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There’s lots of growth – of the unruly kind. If these seven were on parade, it would definitely be Home Guard, not Sandhurst.
The sideshoots are pretty substantial and trying to follow the main stem of the plant is now quite tricky. I would have a good old tidy up and pinch them all out – but with blight warning texts on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th – two full Smith Periods in a row. I don’t think now’s the moment.
I commute into London – and between blight texts and Boris’s recorded barked out tannoy annoucements about travelling during the games – I am beginning to feel quite got at!
I’ve always liked the phrase bittersweet and it’s certainly going to come in useful for today’s update on “fruiting”. I am combining blight watch with fruit watch (I’m not a Spring Watch viewer – but think much lower budget, much less action). So each day – the plants are scrutinised for blight (bad) and fruit (good). To date there’s been no sign of either. Which feels a bit like opening an Advent calendar door and finding only white card when you might have been hoping for a glitter festooned manger-gazing donkey.
Until Sunday when I opened the “calendar” door, only to find the devil and pitchfork peering out. A fruit – my first – a Tumbler. But what were the brown marks on the stem below the fruit?
I still can’t decide. I’m not convinced it’s blight. It looked almost too “woody” – where as blight is shadowy and sort of sinks into the flesh of the plant a little – where as this sort of sits on top. But I took preventative action all the same. And then having left an exposed wound where I’d cut off the short stem – I covered it with a piece of tied-on horticultural fleece in the open that would prevent spores entering into the plant that way.
So on tonight’s inspection – paranoia was running high. Shadow? Or something more sinister. There is one plant – not Tumbler which has a dark mark on one part of a leaf branch. But I decided not to cut – but to see what it looked like tomorrow. However while the clouds maybe very low hanging – I suspect it’s more likely that the sand is where my head is.
At the moment it’s dark stormy skies and raining heavily again. This is really not feeling like a summer to remember – well not for the right reasons anyway!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes it’s a dismal, sad summer for tomatoes. On the other hand I’m looking forward to some nice French beans – not that this would be adequate compensation for fresh, home-grown tomatoes! With the constant barrage of Smith period warnings, it’s easy to become paranoid isn’t it?
I don’t think you have anything to worry about – yet. The truss in the pictures seems to be normal, but I can’t really see because of the shadows. The dark mark you mention could be more of a worry, but unless that tissue dies off or the mark spreads, I don’t think that’s a problem either. Neither am I sure that the open wounds in cut plant tissue is much of a problem, but then I’m no expert on these things.
On the positive side: yay for fruits. I hope you have some more lurking under all that foliage. There’s none here yet but plenty of flowers now, and some plants are touching the tops of their tents! There’s also some sideshoots with flowers on, which I might break off to root and give away. I might regret cramming so many plants into the smallest plot in my garden!
I wish I’d planted some French or Runners – then I’d be picking something!
However good news is that the blight seems to have been a false alarm. All the plants are in good unruly health. Leaves on some a bit yellow – what with all the rain, I’ve haven’t actually fed them yet. Time to start now. They each downed about 5 litres of water each today. It was the poor indoor chilli plants that wilted today. They perked up after a long cool soak. I bought them a couple of weeks ago as indoor plants – and to lose them so soon would be very poor husbandry!
You’ve given me an idea about the sideshoots – I have mature ones aplenty. And now it’s dried up I was going to think about a bit of sideshoot severing this weekend – if it’s set to remain dry. If I do that I am going to root them – it would be great to see how long I can keep plants going for- as late as possible given the late/slow start.
And I’ve plenty of flowers and a few fruits – so I’m feeling like looking on the bright side of tomato growing today!