The top picture is the roots of a grafted plant and below a picture of a grown from seed variety. Not only are the grafted roots thicker and more numerous but growth took place over a shorter period of time.

The process is officially termed ‘hardening off’. In these days of bootcamp this and extreme that , it’d be rebranded  ‘toughening up’.

It’s the process of taking a plant; a windowsill wuss and making an outward bound, fruiting machine out of it.  Along the way expect a few Grenadier style, hot weather, forward flops.

This is one of the Seeds of Italy plants getting used to being outside. As you can see it’s taking standing at ease to a whole new angle.

The cause: Transpiration. All plants lose water vapour.  About 95% of the water which a plant takes up through its roots, leaves through its leaves. Usually the amount of water vapour going out is adjusted in line with the amount of water being taken in. Thus ensuring the plant remains turgid. Stomata on the leaves open and close guard cells to make this adjustment.

But when plants are first outside they require time to re-regulate. Even if it’s no hotter the breeze/wind factor will be more drying for a plant than inside.

The answer – a long, cool drink. This is the same plant less than an hour later. Back on parade !

Last week the March sown Gardener’s World tomatoes were ready to plant out. What did I learn:

Planting Out

• Ensure the plants are moist before planting out
• Flowers appear – the time to plant out has arrived
• Before planting out pinch out any side shoots from the base of the plant
• Plant up to the top of the root ball ( I plant deeper than this but GW tomato methodology incorporates ring culture which provides for deep planting but in a different way)

Ring Culture

• Did you know tomato roots have different functions?  I’m not sure I’d previously grasped this concept but it seems to go something like this:
  Shallow roots, nearer to the soil surface, specialise in taking in nutrients
  Deeper roots, work down through the soil to hunt for moisture
  Encouraging an abundance of shallow roots – the purpose of ring culture – will boost the plant’s productivity as it will be able to take on a greater quantity of nutrients
• The steps to follow include popping a bottom-less pot over the plant and within the confines of that pot earthing up (piling up compost) around the stem by a couple of cms and continue to do this every week until the pot is almost full

Varieties

• Recommended for the greenhouse: Rosado. Reason – it’s thin skinned and sun through the glass thickens skin. I assume this is in contrast to growing a naturally thicker of skin variety under glass and ending up with tomato hide ?!
• Recommended for outdoors: Go for early varieties. Red Alert, Gardeners Delight, Russian or Eastern Bloc varieties, Black Russian and Koralik which is especially blight resistant.

I’m not sure I want to splash out on special ring culture paraphanalia but if I can find some cheap and cheerful pots to mutilate then I’ll be giving it a go.

Oh – and the GW verdict on the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter “got my doubts” - however they have planted one up so we can see how they get on.

Photo by bobfranklin(truant)

Enjoyed working my way through this article from Mark Diacono of River Cottage. Yes – do/knew that…or No – don’t/didn’t and that’s useful….

But as we know from last year’s tomato leaf pruning exercise , I don’t know when to leave alone, so I’m not going to just let Mark speak for himself but am going to add in my tomato pipsworth as well.

Always grow 3-4 varieties at least. Completely agree. And if like me you’re tomato compulsive, I’d say up to 5 or 6 for different colours and sizes. Having a bowl full of blacks, stripes, yellows, oranges, creams as well as red is its own reward and that’s before you’ve so even as much as shaken a salt cellar at them.

Good Varieties are essential: Gardeners Delight, San Marzano (plum) and Costoluto Fiorentino (large). GD and CF crop up again and again as favourites. I’d also want to add Sungold.

If growing outdoors (‘chancing it‘ was the exact phrase used – which in the week of fading plants did nothing for my nerves!) then grow varieties which ripen more quickly. Cherry varieties were recommended as was Black Krim. Useful to know, as after growing Carbon and Black Cherry last year I’d associated blacks and purples with long maturity periods.

Sow in Jiffy 7’s. Hear, Hear. I did last year, didn’t this and now wish I had.
Pot on when true leaves come through and plant out when plants hit 20cm tall.

Water soil not plant. Tomato leaves and stems hate getting wet. Exactly – and why I have been carefully avoiding doing just that but do they care about my watering solicitousness!? Plus a tip on using water piping to water down deep. Cut off water bottles will also work .

Feed from flowering. If I was in the black chair, the topic of feeding is where Magnus would intone ..and you passed on… When, what and especially when to first start feeding are still my arm gripper moments.

And then after 19 guidance points a piece of advice I should take to heart – which is that even if you don’t feed, pinch out etc you’ll still get a good crop, not as large but still fine.

Here’s looking at you Lemons !

Photo by rubber slippers in italy

Today I’m looking at a new to me but old methodology of growing tomatoes. Growing in straw bales. I’ve not tried it nor seen it done but was fascinated to hear about the technique so wanted to share it.

There are differing recommendations on the detail so I’m posting links to people who have actually used the method.

General principles :

• Newly harvested straw provides a fresh, uncontaminated growing medium for use in a greenhouse environment
• Straw (oat/wheat/barley) bale needs to be small in size and organic( residue weed killer is a no- no!)
• Make a hole/several (depending on bale size ) in each bale, pop some farmyard manure into each hole and let the nitrogen from the manure start breaking down the straw.
• Like a compost heap you can cover with carpet or cardboard to keep the heat in and help it along
• Spray/Soak the bale with water to keep moist and fermenting
• When the bale is ready (advice on how long this takes varies) create a bigger hole for the tomato plant (add compost/not) but essentially plant the tomato in the straw bale
• The plant will get plenty of nitrogen from the breaking down straw but will need other nutrients, so feed with liquid feed and a high potash feed/liquid comfrey for flower and fruiting
• At the end of the season you will have the bonus of ready made soil conditioner in the form of the spent straw

Good indepth article,  good photo and bales used outside, bales used for salads and…… a little extra……I wonder if they grow tomatoes on their windowsills……photos of a straw bale house .

Photo by Matthiasschack

BUT  all is not lost.

Luckily other tomato growers have been organized about saving the best for next year.  AND taken great photos to illustrate how it’s done.

So I’ve bookmarked this  post over Squawkfox for next year’s seed saving know-how.

If you want extra tomato plants there is an alternative to sowing seeds or buying plants. It’s to root new plants from pinched off sideshoots.

The earlier in the season the better to give the plant time to establish itself and mature in time to fruit and ripen.

The technique is to pinch out a sideshoot, put it in glass of water and in a week or two roots should form and appear.  Mine took over 3.

This close up picture is probably around 5  weeks as I’m not intending to plant it but the shoot and roots still look really healthy. It’s now become the central feature of my ‘nature table’ windowsill.

I also found this alternative method of rooting sideshoots which looked interesting and one to try next year.

There are differing approaches to pruning.  Some growers only remove leaves up to the first truss .  Some go further, Hoylandswain is a ‘go further’ advocate. And whilst his plants may be light on leaves they are heavy on tomatoes so I wanted to ask him more about his approach.

Guest Post By Hoylandswain.

The first time I grew tomatoes, I tried something called the ‘ring-culture’ method.  It was an undeniable disaster for me, as, later, were growbags.  The greenhouse was eventually full of festering foliage, foul fungus and fetid fruits.  Noisome nothing was the outcome. 

So here I am, just doing what I think prevents that ever happening again.  

Outside or under glass, I take off all side stems of cordon varieties and, after the first truss has set, start removing all but the top three fully-grown leaves, continuing to keep just three all the way through. 

Why?  Outside, the more leaves, the more likely the wind damage and the greater the risk of blight from rain; inside, the more leaves, the darker the greenhouse and the more restricted the healthy circulation of air. 

I think that the plant then devotes its attention to upward growth and to the fruit, rather than foliage, which makes for better results.

In a summer like this one, I’m convinced that it’s the best way, as the plant tops can dry out very quickly between the downpours. 

 I read somewhere that you don’t need to do this with bush varieties and that seems to be right; with tumblers, I just remove the yellowing leaves, which lets light and air through to the fruits within the growth. 

Pruning cordon varieties lets me pack more plants into a small space, with chilli plants in the microclimate between the rows.   Inside, pruned stems aren’t so thirsty as all those leaves, so the watering lasts longer.  

So, there you are: bitter experience leading to better things.  Here are photos of this year’s red cherries and tumbling toms to show that it does work, especially in the Pennines, where ripening is a bit later than for you down south!

Many thanks to Hoylandswain for his guest post. It’s great to see how other growers get results.

This is my third post in a row on the subject of water, the last of my outpours on downpours.

Today I return to the subject of watering , in relation to splitting, also known as cracking. When cracks or splits appear in the skin of the fruit, sometimes even pushing the flesh and seeds of the tomato through to the outside.

Fruit splitting is related irregular watering. If the plant dries out during fruiting the skin of the tomato toughens. Followed by heavy watering, the inside of the tomato will grow and swell, faster than its skin can develop and stretch to contain it. When this happens the skin splits. 

If the skin splits the tomato is still edible but left on the plant will leave the tomato open to bacteria causing it to rot, so pick and eat instead.

Looking through the seed catalogues some varieties are identified as being crack resistant or very crack resistant.

So far no cracking/splitting on my tomatoes, this post is based on reading only, it would be nice if it stayed that way.

Experience isn’t all its cracked up to be !

But how much ?

How much water do my tomato plants need ?

Precise answers take into account the weather and adjust the amount accordingly. This chart is a good example. However there seem so many variants to consider I’m not sure how precise, precise ends up being.

General answers are based on certain principles :

• Inconsistent watering i.e, drought followed by drowning = bad
• Over watering = bad. Tomatoes like to be moist but not soaked
• Under watering = bad. I guess the ultimate result of this is terminally obvious!  But causes for Blossom End Rot lies with under watering.

So the correct approach to watering seems to be a consistent supply of the right amount. And just as tomatoes hate inconsistent/over/under watering I hate answers like that !

So I’ve settled on my own formula. A starting point of  500ml per day per plant but vary it up or down depending on big plant/big pot or small pot/small plant ( esp the Red Robins ) . I also factor in the left hand side of the garden seems to dry out faster than the right. When it was really hot (remember when!) I did two rounds per day.

I still don’t know if overall this is the right amount although I am consistent with the consistent bit! I rely on seeing a couple of plants wilt a little, perk up after watering and then be fine through to the next day as feedback that it seems roughly correct.

I was struck that even after the heaviest downpours the measuring jug only fills to 300/400ml so I’m watering far more than would be delivered via rain but of course rain soaks deep into the ground where as my plants are isolated in pots and grow bags.

For my plants I am the rain! I guess I won’t know till the end of the summer how good a rainmaker I turned out to be .