A4A Heaviest Tomato of 2016 Season

[sunloving]

Hi all, there are some spares from jeannines list above these are
Porterhouse,bel monte, lead better lunker, Brutus magnum, church, Rebecca sabastian, big zac and delicious. Just a few seeds of each so if anyone wants to try them now I can post them on, otherwise I'll put them in the seed swap at the end of the season.

Here's to the big uns!
X sunloving

[sunloving]

[Jayb]

Well my plants are ready to go in their final spot now,

I better sow mine!

Glad yours are growing well 

[Jayb]

I think this might be the one you were hoping to add Jeannine

[Jeannine]

That;s it, thank you Jay,, that is my one to beat this year!! 2lbs 14 1/2 ozs.

It seems very little but it is I big to me.

XX Jeannine

[Jayb]

It looks big to me 

I think if I can get anything to over 2lb that will be amazing and will be my goal for thsi year.

[Jeannine]

I have a large fused flower in Rachel Sebastian,s Ball Bag

[Jayb]

Well done Jeanninie, good luck with your first flowers, exciting 
My plants are teeny weeny seedlings still, but the weather has been so up and down (lots of down!) I don't think they are missing much.

[Jeannine]

Double Drat..it was a huge mega flower but it didn't pollinate. there are more there now that have but it was annoying.. oh well I am only the cheer leader anywayas my weather gives me an advantage over you folks, so come on kids, where are those progress reports!!!!

[Robert_Brenchley]

My cinnamon vines are up. I planted the oca really deep, at the bottom of buckets, to see whether it'll form tubers up the stem. Two are up; the second is barely emerging.

[Jeannine]

have triple fuse flower of Rachal Sebastina but not a sihn on mega marv

[sunloving]

I'm just getting the first flowers on mine but mostly on the yellow pears. But brandy boy is looking very stocky  and ready to support the prize winner!

[sunloving]

i'm after a bit of guidance re beefsteak varieties. #ive only grown marmande before sucessfully and am used to cordons. ive left some side shoots on the beefsteaks because im expecting the flowers to terminate the growth. is this right? im growing your selection jeannine plus brandyboy. its not to late to turn them into cordons if ive done the wrong thing. x sunloving

[Jeannine]

The beefsteaks would be indeterminate aka vine tomatoes, If you prune to one stem,cordon, you would do that to the beefseaks, The Us always find it amusing that the British prune to a single stem..not me, I do it sometimes, sometimes I prune to two leaders and sometimes I never prune them , well I remove dead leave and sometimes top them later

[sunloving]

Hi Jeannine, well of course we have to do it our regimented way!
So if you leave a beefsteak to turn into a multistemed plant how can the stems support such a big fruit? Do you give them special tying in ? Mine are really trying to be spiders throwing up one foot sprouts all over the place its a fll time job in my 40ft tom bed!!

Ive got fused flowers on rachel and on church atm and excited to see what might form.

but just normal fruit on brandy boy so far!

My personal record has been stuck at 1 lb this may be becuase I live relatively northerly, maybe the polytunnel and mild irish climate and your przewinning seeds might just help to beat the record!
x sunloving

[Jeannine]

Sunloving, truly in order to let a tomato grow without pruning is probably not very doable back home. First they need the heat which many times you don't get there which is why we use greenhouses,if we do use the greenhouse then space becomes the problem, if if in n a pot it needs to be huge, I am talking really huge and then ideally you need 4 feet between plants. The tomato can grow very big and very wide so inside it is just not possible unless you gave a massive greenhouse.

Regarding support, most folks over here use reinforcement wire and make their own cages, I think it may be called the same over there. I know it is available because I bought it. It is very heavy 6 inch square mesh and comes about 4 feet wide, it is then formed into a circle. very strong and I do recommend these for good support.

Most folks over here do some pruning somewhere in the middle between the single stem UK method and the old US full plant method. Some even  let the plants sprawl over the ground and don't support  or prune them. Most growers  will prune to maybe two leaders.

Right now in me greenhouse I have all my plants unpruned in 5 gallon buckets. It was not a choice thing, it just so happened when I should have started to prune I was not well so I left them. Now they are as tall as me and very heavy with fruit . I keep thinking I should tackle them at least a bit as they are very overcrowded but they are OK, so I am not sure what to do. I might just leave them and learn something. I have often planted a tomato or two in a very large tub and let it go but never a full greenhouse.

If I was you I would do what you feel most comfortable with, too much mass can be a problem for disease so I would remove some green. I think a lot would depend on how close they are and what they are planted in. Think about making  the wire cages though they are great

[sunloving]

I've got some great looking fused toms forming but some very suspicious looking brown spots on leaves near the door which makes my heart sink!mit may now be a race between blight and ripening! How's everyone else doing? X sunloving

[sunloving]

I'm holding my breath now as have some lovely green big uns! How is everyone else doing? It's a race with the blight now. X sunloving

[Jayb]

They are looking great, any starting to blush?
I'm having a pants of a season one way and another, I think I'll be lucky if I get one over 6oz!!!!!!
But hey ho who knows whats hiding amongst the leaves.

[sunloving]

They are looking great, any starting to blush?
I'm having a pants of a season one way and another, I think I'll be lucky if I get one over 6oz!!!!!!
But hey ho who knows whats hiding amongst the leaves.

Hi jayb, I have some real whoppers but I don't think they are going to ripen because the blight is really gripping now. Might have to submit a green one! , let's hope for some late high pressure and some late bloomers! Sunloving

[sunloving]

Well it's been tough with the blight this year but I'm going to stick my head above the parapet with a mid season entry.

It's a bel monte that weighs 679 g
I had it for my tea roasted it was delicious!