Anyone growing tomatoes? (The Gardening thread)

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Dallas
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TraderFred wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:43 am
Have had an excellent season myself thus far too.

Tomatoes just starting to ripen, though my cucumbers plants have been fantastic. Producing lots of delicious crisp cucumbers.

The only trouble is , after that video that ShaunWhite posted earlier in the thread, whenever I go to water them, I find myself singing to them, “ cucumba, cucumba, 95 per cent wa tar “ in a largely culturally inappropriate accent !
I'm not growing tomatoe's but last week i threw down some grass seed (first time ever i've used it), to try and cover a mud patch, for a few days nothing, i could even see most of the seeds on the top of the soil still, then two days ago suddenly loads of new grass upto an inch tall had appeared, now its covered most of the mud patch and in some places its grown longer than the orignal grass around it.

I've found myself going to look at it every few hours to see how its changed, watching paint dry might be boring but watching grass grow i've found to be very therapeutic - i wish i'd set a camera up to time-lapse it now.
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Dublin_Flyer
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Derek27 wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:06 am
ShaunWhite wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 7:29 pm
You might get away with your little seedlings if you can't get any plants that are a bit further on, they do seem to have a knack of catching up.
You were dead right about that - exactly 10 weeks on and the little seedling has grown into a monster bush with three tomatoes! :D

Sadly, I don't think there's any chance of getting a chilli from the little plant on the left, and I've abandoned next years plans for bananas and coconuts. ;)
20200807_105743.jpg
Chilli might have been potted on too early Derek. If you let them get slightly rootbound then they stretch taller as their root growth is restricted, but if you transfer to a larger pot when the roots are tiny, then it spends all its energy growing more roots so it's a kinda balancing act between going from seedling pot to middle pot then final pot.
I've been growing chillis a good few years and some are way more difficult than others, too much water/heat/feed and the flowers fall off, too little and the same result. There's a guy on youtube called Chilli Chump you could have a look at, definitely knows his stuff.
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Euler
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This weekend is national save the garden weekend if the weather forecast is anything to go by.
TraderFred
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I know what you mean, Dallas. I’ve also re seeded a patch in the garden after taking loads of dandelions out, and I couldn’t stop looking at it either !

Been good weather for sowing grass seed. The constant rain/ sun seems to be best. I’ve been using that patch magic which has done really well this year. I think the key is not to sow it too early, the ground needs to warm up first, I find that whenever I put some down before mid May it fails.

The patch magic stuff is best put down when lots of rain is expected, saves you having to go outside every hour or so to water it when it gets hot like this. As it does tend to dry out quickly, then the birds come and help themselves to the seed !
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Derek27
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Dallas wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:55 pm
TraderFred wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:43 am
Have had an excellent season myself thus far too.

Tomatoes just starting to ripen, though my cucumbers plants have been fantastic. Producing lots of delicious crisp cucumbers.

The only trouble is , after that video that ShaunWhite posted earlier in the thread, whenever I go to water them, I find myself singing to them, “ cucumba, cucumba, 95 per cent wa tar “ in a largely culturally inappropriate accent !
I'm not growing tomatoe's but last week i threw down some grass seed (first time ever i've used it), to try and cover a mud patch, for a few days nothing, i could even see most of the seeds on the top of the soil still, then two days ago suddenly loads of new grass upto an inch tall had appeared, now its covered most of the mud patch and in some places its grown longer than the orignal grass around it.

I've found myself going to look at it every few hours to see how its changed, watching paint dry might be boring but watching grass grow i've found to be very therapeutic - i wish i'd set a camera up to time-lapse it now.
I don't know if you have hair on your head Dallas, but if you're bald like me you'll appreciate sowing a lawn is like going through the hair-loss phase all over again. :lol: I was stupid enough to photograph my new lawn every day. I got bored of it after a month when I realised every photo was the same as the previous day's, stopped doing it and deleted them all. Now wish I just photographed it every week instead of every day!

I realise now that grass seems to grow sideways. I think if you have a bald patch the roots spread out and new shoots spring from the roots and the lawn takes care of itself. Also realised that being bald means a clean head, no time or money wasted on hairdressers, shampoo, no chance of dandruff, etc. :D
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Derek27
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Dublin_Flyer wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:57 pm
Derek27 wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:06 am
ShaunWhite wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 7:29 pm
You might get away with your little seedlings if you can't get any plants that are a bit further on, they do seem to have a knack of catching up.
You were dead right about that - exactly 10 weeks on and the little seedling has grown into a monster bush with three tomatoes! :D

Sadly, I don't think there's any chance of getting a chilli from the little plant on the left, and I've abandoned next years plans for bananas and coconuts. ;)
20200807_105743.jpg
Chilli might have been potted on too early Derek. If you let them get slightly rootbound then they stretch taller as their root growth is restricted, but if you transfer to a larger pot when the roots are tiny, then it spends all its energy growing more roots so it's a kinda balancing act between going from seedling pot to middle pot then final pot.
I've been growing chillis a good few years and some are way more difficult than others, too much water/heat/feed and the flowers fall off, too little and the same result. There's a guy on youtube called Chilli Chump you could have a look at, definitely knows his stuff.
Cheers DF, It's amazing what knowledge you can aquire on a trading forum. :)
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firlandsfarm
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Dublin_Flyer wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:57 pm
Derek27 wrote:
Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:06 am
ShaunWhite wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 7:29 pm
You might get away with your little seedlings if you can't get any plants that are a bit further on, they do seem to have a knack of catching up.
You were dead right about that - exactly 10 weeks on and the little seedling has grown into a monster bush with three tomatoes! :D

Sadly, I don't think there's any chance of getting a chilli from the little plant on the left, and I've abandoned next years plans for bananas and coconuts. ;)
20200807_105743.jpg
Chilli might have been potted on too early Derek. If you let them get slightly rootbound then they stretch taller as their root growth is restricted, but if you transfer to a larger pot when the roots are tiny, then it spends all its energy growing more roots so it's a kinda balancing act between going from seedling pot to middle pot then final pot.
I've been growing chillis a good few years and some are way more difficult than others, too much water/heat/feed and the flowers fall off, too little and the same result. There's a guy on youtube called Chilli Chump you could have a look at, definitely knows his stuff.
About 5 years ago I picked up a chilli plant from Waitrose just like as they sell growing herbs. Put it on the window cill and picked the chillies as they turned red … and picked, and picked, and picked! We have an Aga which is great for drying things just hang them over the Aga at the back and let them dry out then stored them in jars. We finished the last chilli about 3 years later by which time Waitrose was no longer selling chilli plants! :!: :roll:
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ShaunWhite
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Anyone finding their toms are taking ages to ripen? Mine are, two neighbours' are and on GQT yesterday they said the same.

Hold the front page, I've just found one. So that's a microscopic pizza, and 5lb of green tomato chutney in the bag so far.

Chillis are slow too, and small.
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Derek27
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Location: UK

I've got about 15 tomatoes on my only tomato plant. I don't care when they ripen, I just hope they don't ripen all at once!

Last time I ever grow tomatoes in a pot. I've had to move it to the corner of the garden, it only takes a modest breeze to blow it over!
sniffer66
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We have about 6 plants growing - Sungold variety, bright orange. Just starting to get a few ripe fruit now and they are lovely. Very sweet and full of flavour.
TraderFred
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Been enjoying mine for a couple of weeks now too. Got a nice variety this year, grown on a single stem , gone for quality over quantity. Golden sunrise, super maramande, gardeners delight, and Ailsa Craig, all have given fully ripe fruit so far, both greenhouse and outdoors.

Mine were late last year, didn’t get any ripe ones until first or second week of September.

Had a successful year all round this season, been self sufficient for salad for the last month or so now. Lettuce, cucumber, carrots, spring onions, tomatoes, peppers, all much nicer than supermarket bought stuff.

Wish my trading was as successful as my tomatoes. Still, at least I’m not going to go hungry.

Only losers were my broccoli and kale. It all got stripped to the stem by caterpillars, they absolutely demolished it.

So my greens ended up as nothing, and my reds just keep on getting bigger, sounds familiar!
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ShaunWhite
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Oh FFS. I've haversted my solitary red tom and it's got end rot. Not good news for my post-Brexit trade deal with Kraft Heinz and even worse news for the salad Nicoise I'd planned for tonight.
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LeTiss
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ShaunWhite wrote:
Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:10 pm
Oh FFS. I've haversted my solitary red tom and it's got end rot. Not good news for my post-Brexit trade deal with Kraft Heinz and even worse news for the salad Nicoise I'd planned for tonight.
No loss there.......olives and anchovies (looking for the puke emoji)
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Derek27
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Location: UK

TraderFred wrote:
Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:00 pm
Been enjoying mine for a couple of weeks now too. Got a nice variety this year, grown on a single stem , gone for quality over quantity. Golden sunrise, super maramande, gardeners delight, and Ailsa Craig, all have given fully ripe fruit so far, both greenhouse and outdoors.
I didn't have a choice, I just bought the last variety on the flipping shelf - Moneymaker.

Quite appropriate for a trader. :D
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Tuco
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I've been growing strawberries for the past two years :)
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