Kitchen Garden Forum

What was your timing for for tunnel tomatoes Steve?
Mine were sown in thimble pots in the propagator on 13th March. I think you use lights similar to mine.
They were potted up into 9cm square on 24th March, still in the propagator.
Moved from propagator to heated greenhouse (set at 8 but was going down to 6.5 sometimes) on 30th March. Heat off 2nd May.
Planted in tunnel on 13th May.
I haven't noted when we picked the first out of there but it is a while ago. I do grow some slightly earlier plants that stay in the heated greenhouse but the way the garden has developed it is somewhat shaded so I don't gain a lot.

This is one of the tumbling tomato plants grown in a "winter composting" pot. As you can see the foliage and tomatoes are much healthier than the sparse growth on the border tumbling plants in the earlier photo above . I,ve already probably picked about pound and a half of ripe tomatoes from this one plant.

This pot method would probably work equally well for a cucumber or courgette plants if space were limited

As an aside, I,ve just noticed three almost ripe Gardeners Delight tomatoes lurking at the rear of one plant hidden behind foliage in the shade , right close to the fence. I,m asking myself why these should ripen ahead of the trusses at the front of plants with full exposure to the sun. So it's obviously not the level of exposure to sunlight which is the only ripening factor. Truly nature is rather perverse but always interesting!

Geoff leads, we follow....

Primrose i find that a lot the only time ones I've had up to now are the ones out of the way that you only see when rooting among the leaves

I,m tempted to pose the question "Do smaller varieties of tomato ripen earlier than larger ones?"

I sowed all my cordon tomatoes on the same day, including a small variety I,m growing for the first time called Primabella which somebody on here recommended early in the year. I expected them to be a small salad size tomato whereas they are a similar size to Gardeners Delight. I,ve noticed that the first trusses on these plants are starting to ripen well ahead of all the other varieties which are still stubbornly green.

I know tumbling varieties ripen early but if if this is the norm for Primabella the question is "should we be growing different size cordon varieties for succession ripening and picking , or is it just a freak that this variety is ripening earlier than the others. They're all planted against a south facing fence so receive roughly similar hours of sunshine.

We have been picking ripe tomatoes for two weeks now. Interesting that the outdoor ones which are in full sun are ripening quicker than those in the greenhouse, which goes into shade at 1.00pm.

I went a bit mad ordering tomato seeds this year, basically I ordered anything which claims blight resistance. So we are trying several different varieties, some specifically indoor, some outdoor and when we have tasted them all and rated the texture, yield, and so on I'll post another message.