Tomatoes

[nikkie]

Anyone elses plants flowering?

does that mean that you don't have any red ones KS?

time for another measuring contest, I think

( TBH the red ones are small)

disaster has struck - the branch with the 2 red ones on has bent under the weight ( has about 30 toms on it) and I think it's going to die.

Red toms are measuring just over 10 cm

Biggest greenie is measuring 15 cm

but that was my prize plant - it was laden .

I have others with about 8 toms on a truss

dh is taking pictures...hopefully will be appearing later in member profiles if we can figure out how to do it

stem is very bent - has a fold in it - have propped it up with the back of a garden chair (very professional approach)

hope you give yours a good soaking and that they revive

OMG - I have found truss hooks

it's a whole new world:

Truss hooks
When some greenhouse tomato cultivars are grown under relatively low light conditions, the peduncles of the inflorescences (trusses) are too weak to support the weight of fruit they bear and, are liable to bend [33] or ?kink?. Another reason sometimes given for kinking is too high a temperature during the vegetative phase which causes the truss to become almost vertical ('stick trusses'). As fruit develop on these trusses, they may become kinked.

Truss hooks suspended from the tomato stem prevent heavy trusses from tearing off the vine and keep the cluster from bending sharply under the weight of the fruit. Truss support devices, which also include peduncle clamps (Fig. 11), are thought to prevent a reduction in fruit size on kinked trusses. There is some evidence for this in the scientific literature, although results are not conclusive. Experimentally bending the peduncle either slightly or sharply reduced the total dry weight of fruit on that truss by 15.6-17%, depending on the season [34]. Reductions were greater in trusses developing on sharply bent peduncles. Distal fruit (those farther from the plant stem) were more adversely affected than the first, proximal fruit. If bending occurred when the fruit were 10 mm or less in diameter, the effect was less than when the fruit were larger, suggesting that inability to translocate assimilate was overcome. Compensation for kinked fruit also occurred in upper clusters, as assimilate that was not partitioned to the fruit of truss 1 was redistributed to the fruit of truss 2. The compensation was incomplete, however, as the total dry weight of all the fruit on trusses one and two of treated (bent) plant was still 5.6-6.7% less. These differences were not statistically different, however.

I need penduncle clamps

oops peduncle clamps

tomato supplies

j hooks
arch supports
and even a pollinator --oooh eerr

right 3 proud pics uploaded to member profiles.

that's enough for today

such as?

the cat's latest kills?

wooohooo harvested my first two tomatoes today.

(skin was a bit tough though

Now have 2 broken trusses - I think that particular plant is amutant, it has so many toms on it - and that is not a good thing.

Have tied up truss with a stocking (it was a pop sock really but didn't want to admit it)