Mr. Cuthbert. After Care.

Last week’s extract was on Planting Out. This week follows on with After-Care:

After-Care

When the roots begin to take hold, tomato-plants start growing ahead quickly and developing foliage. As soon as they are well established, an occasional feed of well-diluted manure and soot water should be given at intervals of a week or ten days. Tomatoes need plenty of water at their roots to help the fruit to “set” and swell. This point must be carefully watched throughout their growth, since many tomato troubles are the direct result of lack of water. During very dry periods, I find it most helpful to mulch each plant with peat or lawn-mowings. This keeps the roots cool and conserves moisture in the soil.

Outdoor tomatoes should always be grown on a single stem and should be restricted to four trusses of fruit. ( This, of course, does not apply to the “bush” varieties of tomato, such as The Amateur, which should be “stopped” once when 6 or 8 inches high and then allowed to grow naturally.) As the main stem develops, numerous side shoots will appear in the angle formed by the leaf-joints and the stem. These side-shoots should be removed or “pinched out” when they are still quite small, thus diverting the whole strength of the plant to the development of its main stem. Be very careful, however, not to damage the flower-trusses as they begin to form. As the plant grows and the fruit begins to form, make sure that the stem is secured to its support with raffia ties. Make this a “weekly” task.

At this stage, keep a particular watch for Blight and if there is any sign of it, get busy with a spray.

When the plant has formed four trusses of flowers, it should be “stopped” by pinching out the growing tip of the main stem. The object of this is to “time” the plant so that it can produce and ripen a good crop of fruits before the end of the average season, i.e late September. Many beginners are hesitant to take this necessary step, perhaps in the hope of getting a larger crop, but there are limits to the “productivity” of even the most vigorous tomato plant and if overtax its strength by making it produce more than four or at the most five trusses of fruit, the results will be small, poor-quality tomatoes, or even partly formed fruit which will not swell and ripen.

When the fruits begins to set, the plants should be given a top-dressing to encourage the tomatoes to swell.

If, at the end of the summer, there are still trusses of green fruit onyour plants, these should be removed and ripened indoors before they can be damaged by early frosts.

I think it must be the weather- but I am noticing all the warming-fire references in relation to tomatoes. Wood ash from bonfires dug into plots with Kevs yesterday – and soot water today !