A view of my garden

Polytunnels, cold frames, greenhouses, propagators & more. How to get the best out of yours...

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tigerburnie
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I dug some manure into the bed before planting, then twice a week with tomorite, ran out the other day, so won't be feeding them now this year. First year growing in a new greenhouse, so will see if that's just fresh ground, I did grow some tatties in there before the greenhouse was built last summer.
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retropants
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Well, whatever the reason, they are very fruitful plants :)
tigerburnie
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I am very happy with the growing rings, no sign of over or under watering and no damp to damage the stems, having said that the hanging baskets and pots are all watered from the top and there's no signs of problems there either.
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tigerburnie
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Picked some tommies today, those on the top right, bottom right and bottom in the middle are tumbling toms, but they are all different markings from the same packet. The "tiger" ones top right are my wife's favourite, top left is Gardeners delight and bottom left is Moneymaker and they are all in the oven roasting with my first Cayenne and some butternut squash for todays soup as it's raining.
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tigerburnie
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Red Onions grown from seed, quite pleased with these, none went to seed, though a couple are very small.
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I put this seed grown pepper in the border in the greenhouse, only one fruit, but it's a whopper.
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De Cayenne chillies ripening nicely.
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Primrose
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Tiger, I was rather intrigued by your tumbling Toms in the top right hand cell because it rather looks as if the skins have a slightly streaked effect although not as marked as Tigerella. Was this the case of just an accident of the light because many of the fruits from kne of my red tumbling Tom plants have exactly the same markings on their skin. I wondered whether it was some kind of genetic thing or perhaps connected to weather exposure.
tigerburnie
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I've got three slightly different marked tumbling toms, all the seed from the same packet. I have moved the hanging baskets around over the course of the season, so I don't think it's anything to do with light. All three are planted in the same compost and have had the same feed and watering regime. I can't taste any difference, but my wife insists the "tiger" ones are her favourite.
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I'm growing legend this year instead of moneymaker ,legend are supposed to be blight resistant they have stripes of different shades of green when growing ,I've just looked at some ripe ones and they have red stripes some darker some lighter than the overall colour of the ripe tomatoes
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Pa Snip
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Since visiting a friends plot two years back and seeing the state of his 'blight resistant' tomatoes I take the term with a pinch of salt.
The variety he was growing .................Ferline, they were the worst affected on his plot..

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
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Primrose
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I'm tending to agree Pa. As a matter of interest, does anybody know of any scientific trials which have taken place which entitle a seed supplier/plant breeder to claim that a specific variety of tomato is "blight resistant"?

About three or four years ago (and I can't remember now how it happened) a seed supplier invited members of the public to take part in a blight resistant test of four different varieties of tumbling tomatoes. (Perhaps it was something announced on Gardeners World ?). Anyway I trialled four varieties and sent in my report, even though I don't recall it being a bad blight summer (in my area anyway). I do recall as a result of that trial a variety called Losetto (?) was deemed to be the best blight resistant variety of the four. Its tomatoes were very prolific but very small and not ones I would choose to grow. So there's obviously still a way to go in this particular battle against nature.
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I'm disappointed with these trials of blight free, this disease free etc. The seed companies ignore the negative results & just make out it is all peachy! Which just makes them money I suppose but how disappointing for new growers - & old! I sent the pics of my failed blighted "blight free' toms to the company that sent them out & not even an acknowledgement of my e-mail!
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tigerburnie
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I believe the mira tatties are rigorously tested and are supposed to have blight resistance, I intend to try some next year, just in case. I bought some blight resistant tomato seeds, but I cooked them in my propagator in the conservatory, so I never got to find out if they were any good or not.
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PLUMPUDDING
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I don't grow my main tomato crop outdoors and never have a blight problem. Any spares that I plant outside usually end up with blight so I tend not to bother most years. Oddly enough my potatoes never seem to be affected but I tend to lift them quite early.
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After last year I tried everywhere to get blight free tomatoes the best I could come up with was ones called legend they were advertised as blight resistant I'm growing four varieties but more legend than any others up to now I'm very happy with them very smooth skin different shades of green then red as they ripped a very attractive tomato
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Primrose
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Not having a greenhouse, (unfortunately no room for one) I'm forced to grow my tomatoes outdoors in the garden so every year it,s a lottery. Like you, I've grown tomatoes for many, many years in this way and until a few years ago blight has never been an issue. Now it's an annual preoccupation and to make it worse all the protective fungicides which might have helped protect a little against it have been banned.

I dont know what would happen to the commercial horticultural trade if it became so serious an issue that we reached Irish blight famine proportions. Potatoes and tomatoes are a staple part of our diet in this household. I sometimes our population are unaware of how fragile the horticulture which supports our food chain has the potential to be. I think those who grow our own are far more aware of this than those who buy all their produce from supermarkets and are mainly divorced from its origins and the potential difficulties of producing it.
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