The great tomato race

[Yuwipi Woman]

I gave away a sack last week to friends. This week I canned 6 pints of salsa which took about 1/2 bushel. I have another six pints ripening up on the vine yet and another plant that hasn't produced any yet because it got such a late start. I should have something off it, if we don't get an early freeze.

 

[mr steev]

Oh no, absoultely all fucked? One of my plants last year sort of came good again after i pulled off loads of foliage.

Well, lots of the foilage is yellow and black, some of the stems look ok, but others nots so and there were a few ripening fruit going brown. I thought we'd cracked it this year, think we managed about 2 green fruit last year

Growing in pots = a lot of hassle with watering (and I'm really going to sort that out next year) but NO BLIGHT!

I've got some in pots at home too luckily. I don't think I'll bother with them up the plot next year. I'm gutted cos I had dreams of storing loads like Yuwipi Woman
Suppose we might get some chutney out of them

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

oh dear
I have just had to pull up my tomato plants as they grew to be enormous and kept falling down from the stakes i had put in. they were so big that i had to use an old curtain pole to stake one up far too big for my little patch and i had over 30 of the fuckers on there, mostly green though i managed to save 3 tomatoes before pulling them up. just three. am a bit silly really as i didnt realise they would grow quite so big. still, youlive and learn and at least now i can concentrate on my herbs which were covered up and taken over by these tomatoes.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

is there anythign at all i can do witht he unripened ones?

 

[northernhord]

Some lovely Toms here, at least the ones that aint rotted on the vine due to much piss down rain.

 

[ScallyWag II]

is there anythign at all i can do witht he unripened ones?

Green tomato chutney!

Or you can try ripening them indoors. Wrap in paper, with a ripe tomato in with them. I've tried this and it does work! Can take a while though.

 

[ScallyWag II]

Some lovely Toms here, at least the ones that aint rotted on the vine due to much piss down rain.

Same here, annoying init. I've salvaged some of mine by cutting around the split middle bit and oven drying them. Done it today...my house smells wondrful atm

 

[co-op]

Same here, annoying init. I've salvaged some of mine by cutting around the split middle bit and oven drying them. Done it today...my house smells wondrful atm

What a cool idea - I had a loada split ones as well and I chucked them on the compost because I was already overwhelmed with non-split ones.

What's your technique? How hot, how long?

Do they keep - I guess you might have to store them in oil?

 

[northernhord]

Same here, annoying init. I've salvaged some of mine by cutting around the split middle bit and oven drying them. Done it today...my house smells wondrful atm

Sounds good, might well give that a try with some of my split Tommies

 

[co-op]

They do dry out though, need watering pretty much daily. Will you post your solution up for next year?

I water daily and they still dry out (I used a bunch of rubbishy old pots I found here and there, they're too small really).

Not sure what I'll do. Ideally I'd divert rainpipes to flow through the pots first before draining away somehow but I have two problems; (a) I live on a 60s council estate and the guttering is all hidden away behind 6" of concrete so as not to distract the eye from the majestic brutality of the architecture and (b) the toms are out front on a public walkway (it's the sunny side) so too many Heath Robinson contraptions and improvised piping are probably a bad idea. Allegations of pikeydom have already been made by one person due to my collection of manky ol' pots out there, I don't want to "drag the whole place down" (as if it looked nicer without plants )

 

[ScallyWag II]

What a cool idea - I had a loada split ones as well and I chucked them on the compost because I was already overwhelmed with non-split ones.

What's your technique? How hot, how long?

Do they keep - I guess you might have to store them in oil?

Used a AWT recipe i found on bbcfood site. basically you half them and squeeze out pips, salt them and drain for about 1/2 an hour. make a mix of a few crushed garlic cloves, oregano (i didn't have any so used marjoram) and pepper. i loosened this with some olive oil and spoon onto the tomatoes (open side up ). sprinkle some more oil on and put in a very low oven, i had mine on about 80 degrees C as its a fan one and the recipe said 100. cook for about three hours but check them every now and again. Let them cool and put in sterelised jars and top with olive oil.

They are supposed to keep for ages. First time i've ever tried them.

Sounds good, might well give that a try with some of my split Tommies

Hope they are!

 

[ScallyWag II]

Been meaning to add this just in case anyone does try the oven-drying method, i put them in for about 2 1/2 hours as they were cherry tomatoes. Thet came out semi-dried and probably won't keep anywhere near as long. (Had some tonight though in a pasta dish and they were very tasty!) Have done some further research and apparently for proper dried tomatoes you need to leave them in the oven for much longer, like around 8 hours on a very low setting.

It's been so wet recently that i'll be trying this soon with another load of split ones

 

[berniedicters]

This may not be a good moment to say I've just come back from a w/e away and gone out and picked 2lbs of cherry toms - god knows how many, about 100?

Dee-licious....

Growing in pots = a lot of hassle with watering (and I'm really going to sort that out next year) but NO BLIGHT!

Look out in Lidl for the ten quid watering timer gadget. And quite a few garden centres seem to do the microtube watering systems, for around £12.

I've used it on mine for a few years now.

Not that I needed it: it's rained pretty constantly all summer, my tomatoes never ripened, and now they've got what looks like blight, too.

ETA: the tube is really small (6mm diameter, or something), and if you're reasonably careful about how you route it around the pots, it won't be at all obtrusive.

 

[mr steev]

I finally bit the bullet and dug up my blighted plants yesterday

Managed to salvage a bowl of green fruit and one ripe one. All the others had gone brown as soon as they started to ripen.

One of my plants last year sort of came good again after i pulled off loads of foliage.

I did give this a go but it made little difference.

I was talking to a bloke at work the other day, who has had an allotment for years. He reckoned that at the first sign get all the fruit off the plant as the blight will get into the fruit without you noticing... I'm half expecting most of the green ones I have picked will turn before I get round to using them.

Getting a constant stream off the plants at home though

 

[Disaster]

lalalalala...

 

[mr steev]

lalalalala...

Bugger

I've just picked 5 blighted fruit off one of my plants that are in pots at home now.