Topic: Tomatoes!!

[fitzsie]

Is anyone still picking tomatoes from their greenhouse ? I was hoping to start giving mine a clean but the tomatoes are still coming !! Picked these yesterday !

[Jayb]

What a super haul 
What varieties are you growing?

[fitzsie]

Marmande , Fiorintino ( sp? ) and Gold sunrise.
I complain that the soil is always dried out as the greenhouse is constantly in the sun but the warmth seems to have strung out the season!

[Jayb]

It paid off this year   
I love that segment look, I haven't grown either Marmande or Costoluto Fiorentino for a couple of years, lovely tomatoes, I need to add them to my grow list!

[goodlife]

YES! I'm still picking toms and there is still plenty to come too I've stopped watering my plant few weeks ago but they must have grown their roots to end of earth as the plants have not withered at all! One is trying desperately climb out of window and I don't have heart to chop its limbs off
Picked few from outside too but I can't see the last plant able to ripen any more..there is still quite amount of green ones on too.

This warm autumn has been good for tomatoes!

[fitzsie]

I haven't grown either Marmande or Costoluto Fiorentino for a couple of years, lovely tomatoes, I need to add them to my grow list!

I really love the Fiorentino, very juicy and I was suprised how well the yellow tomatoes grew. The Marmande didn't grow as large as last years so might try something different next year.  Fun isn't it !!

Goodlife, I know what you mean. I had a load of flowers on some plants when I was puling up the dying ones.  I decided to leave them and as a result it's all gone mad again. Never thought that they would grow so well. Making the most of it !

[jimc]

I find I always have outside tomatoes still growing by the first frost.
I cut off the stem about a foot below the lowest truss and tie it upside down inside or on a verandah protected from frosts. They will ripen over the next couple of months.
On the other hand a good plant will continue to produce throughout winter if you can keep the temperature above 0C or stay alive above -3C. I have a couple of 400Lt black painted tanks full of water inside the hothouses and that tempers the temperature by about 3C which means if it goes down to -6C outside I can keep it -3C inside which doesn't seem to kill tomatoes. Stops flowering for a while though.

[goodlife]

Jimc....have you got tomato blight over there? Over here the issue is that usually blight gets outdoor tomatoes, and you don't even have to wait until autumn!

[goodlife]

Jimc....have you got tomato/potato blight over there at all ? Over here the issue is that usually blight gets outdoor tomatoes, and you don't even have to wait until autumn!

[antipodes]

Got my last toms (outdoors) about 10 days ago. Dead chuffed with them. I too had Golden Sunrise, they seem to go on fruiting forever! Definitely a variety I will grow again.

[goodlife]

Apologies for double post...I wonder what happened there..? Perhaps it was still too early for me 

[jimc]

Goodlife asked

Jimc....have you got tomato blight over there? Over here the issue is that usually blight gets outdoor tomatoes, and you don't even have to wait until autumn!

Not sure what you call blight, is it one specific fungus or several? We do have several fungus species which attack at various times of the summer and autumn causing wilt or leaf die back or plant death. So we have to go to new soil every year on at least a 3-4 year rotation. I use strings to tie up my plants so they need to be changed every 1-2 years too.
I see many people using the same stakes from year to year and that too can have a fungal spore carry over on them so reinfesting their new crop early. That was the main reason I stopped using stakes.
I have also observed that those who mulch around their tomatoes seem to always have an early as well as heavy fungal attack. I don't use mulch, choosing to keep the soil bare for the season. I am sure with good leaf cover creating good shade seems to keep the soil cooler.
Sometimes I do use a little sulphur powder to try to stop fungal attack or otherwise just pull plants out if I have plenty of spare ones to produce. I know if you don't stop it early it will go through the whole crop in days or a couple of weeks.
We also have nematodes in the soil and this year I started to grow canola for our potatoes but will be doing the same for tomatoes from next winter. I think any brassica will do so I have been collecting enough kale seeds to plant on masse next time to dig into or bury with mulch so the bi-sulphides can deter nematodes.