Topic: Tomatoe,s For Xmas

[davyw1]

I hope. All suckers from various plants

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[Sparkly]

will they need heat?

[tim]

No!
But depends!!

[littlebabybird]

does this work?
can i grow tomatoes for christmas? is there a special trick? special variety?
lbb

[davyw1]

I have in the past had them up untill November but then it gets to cold where i am. I took some suckers and transplanted them to fill in where any may die off.
I have to put my heating on in November so i thought why waste it, nothing to loose. I have a purpose built hot house minimum night time temprature is 60 deg, so i guess its a case of see what happens.

[manicscousers]

we had some ripening in a shoe box but they only lasted until november  :-\

[petengade]

Bought Long Keeper Tomato seed after Tim mentioned it last year, kept them in the greenhouse after harvesting, should have brought the tomato's into the house and would have had tomato's at Xmas, I think, if the cold had not got to them.

[Kepouros]

Your  main problems will be light levels and daylength. You may have to find some `daylight` bulbs and put them on a timer, then everyone will think you`re growing cannabis,

[tim]

Thanks for reminding me, Davy. So late this year that I didn't take the usual cuttings for the plant sale. So - nothing to lose!!

As to Xmas - we had Golden Boy in December. Must have been a good year?

[moonbells]

Many moons ago I grew the variety 'Tiny Tim' (!) in a draughty lean-to conservatory. By December they'd grown to about 6' high and were still fruiting.

moonbells

[GrannieAnnie]

Bought Long Keeper Tomato seed after Tim mentioned it last year, kept them in the greenhouse after harvesting, should have brought the tomato's into the house and would have had tomato's at Xmas, I think, if the cold had not got to them.

How good does the Long Keeper Tom  taste? Can you compare it to some other varieties, please?

[tim]

Jeannine's the expert on this.

Any long keeper has tough skin.

[chriscross1966]

If you don';t want to use so much electricity you can use a battery of LED's as aux illumination. Usefgully the two main absorption peaks of chlorophyll tie in nicely to red and blue LED's so you just need an array of those two types....

chrisc

[GrannieAnnie]

Would cuttings from "Tigerella"  work do you think?  The plants are huge and rangey but is the only small tomato I'm growing this year.

[davyw1]

Would cuttings from "Tigerella"  work do you think?  The plants are huge and rangey but is the only small tomato I'm growing this year.

To be honest GA i don,t think its worth doing it now because we are on the downward slope for light and warmth. I think they need to be well established at this point.

[Sally A]

In an unheated greenhouse, I've previously picked toms well into mid Jan.  Not as scrumptious as the ones we pick in  August. I don't nip out the growing tips of my greenhouse ones, they get to about 10ft tall (greenhouse is only about 8ft high, but they just bend and get tied in along the roof), and remember thinking, woohoo I've got enough for a Christmas salad here.  Yes I did have enough for a Christmas salad, but I didn't have enough faith in my own grown so bought some too  :-[  On Boxing Day I was picking the ones that I didn't reckon cut the mustard for Xmas day, and managed to make about 3 500g pots of pasta sauce, and a big pot of soup.

The downside of late tomatoes, whereas always welcomed by me, is the skin is a bit tougher, so not quite up to inspection by guests   ::) who would rather have a gas ripened import, purely for looks.  Hey Ho, you can't please them all.

PS the pasta sauce and soup was great!!  ;D

[tim]

Amazing!

Where are you?

[Sally A]

Bath, N E Somerset.  The unheated greenhouse is attached to the south east side of the house, so that might keep the temperatures up a smidge or two.

Probably more by accident than design, as most people like to clean their greenhouse out in November, I tend to do it over the Christmas break - any tom plants that look like they might still give me ripe ones, get de-leafed and put closer together (grown in flower buckets) so I can clear up the rest of the ground and the worktop.

Besides, its a good excuse to escape over the holiday, when too much family "quality time" leads to cabin fever  ;)

[GrannieAnnie]

Bath, N E Somerset.  The unheated greenhouse is attached to the south east side of the house, so that might keep the temperatures up a smidge or two.

Probably more by accident than design, as most people like to clean their greenhouse out in November, I tend to do it over the Christmas break - any tom plants that look like they might still give me ripe ones, get de-leafed and put closer together (grown in flower buckets) so I can clear up the rest of the ground and the worktop.

Besides, its a good excuse to escape over the holiday, when too much family "quality time" leads to cabin fever  ;)

Do you have some sort of heat sink in the greenhouse, stone/brick floor etc to help hold the heat? It sounds perfect, Sally!

[Sally A]

No, nothing special, but the past couple of winters have been mild, so have probably just been lucky.

First tomato this year was picked on 28th May (Gardener's Delight, planted 20th Jan, but was kept in the porch at the south side of the house).

Just a daft little competition I have with myself - 1st and last tomato :)