Advice needed on my tomatoes please!

[coastergirl]

Hello! I'm a novice gardener and I need some help please. Last year I grew a couple of sunflowers, and two tomato plants which I got already grown from Dobbies. They were in the garden and grew really well up to a point, but we had loads of rain and all the fruit burst. I ended up with nothing.

This year I went a bit crazy! Got a small growhouse and planted seeds: brocolli, cucumbers, basil, sunflowers, peas and five varieties of tomatoes! It was cold and nothing happened for ages, and then it all erupted! My broccoli and cucumbers are now in a veg patch and doing really well. The tomatoes are the problem. They're huge. I spent ages last week pinching off lower shoots and re-tying them to bigger stakes. Bought a second growhouse and removed most of the shelves so they had space, but they've already outgrown their new homes. I'm proud of them but no idea what to do now! I'm scared to put them out in the garden in case of burst fruit again. I've put so much work into this, not easy as a single mum of two young boys. I'm loving it though. What would you do? I could do a very cheap raised bed to make another veg patch, but I'm worried about putting them outside. Help please! Oh and a couple have roots appearing on the surface of the soil. They need bigger pots (again) don't they?

Thank you for reading!

You can still eat burst fruit. It’s just that they won’t keep, so eat the day you pick them. If you slice or halve them before serving, the splitting won’t show.

Yes, your tomatoes need bigger pots. I plant mine in 8 or 9 inch pots. But even then, roots will appear on top of the soil. You could add more soil on top.

Splitting is from uneven watering, so being too dry then heavy rain could do it. It’s quite possible to get them to split in a greenhouse.

There are two sorts of tomatoes, the usual tall sort which I think you have, and bushy “patio” types. The tall ones really need more height, but you could try pinching out their tip to limit growth. I’ve never done this, but you’re recommended to pinch them out after 4 trusses in any case.

I tend to put my tomatoes in large pots and grow them on my patio.
The pots are ceramic or terracotta as the plants can get top heavy .

Well done you, it sounds like you’ve really got the gardening bug! It all sounds as if you’ll have wonderful crops to harvest.
Spring onions are an easy crop, they grow well in a large pot or the ground. Sown now would give you a good crop for the Autumn.

The fruit only burst if the plants get on the dry side, and then have a real soaking and suck up loads of water all at once. The tomato fruit skins can't expand quickly enough so they split.

The way to deal with it is to keep them really well watered all the time.

They are going to need the full height of your grow houses. Repot them into bigger pots, and put two plants in each grow house. When they reach the roof, pinch out the growing tip.

You’re going to need more grow houses or a full blown greenhouse to keep up with your green fingers! It’s a good thing.

Also, it’s good to experiment. Keep some outside, and experiment! Some years you’ll lose them to blight or high winds blowing them over and trashing them, but some years you’ll get a fabulous crop. That’s gardening! As a pp said, try to keep the soil a consistent level of dampness to avoid the splitting. But it’s no big deal if they do split - cook with those ones.

Congratulations on your burgeoning growing skills. 👏

I'm a very novice gardener so take others advice as well but you definitely need bigger pots. Mine have been outside since May I think and doing well, you need to harden them off first by leaving them outside during the day and then back in at night for a week or so. I got very confused last year by the whole punching out thing so I ended up just not doing it and still got loads from each plant. This year I've gone for Tumbling Tom's variety which don't need pinching out but the seeds were very expensive.

Also, radishes and beetroot are also ridiculously easy to grow

@EdithGrantham

Also, radishes and beetroot are also ridiculously easy to grow

Depends. I do all my veg gardening in containers, and radishes an beetroot are not incredibly easy in containers - well, I suppose they're easy in that there's not much you can do except sow and stand back an watch, but easy doesn't always lead to success.

Oh that's a shame, I had mine in the ground last year and in a veg trug this year and they've done really well so far. As I said I am very much a beginner though so may be just lucky flukes on my part!

Thank you all so much. I've definitely caught the gardening bug. It's so satisfying. I forgot to mention my carrots too.

I'll have a proper read back later over the advice. I'd love a proper greenhouse, but don't have the cash at the moment.

@EdithGrantham

Oh that's a shame, I had mine in the ground last year and in a veg trug this year and they've done really well so far. As I said I am very much a beginner though so may be just lucky flukes on my part!

I think beetroot need a lot of space. Radishes need steady water, but I try to give that

@MereDintofPandiculation ahh, maybe my beetroot won't do quite as well this year in a veg trug then, they've sprouted (I ended up sowing v late) but are quite close together so I may thin them out to give them a better chance.

I grow a lot of tomatoes- this year I have 18 in the greenhouse and more outside.

You can fit 3 plants in one of those growing houses- I would re-pot 3 into a grow bag in each one. If you put each one in a bigger pot with the bottom cut out into the hole in the grow bag, it makes watering easier. (Don't forget to put some drainage holes in the bottom of the bags!).
Each plant will need a cane the height of the growing house - tie the plants the canes as they grow.
Feed them every week with tomato food and don't let them dry out.

As they grow, you will see side shoots develop where the leaves join on to the stems. Nip these off- you want tomatoes, not shoots! When your plants get to have about 5 trusses of fruit, or they reach the top, pinch out the top of the plant, this will encourage the fruit to ripen.

The spare plants can be planted outside- in a sunny spot in big pots or grow bags. Grow them in the same way but stop them at 3 or 4 trusses.

This wet weather can cause tomato plants to get diseases - in particular blight- which causes the plant to rot and die. To help avoid this, water in the morning and don't let them go to bed with wet leaves. Obviously you can't do this with the outdoor ones!

[quote EdithGrantham]@MereDintofPandiculation ahh, maybe my beetroot won't do quite as well this year in a veg trug then, they've sprouted (I ended up sowing v late) but are quite close together so I may thin them out to give them a better chance.[/quote]
Remember you can eat the leaves - small one in salad, larger ones cooked, so the thinnings won't go to waste

I didn't know that!! Will let them grow a bit before choosing some to be sacrificed as salad leaves

I spent a few hours in the baking heat yesterday re-potting most of my tomatoes into bigger pots. There are a few still in the growhouses but most now lined up under my kitchen window. There are 30 plants! Oops! Trying to attach a photo but it isn't working.

30 tomato plants!? 😂 That will give you tons if they all bear fruit! Mine have lots of tomatoes on now but only one or two that are starting to ripen

It's a good job I love tomatoes then! I only have a few fruit now but loads of flowers.

My cucumbers are going crazy though and trying to take over the veg patch.

Can anyone shed any light on what's happened here? They are Moneymakers. Or they were supposed to be!

That’s blossom end rot. Just remove them. Subsequent fruit shouldn’t be affected if you keep the plants well watered and don’t let them dry out.

Thank you! I have removed them. They're always well watered anyway.

You can grow tomatoes ridiculously easily by slicing the tomato you want to grow, we just slice the small plum variety and laying them on soil and covering with compost. I used to go out and buy plants every year, no longer!! Strawberries are ridiculously easy to grow too, as are chillies and new potatoes. We grow everything in pots abd the kids love it.

Any old veg that grows a shoot I plant lol. We did onions for the first time this year too. They were small but who cares when they’re edible!!

Only problem with that approach is that commercial varieties may not suit garden growth - they'll have been bred for rapid growth, short cropping period. I have to worry about this in the north - not all varieties will get as far as a crop in our short summer, I need to go for varieties with early crops. And for my purposes it's useful to have the cropping period more spread out, rather than everything ready at once.

But it takes a lot of disadvantages to outweigh the advantage of free seeds!

My grandfather would always do that. He never paid for seeds. Any vegetable or fruit that came his way would have the seeds removed and potted up before you could blink. He grew melons, kiwis, chillis and all sorts this way. He also stole cuttings from plants in public gardens like some kind of botanical kleptomaniac. Never went anywhere without a small pair of scissors and a plastic bag in his pocket.