Here's what our tomato plants currently look like. We grew from seed this season and are expecting a big crop very soon.
How are your tomato plants doing? I'd love to see your photos.
Jason
I noticed a few this morning are turning red - not long now...
And we're in business...
How are your tomatoes going?
How does the taste compare to store-bought tomatoes, @Jason?
Hello all, well done Jason with your tomatoes.
The first photo is of tomatoes yet to ripen, second photo of my tomato bushes (they are over six foot high). The tomatoes were slow at the start as the weather was up and down and I don't think there were enough bees about to pollinate them. There's plenty of flowers now and also bees, so tomatoes are are forming now so the crop will be a bit late this year. I have only one tomato ripen of the larger variety but there are many cherry tomatoes which self seeded from the compost that I let grow so we are getting plenty of them. The third photo is of one cherry tomato that self seeded. There are plenty of small tomatoes ripening at the moment.
In my opinion the home grown tomatoes (in fact all home grown veges) have more flavour than the ones from the shops.
Cheers😀and happy gardening
@Jackson
We haven't eaten any yet but will have to get cracking soon. I think we are about to have a big harvest. Like @bergs, I think anything fresh and home-grown is going to taste great.
Big harvest yesterday. Also picked the first jalapenos and more monster cucumbers.
Terrible photo, but Ive already got a fair amount of tomatoes from my plants and it looks like there's plenty more coming!
I have found that I'm start to get a fair amount of brown branches/leaves on my plants though, is this normal? You can see some of them in the photo.. I'm watering frequently and feed them with liquid fertiliser every couple of weeks.
How are you watering @Emily? I wonder whether you are watering on a hot day and the leaves are getting burnt? I try to use a soaker hose as much as possible for a slow trickle into the soil. Anyway, your plants and fruit look terrific so you could simply prune off any unwanted branches. Do so with sharp secateurs and in the morning to minimise the chance of disease.
I just water using a watering can, so most of the water is directed at the base of the plants but there is definitely some splashing that would reach the leaves - I'll try to minimise that and also make sure I'm only watering in the mornings. Unfortunately the location of the garden beds compared to the tap means that manual hand watering is really the only option.
I'll also give them a bit of a prune/tidy and see how they go. The fruit coming off them certainly hasn't been affected at least!
Thanks for the tips @greygardener!
Hello all,
My older variety of tomatoes are still mostly green which I tend to blame on the up and down weather. I have only had two ripe ones off my bushes that I planted from seed but, on the other hand the little cherry tomatoes which self seeded have been yielding a good handful each day.
The large tomatoes are from seeds that came from an old Italian gardener some years ago and they grow to over six foot tall. I have trimmed the lower leaves back to give them more light and air and with the weather going to be warm this week I hope to get a few more to ripen if not it looks like green tomato pickles.
Some of the bigger tomatoes are as big as my hand.
I still have some seeds left from last year but I would like to get some fresh seeds for the next harvest.
Can anyone tell me if the saved seed from an unripened tomato will germinate or does it have to be ripe. I haven't tried seeds from unripened tomatoes before.
Cheers🍻
Good work @bergs. We are now picking every day at our place. We've already harvested about 4-5kg.
Anyone got any tips for ensuring the fruit keeps on coming well into autumn?
@Kellie,
We're still harvesting dozens of tomatoes every day. But I see Yates suggest to help prolong the harvest well into autumn continue feeding tomatoes each week with a liquid plant food. In the Yates Thrive product, the additional potassium encourages flowers and fruit.
Hi Jason, our best tomatoes have self seeded. They're growing everywhere throughout the raised beds. It's our best year ever.
Hi All, plenty of harvesting lately, large tomatoes go about 4 to the kilo and there is a couple that are twice the size of the ones in the photo still on the bush. The little Sweetbites are self sown and we're getting a bowl full every day. Lebanese Cucumbers have been plentiful and have pickled quite a few, they are good value and grow very quickly as do the Apple cucumbers.
Climbing beans are plentiful and have had to blanch a few kilos and freeze them so we'e got them during the year.
Cheers bergs
