Tomatoes - what are my chances?

[FlyingFishes]

So, I opened up a packet of tomato seeds (one of the supermarket packets - not sure of the actual variety) and chucked them into the plant bed in my garden in SE London. I've tried tomatoes many times previously and never had a plant grow more than 10cm in height before dying. This time, a few plants have grown well and I have lots of bunches of tiny green tomatoes and lots of yellow flowers at the moment. What are the chances that the tiny green tomatoes will actually get full size and ripen before the weather gets too cold and kills them all? I'm not even hoping for miracles with the flowers turning into more ripe tomatoes. I don't have a greenhouse to move the plants into, nor can I bring them indoors.
Who's betting? What are the odds?

Pretty poor to be honest! A bit like betting on the three legged cart horse accidentally entered in the Grand National, except the horse would have a chance if all the other horses fell over.

You could pick your tiny tomatoes and bring them inside, they might ripen up a bit but I don't think they will grow any bigger. But take heart, you have broken your tomato growing jinx, this time next year you will be googling "what to do with my tomato glut"

We all have disasters, this year mine was sweet peas . I was still hoping for flowers when I saw Monty Don say he was clearing his patch because the season was over. No Monty , No! Don't take away my dreams...... I gave up in the end and yesterday put my beans (did well), tomatoes(did OK) and sweet peas ( as above) plants in the compost.

Pretty slim sorry!

Do you know what size they grow to? If they’re cherry tomatoes or similar then they might be ok. Mine are still ripening under glass in Scotland.

To maximise your chances remove all the flowers and most of the tomatoes, leaving maybe half a dozen of the biggest. If you have one of those mini plastic greenhouses you could put it over the plant. Remove about half the leaves. Once the first frost is due, pick them and keep inside in the warm.

Thanks both. The Grand National analogy was really good!

All the tomatoes are about the size of cherry tomatoes but so green! The leaves are starting to turn yellow, so I guess I won't feel too upset about getting rid of half the leaves. The plants are also sagging to the ground after the winds yesterday. Oh well, hopefully next year, I'll remember to put those seeds in at the start of the planting season rather than at the very end.

You’re much better off starting them in pots, we don’t have a long enough growing season in the U.K. (even in London). A few pots on a windowsill in March and then plant them out after the frost risk has passed. That way you’ve got nearly 2 months earlier than if they were in the ground.

Thanks, will try that next year.

@viques

Pretty poor to be honest! A bit like betting on the three legged cart horse accidentally entered in the Grand National, except the horse would have a chance if all the other horses fell over.

You could pick your tiny tomatoes and bring them inside, they might ripen up a bit but I don't think they will grow any bigger. But take heart, you have broken your tomato growing jinx, this time next year you will be googling "what to do with my tomato glut"

We all have disasters, this year mine was sweet peas . I was still hoping for flowers when I saw Monty Don say he was clearing his patch because the season was over. No Monty , No! Don't take away my dreams...... I gave up in the end and yesterday put my beans (did well), tomatoes(did OK) and sweet peas ( as above) plants in the compost.

I thought my sweet peas would never flower this year and only curiosity prevented me from following Monty's lead ... they're flowering right now!

Don't give up hope yet! My tomatoes are still growing and ripening faster than we can eat them.

Try cutting off the top of the main stem, the flowers and a third of the foliage to encourage the plant to put all its efforts into the tomatoes. I'm in London and I usually do that at the end of September as that is about the last chance here for any fruit to ripen before frost.

It would help if you knew what size they are supposed to be. Once they are mature green, you can pick them and ripen them inside. A banana or apple in the bowl will help them along.

When you say the leaves are going yellow, are they dying back or do your tomatoes have late blight?

tdm1

I didn't need to read that!

So,I put on my big girl pants and got rid of the flowers and quite a bit of the leaves. I found 3 little tomatoes that have turned orange. So, I'm thinking of leaving them all on the plant for just a few days longer and then plucking them to go into a bowl in the kitchen to ripen. The largest tomatoes are about the size of large cherry tomatoes, most of the rest are like baby cherry tomato sized.

@Orange, the leaves just look to be fading to a yellow colour, sorry of like fall foliage. Hoping its not blight, because some of these have been yellow for a couple of weeks now. The tomatoes on the plant look healthy enough

Do the leaves have brown spots/patches on them @FlyingFishes?

I usually pick my tomatoes as soon as they have a hint of orange to ripen indoors as it reduces the chance of splitting (especially with all this rain). On the other hand, the ethylene from the ripe tomatoes will encourage the others to ripen. If you have any bananas, you can leave the skins on the soil or even hang them on the plant to speed things up too.

Some of them did. Oh dear, that's not sounding promising, is it?
I thought blight was meant to kill off a plant within a week. But I've had the yellowing leaves for a couple of weeks now.

Do you want to post a photo? Have a look at the stems to see if there any brown patches on them.

@ orange, and hope the pictures are clear enough - the stems seem OK to me.

The 3 orange tomatoes have survived the last few days of rain- hurrah!

It could be blight or it could be magnesium deficiency. Have you been feeding them? If it is blight, the rain will be spreading the spores. I would remove any yellow or spotted leaves, and infected tomatoes. You could try spraying the tomatoes with 60:40 milk and water. Milk has anti-fungal properties. You would have to repeat every time it rains though... I would be picking the tomatoes as soon as they have a hint of colour change, washing them and ripening indoors.

Next year, buy a blight resistant variety!

So, it looks like blight. The stems have started to turn brown and wilt. Doesn't appear to have touched any of the tomatoes yet. I've got all the cherry sized tomatoes off (almost 400gms!) and put them in the kitchen with bananas.

How do I know for sure that the tomatoes are not affected and whether they are safe enough to eat? Thanks

Wash them thoroughly to get rid of any spores (you could use milk or Milton fluid if you want to be extra cautious after your long wait ).

If they are infected, you will get brown patches on them. I believe they are still safe to eat fresh if you can't see any patches or the patches are very small (cut off the affected part). You shouldn't preserve them in any way though as the blight can result in other micro organisms proliferating.

Thanks, I washed and towel dried them when I brought them in, but many of them were covered with fungus fuzz overnight and many of them had brown spots. I decided not to risk it and threw them all into the compost waste bin.
I have learnt so much for next year, thanks all :-)