Tomatoes - sun or warmth?

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Permalink Reply by HeronoftheDarkwood on May 21, 2009 at 2:55pm

go with the first location, in my opinion anyhow, i have always grown extra tomatos on the front porch so i can have some too. :P hehehe! (it's kind of a family joke, but my hubby likes to go out there and get the raw hot peppers that are ready for eating and always follows this up by eating almost an entire harvest of tomatoes... he will eat everything red he can find. he says there's nothing like tomato juice to kill the heat.) but, that area of my house gets just about the same sun, with just about the same conditions you mentioned, since they are by the rail part a good 6 ft or so out from the house, instead of next to a wall. they always do fine there... one thing i noticed about my tomatoes there as opposed to the ones in the big garden, is that they prefer a nice early morning drink, rather then an evening soak. so i notice i water them more frequently and not as long. other than that, give them a little extra boost by adding eggshells and coffee grounds into the soil around around them, but not too close to the roots. they will thank you for this!

Permalink Reply by Sarah J on May 21, 2009 at 10:05pm

Thanks Heron, that's great. I have a watering system so the toms'll get watered when everything else does and, following your advice, I'll time it for a longer morning watering and just a minute or two of an evening if it gets scorching (if only...)

I always put eggshells and coffee on the ground to deter slugs from lettuces and so on; I had no idea they were beneficial to the plant/soil in other ways. Thanks, gret tip. Luckily, my employer lets us help ourselves to the week's coffee grounds (substantial amount as I work in a training college) and it's a great recycling/environmental tick-in-the-box for them! All good...

Permalink Reply by Gary on June 13, 2009 at 6:35pm

Another tip you might like to try is when your toms start to take over the world with lots of leafy growth is to remove a few of the lower leaves from the bottom of the plant to let the air circulate around your tomatoes. This has at least two benefits, it will help prevent you getting an early blight attack by removing lots of leafy matter you let the drier air circulate and also help the plants put more energy into fruit production.

If you are really adventurous and have no sense of smell you might want to put the removed vegetation into a container with some water and let the whole lot rot down for a week or two (beware it really does smell quite bad). once you have your concoction you may dilute it in a watering can and use it as a liquid feed on your tomatoes.

Good luck.

Permalink Reply by Sarah J on June 15, 2009 at 8:49pm

Thanks Gavin. Actually, I'm experiencing a distinct lack of leafy growth and they don't seem to be doing very well at all. They're watered but not excessively and fed weekly with Tomrite but they're not really that impressive. I've moved the pots in the hope they might rally but even the tumblers aren't exactly a picture of health. Ah well, I fear toms are not my thing.