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Prompted by the need to access the shed and having a bit of a Secret Garden moment as I had to brush aside the tomato plants to get at the door I’ve had a bit of a move round this week . Plus once I’d got in I was able to retrieve a table for the Tumblers to perch on so they can try their truss at cascading.
Plants: Sungolds keep growing for gold, nothing else really seems to have moved upwards.
I’ve lost a few side stems, where they’ve bent or snapped and tomatoes with them which is disheartening (the rescued green tomatoes are the ones on the table).
It’s stems lower down where I hadn’t sussed out sideshoots early enough in the plants’ growth. It’s the biggest mistake I’ve made this year in respect of having plants which are manageable, too many trusses on sidestems and not enough on the main stem.
I’ve also took out the growing tip on the taller plants.
Watering: And….. it rained again last week and still plants in pots need watering. Some days I was watering whilst it rained, enough to get me wet but not sufficient for the plants.
But today has been lovely and the rest of this week looks better too. Bring on the sun and ripening.
Flowers: Some flowers and the bees are still busy. I read something about tomato plants getting their 2nd wind and I wonder how these flowers will get on.
Fruit/Crop: I’ve now picked 3 lots, about 1kg in total. Mostly cherry 
tomatoes. Sungold, Garden Pearl and Tumbler plus three Derby Stripe. I love Sungold, a flavour revelation!
Feeding: Now upped to a couple of times a week. On the Tomorite bottle, the instructions for outdoor plants are 4.5 litres of diluted feed per plant every 7 to 14 days.
I only water 500 – 750 mls at a time so have upped the frequency. Plus although they are in pots I wonder if rain washing through might wash through nutrients.
Pruning: Only tatty leaves now.
Disease: Last week I faced up to blossom end root problems.
The horror on the horizon is blight. Reading gardeners’ accounts from North East USA the wet cool summer there has brought blight devastation. There’s a good write up here.
On the weekend I bought some Bordeaux Mixture with a view to preventative spraying. But now the weather looks a bit brighter I’m not sure.
What view or action are you taking on blight ?
Tomorrow a peek at ripening tomatoes; my own and others.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Pretty tomatoes. I love sungolds too. They are my favorite cherry tomato, though Black Cherry isn’t that far behind. Sadly I have blight in my tomatoes and potatoes now (along with some other diseases). It seems pretty pervasive. I’m spraying with Serenade and cutting off any infection I see anywhere. I hope they live a couple more weeks at least. I still haven’t gotten to taste all the varieties I planted. There is so much full sized fruit just hanging from the vine, but not ripening yet.
Hello Daphne. Thank you for getting in touch. My Black Cherry just looks as if it is about to ripen so hoping to get my first taste of that variety very soon.
A very experienced gardener came to coffee today and reported her garden now has blight as it’s been cool and wet here in the UK as well.
Although I’ve been reading of gardeners tales in Portland of soaring temperatures and good pickings. It’s a very mixed year !