Hooray - a couple of outdoor Gardeners Delight are starting to go a bit orangey - still lots of dark green marbles though.
I could also kid myself that the Gold tomatoes (can't remember exact variety) might be changing hue (they are also outside)
I might even get to eat some of my own tomatoes before it's time to pull the plants out.
Have stopped them shorter than I would normally do to channel all their energy into ripening the existing fruit and have also removed about a third of the leaves to increase sun exposure.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Topbird, they don't need sun exposure to ripen. It's down to temperatures. That's why toms will ripen indoors. The plants still need the foliage, though losing a third at this time of the season probably won't hurt.
Ok - thanks Italophile. I realise the temperatures are the most critical factor and the fact that we had a long very cold spring and we've also had temps down to 3 - 4C at night in the last few weeks (in East Anglia - in August for goodness sake!!!) won't have helped things at all.
There are still plenty of leaves left on the plants but most of the gardening programmes here recommend cutting off quite a few leaves to aid ripening from mid to late season depending on how they are doing.
The tomatoes will start slowing right down in about 4 weeks time (unless we get a real Indian summer) so I thought it best to concentrate on ripening the few fruits I have -rather than allowing the plants to continue to produce fruit which will not ripen this season.
Out of interest - how often would you recommend watering tomatoes in a large (6' x 4' x 2' high) raised bed? The top foot of soil dries fairly quickly so I am watering thoroughly (1 gallon per plant) about every 6 days (plus any rain we get - not much) and have been feeding every other watering since the fruits started to swell. The plants look good and healthy and the fruit is developing & swelling well. We just haven't had enough sun / heat to ripen the fruit.
I think we tend to over water tomatoes in the UK - they produce the best fruit in the hot dry mediterranean countries. What do you think?
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
No, temps down to 3 or 4 won't help ripening. That's crazy for August. I've still got overnight temps in the mid-20s though it looks like the daytime temps - which have been in the high-30s for a couple of months - will settle down into the high-20s. This year has been a return to Italian summers of old, last year's was very mild.
I think toms tend to be overwatered everywhere. And over-fertilised too. Pampered, basically. Toms are incredibly sturdy plants that respond best when left to their own devices. Mine, in the ground, are never fertilised more than twice in their lives. Once, a couple of weeks after planting out; once more later in the season.
In fact, this year, they haven't been fertilised at all because I've been busy with other things. The crop has been slightly down but only because the temps up on my terraces, surrounded by dry stone walls, have probably been in the mid-40s. For June and July, when a lot of fruit would usually be setting, it was simply too hot. The flowers were frazzled in the heat before they could do their thing. I took cuttings in anticipation of the heat and planted them out about a fortnight ago. They're growing full steam ahead, plenty of flowers developing, so I should have a decent second crop into autumn.
Your watering regime sounds okay, certainly a lot better than daily watering which is all too common, particularly in milder weather. Deep, infrequent watering sends the roots deeper into the soil. They're likely a bit deeper than the top foot of soil so they're probably happier than you think they are.
They sound like they're happy, though. All you need is some warmth!
We did have a really hot spell at the beginning of July when temps were in the high 20's for several days. The response of the tomatoes and courgettes was really noticeable and both started setting fruit almost straight away.
The courgettes are in the same bed as the tomatoes and I water those twice a week (they probably get about 2 gallons of water each per week) and feed them about every 10 days. I'm sure that the tomatoes will be getting a little bit of that too so maybe I can stop feeding the tomatoes altogether now.
Fingers crossed I get at least a small to medium sized harvest - a lot of people in the UK (especially in the north) seem to have binned their tomatoes already.
Would love a little italian sunshine over the next few weeks
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Frankly, I wouldn't bother feeding the toms anymore at this stage of the season. Once fruit begins the process of ripening the plant has no real role in the process. Save the fertiliser for next season.
Posts
Hooray - a couple of outdoor Gardeners Delight are starting to go a bit orangey - still lots of dark green marbles though.
I could also kid myself that the Gold tomatoes (can't remember exact variety) might be changing hue (they are also outside)
I might even get to eat some of my own tomatoes before it's time to pull the plants out.
Have stopped them shorter than I would normally do to channel all their energy into ripening the existing fruit and have also removed about a third of the leaves to increase sun exposure.
Topbird, they don't need sun exposure to ripen. It's down to temperatures. That's why toms will ripen indoors. The plants still need the foliage, though losing a third at this time of the season probably won't hurt.
Ok - thanks Italophile. I realise the temperatures are the most critical factor and the fact that we had a long very cold spring and we've also had temps down to 3 - 4C at night in the last few weeks (in East Anglia - in August for goodness sake!!!) won't have helped things at all.
There are still plenty of leaves left on the plants but most of the gardening programmes here recommend cutting off quite a few leaves to aid ripening from mid to late season depending on how they are doing.
The tomatoes will start slowing right down in about 4 weeks time (unless we get a real Indian summer) so I thought it best to concentrate on ripening the few fruits I have -rather than allowing the plants to continue to produce fruit which will not ripen this season.
Out of interest - how often would you recommend watering tomatoes in a large (6' x 4' x 2' high) raised bed? The top foot of soil dries fairly quickly so I am watering thoroughly (1 gallon per plant) about every 6 days (plus any rain we get - not much) and have been feeding every other watering since the fruits started to swell. The plants look good and healthy and the fruit is developing & swelling well. We just haven't had enough sun / heat to ripen the fruit.
I think we tend to over water tomatoes in the UK - they produce the best fruit in the hot dry mediterranean countries. What do you think?
No, temps down to 3 or 4 won't help ripening. That's crazy for August. I've still got overnight temps in the mid-20s though it looks like the daytime temps - which have been in the high-30s for a couple of months - will settle down into the high-20s. This year has been a return to Italian summers of old, last year's was very mild.
I think toms tend to be overwatered everywhere. And over-fertilised too. Pampered, basically. Toms are incredibly sturdy plants that respond best when left to their own devices. Mine, in the ground, are never fertilised more than twice in their lives. Once, a couple of weeks after planting out; once more later in the season.
In fact, this year, they haven't been fertilised at all because I've been busy with other things. The crop has been slightly down but only because the temps up on my terraces, surrounded by dry stone walls, have probably been in the mid-40s. For June and July, when a lot of fruit would usually be setting, it was simply too hot. The flowers were frazzled in the heat before they could do their thing. I took cuttings in anticipation of the heat and planted them out about a fortnight ago. They're growing full steam ahead, plenty of flowers developing, so I should have a decent second crop into autumn.
Your watering regime sounds okay, certainly a lot better than daily watering which is all too common, particularly in milder weather. Deep, infrequent watering sends the roots deeper into the soil. They're likely a bit deeper than the top foot of soil so they're probably happier than you think they are.
They sound like they're happy, though. All you need is some warmth!
Thank you.
We did have a really hot spell at the beginning of July when temps were in the high 20's for several days. The response of the tomatoes and courgettes was really noticeable and both started setting fruit almost straight away.
The courgettes are in the same bed as the tomatoes and I water those twice a week (they probably get about 2 gallons of water each per week) and feed them about every 10 days. I'm sure that the tomatoes will be getting a little bit of that too so maybe I can stop feeding the tomatoes altogether now.
Fingers crossed I get at least a small to medium sized harvest - a lot of people in the UK (especially in the north) seem to have binned their tomatoes already.
Would love a little italian sunshine over the next few weeks
Frankly, I wouldn't bother feeding the toms anymore at this stage of the season. Once fruit begins the process of ripening the plant has no real role in the process. Save the fertiliser for next season.