cauliflower really suffers from the lack of it, showing their distress through twisted, narrow leaves.
Copper
It’s unlikely that a soil would be deficient in copper. It’s a condition which could occur in peat or sand soils but if it did, Tomato plants would get bluish leaf colouration.
Zinc
Not a common deficiency and associated with a high soil pH. 7.5
So really the good news for Tomato plants is that the important nutrients to get right are straightforward – Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. With Potassium taking on extra importance for fruiting. Plus Magnesium and Iron . And Calcium.
So fresh compost, Tomorite or the like when fruiting and sufficient,regular watering should hopefully do the trick.
by Sally on March 5, 2010
Or less poetically, plunging my hands deep into a large bin of fresh, crumbly compost, grabbing handfuls of it and fillling seed trays.
A quick shake of the packet and the first of this years tomato seeds are sitting in the palm of my hand. A moment’s pause to think of what magic this tiny entity holds within it and then into the seedtray . And so the process begins.
These seeds are lodgers. Starting life in a borrowed greenhouse but with the sun high in a brilliant blue sky as I sowed and the greenhouse themometer creeping up to 24C, I think they’ll be happy with their lot.
I’ve popped in some seeds left over from last year – Black Cherry and Tigerella. And from this years choice – the Yellow Balconi for hanging baskets.
I’ll be starting here with my indoor propagator , in a week or so but in the meantime it was a joy to sneak in a little bit of early sowing.
by Sally on March 4, 2010
It feels like the curtain might go up on Spring any day now but even so, here in the UK, the bite of a home grown tomato is still a long way off.
But somewhere in the world, 2010 tomatoes have arrived:
New Zealand in February – aren’t they beautiful ?
Photo (and tomatoes) by shaunnz
by Sally on March 3, 2010
So what would a Michelin starred chef do with 40kg of home-grown tomatoes?
Here’s the index of Paul Merretts’ home grown tomato recipes:
- Aubergine, Tomato and Coriander Salsa
- Tomato and Chilli Jam
- Roast Pepper Stew with Red Onion, Sausage, Tomato and Courgette
- Tomato Soup – either hot or chilled with Basil
- Warm Tomato Tart with Rocket Salad
- Crispy Squid with Fennel, Tomato & Lemon Coleslaw
- Warm Chorizo Salad with Rocket, Little Gem, Oven Dried Tomato and Parmesan
- Panzanella style salad with tomato and Little Gem lettuce
- Oven Dried Tomatoes (sliced in half, sprinkled with garlic, thyme leaves , salt and olive oil and popped in very low oven – 50C – for 2 hours)
And for the ones which don’t turn red in time:
- Green Tomato Salsa with Spring Onion and Green Chilli
- Green Tomato Chutney
- Fried Green Tomatoes
- Cucumber, Green Tomato and Mint Raita
They all (as do the non-tomato recipes) sound absolutely delicious….I’m looking forward to trying as many of them as I can in my very non Michelin starry kitchen.
Photo by Carly&Art
by Sally on March 2, 2010
I always enjoy reading gardening tales; especially those where the sowing and growing is done by fellow first timers.
And I’m partial to a pun, so that made ‘Using the Plot’ by Paul Merrett (of the TV series Gastronomy Economy, where he came over as ‘down to earth’ ) a must read.
‘Using the Plot’ follows his first two years as an allotment novice. His mission – to grow produce enough to keep his family out of the supermarket and become a family who digs together… a task which proved tougher than the first.
The book’s a mix of allotment diary and recipes; the recipes being digging-worth-it-delicious.
And the tomato growing:
A rotational 3 bed system with tomatoes in the legume bed along with beans (runner and broad), spinach, lettuce and sweetcorn.
Varieties grown: a large beefsteak (Nigel Slater would not leave us wondering which) and Gardeners Delight. Harvest in the 1st year; 40 Kg.
The 2nd year (’07) got off to a very wet start and tomato blight arrived on the allotments late May. Followed by the survivors becoming overwhelmed by the companion planted Marigolds, which instead of growing nicely, got competitive.
Which as I’m planning on experimenting with companion planting this year, is a useful insight into the character of the Marigold.
Tomorrow – tomato tantalization from the recipe section.
by Sally on March 1, 2010
Today felt like hope. According to the man on the radio, the desperate weather of recent days has gone to bother the Baltics and we’re in for a few days of sun and warmth.
Touching 10C in the South, warm enough for a tomato plant to survive outside. Although try it and it would turn out a Cinderella life, cut short by the hard frosts which creep in after dark and hold fast, sparkling and dazzling like cut glass slippers in the morning sun.
Photo by epSos.de
