Tomato Tactics

To say it has been a disappointing harvest would be a bit of an understatement!  My peas were eaten by snails, my runner beans seem to think they are in a marathon rather than a sprint and my courgette plants were hit by some white mouldy thing.  I blame the weather plus the fact that I probably planted everything a bit late but such is life.  My lettuce bed was a complete triumph though with enough lettuce and spinach to feed  half the county.  

My tomatoes, "Gardeners Delight", have been a complete mixed bag.  I have never grown such bushy tomato plants in my life and they were at least 8 feet tall!  I purchased a tomato frame for them this year to give support and tied the vines to the frame, which really seemed to make a difference.

The only problem I have had is that I still haven't managed to harvest a ripe tomato yet and it is nearly mid October!  Whilst the plants were happily spreading skywards and there are a lot of green tomatoes on the vines, nothing was ripening.

Whilst visiting the in laws a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my mother-in-law had stripped her tomato plants of leaves, leaving just the tomatoes on the bare vines.  She told me that at this time of year you need to stop the plants putting their energy into growing to allow the fruit to ripen.  Thinking about it, it did make sense.  Also, as the nights are drawing in and the sun is losing its strength, the tomatoes need all the light exposure they can get to ripen, so being shaded behind foliage doesn't help.

When I got home, I cut the tops out of my plants to stop any further growth upwards and stripped the leaves.  The plants do look really odd now but 10 days on, I have actually got a few ripe tomatoes.  Finally!

Another tip mother-in-law gave me for ripening tomatoes is to place the green ones in a drawer with a ripe one.  For some reason the ripe one encourages the others to ripen.  Very strange.  Not sure how that works, particularly in darkness.  I wonder if some gas is given off by the ripe one which then ripens the others.  Bit like bananas having an effect on other fruit nearby. Apparently it does work, so I shall have to give it a go.