i have mine in a greenhouse, i live in lancashire, and we have less sunshine hours than the south, everyday i have a handfull of ripe toms, and have already made 2 lots of chutney, as for ripening them, if you hang them on there stems in a window in the sun, they will be fine
It has been a superb year for the tomatoes. I have two ten inch hanging baskets each planted with three Tumbling Tom plants. We have had a bumper harvest of over a kilo a week. So many that despite our love of small intensly flavoured tomatoes we are having to distribute them among family and friends.
i was interested to see on this weeks gardeners world that they did not think much of the upside down tomatoe grower. well i have never had much success growing tomatoes but decide to give the upside down a go this year. i have to say it has been brilliant, and i have had a bumper crop, and i will only ever use the upside down grower in the future
Reference comments on green tomatoes having to be turned into chutney - I just place mine on a flat dish (eg flan dish)on the kitchen worksurface and they ripen eventually - and gradually - so there isn't any waste
I grew Maskotka tomatoes from seed. When the plants were large enough I planted them upside down in the bottom of carrier bags filled with Grow Bag compost. These bags have been hanging outdoors and have cropped heavily and produced small sweet and highly flavoured tomatoes. A real success from an experiment which will be extended next year.
I also grow tomato's outdoors but in large pots and have wonderful crops each year loads of jars of chutney and relish, handed this job over to my daughter this year as I have been a bit unwell, but will hopefully be back in the swing of things for next year.the little side shoots that I grew on are also fruiting but have moved these to the greenhouse.
My tomato seeds didn't germinate in spring so I bought some plants.Later they all came up in with other plants that were in the old tomato compost. I have ended up with loads of plants and tomatos.
I have grown tomatoes inside and outside this year and tried Ailsa craig variety. I am getting a bumper crop on both, although the outside tomatoes are not as ripe yet. Both are growing in grow bags or large pots.
'Sweet Million' is designed for grow-bag culture, it is not supported but allowed to scramble in a sunny corner of the patio. It is small and very tasty, alas I have only grown it in the ground in a sunny corner of the allotment. Some grow-bags seem to filled with a lot old wool waste, as you say a pot would do. I think the grow-bag user was envisaged as a non-gardener who just bought the bag and then threw it away at the end of the season, rather than have a store of compost and pots? Really it was just a way of selling peat!
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/25977589@N07/4948305449/
'Peat Free'
Clicked today when visiting a gardener, she had also fed them with Tomorite.