General Chat

After September, is very hard to ripen toms, even in the greenhouse. They need certain light intensity as well as warmth. Best pick them and bring them indoors. After a week or two its doubtful if those that haven't ripened ever will. My wife made several pots of green tomato chutney which is delicious. len

We had quite a few from the plants we got from a garden centre, we had a couple of plants for small yellow tomatoes, like cherry ones but the brightest yellow, and a couple of red cherry ones, which both yielded a good crop. The only problem I had was every time o.h. came in from picking toms or trimming back the leaves etc, he would wash his hands and leave bright yellow stains on the towels. I kept telling him to wash with w-up liquid cos he was using ordinary soap or handwash liquid, and then he should have dried his hands on paper towels, but no, every towel I washed had to be treated with Ace Bleach first!! Enjoyed the tomatoes tho. LIz

I have the pleasure of my neighbour growing them....they come over to my gardenxxx and he says keep emxxx

There is nothing quite like a home grown tomato is there? Well done Len, that is a fantastic yield. Beryl x

Well done, My little girl (shes 6) came home early in the year with a little green thing in a yoghurt pot, its a tomato plant mum, she said. So she watered it everyday and when it got big enough we plant it in the garden, and again she watered it everyday and feed it. I was most impressed I thought it would be dead by the end of the month. Then aug/sept time the green fruit started to turn red and within a few weeks she had her first tomato, and proudly asked if she could have a sandwich with it. But alas that was the only tomato she had, the plant got infected by a bug and died :-(. But it hasnt put her off, shes informed me she wants to do cucumbers next year with some runners beans up the back fence!

Well done Len, my Dad always grew the loveliest tasty tomatoes, so much so the locals in Cornwall called him the tomato man.......we tried to grow some from plants in his greenhouse this year......they all failed......needed his gentle hand I think.....

For several years I have bought seed and grown plants in my small greenhouse. In 2005, I bought a packet of 'approx 20' seeds (there were only 17) for £3.80 and kept 7 of them from which I got 35lb of fruit. This year, I extracted and planted seeds, dozens of them, from a supermarket over-ripe tom. I retained 7 plants (giving the rest away) and harvested 46lb of fruit. Len