I can’t recall now when we started with tomatoes in this first summer at Barrel Barn. We have a small polycarbonate greenhouse. In the winter, not long after moving in, I cleaned it inside and out, and on 21 March I planted some lettuce seeds in little pots. The lettuce is outdoors now and we have more of it than we can shake a stick it. It’s lettuce every day for lunch and supper!

This summer, we have found ourselves with 16 tomato plants. How this came about is not important, but it is a lot to manage and if all of them fruit even moderately well, we’ll be swimming in tomato-based sauce come the autumn. Come round for spaghetti one night! I have had to read and read about tomatoes; growing such a wide variety and large number of plants, in a a number of different environments, is proving to be an excellent learning experience.

I’m happy to hear from people with more knowledge than I on this – that is, almost anyone who has ever raised tomatoes. I’ll go through the 5 different varieties we are raising, in turn, and mention what is happening with each.

In the greenhouse we have a Nagino F1 plum tomato plant. It has pride of place by the door; it is one of six tomatoes in a large planter on the north side of the greenhouse. It is the biggest and boldest of them all, over five feet high, scratching at the roof of the greenhouse. I have trimmed off its lower branches, trimmed off some of the stems which were creating thick foliage, and nipped out the growing ends at the top. Of course I’m nipping out the side-shoots when I see them. It is fruiting heavily as of early July, on over a half-dozen or so shoots, and still has loads of flowers.

Next is a Shirley F1, which is almost as big. It is growing strong and rapid, and flowering and fruiting well. I have found it necessary to trim away some of the side-shoots, particularly nearer the bottom. I read that this can be done without causing harm, if it is done lower than the lowest flowers. There are two other Shirley F1 plants; these are outdoors. They are on a raised gravel bed, about six feet from the end of the house, which is a single story at that point. They should get sunshine from 5a.m through to mid-late evening. As of early July there is some lower leaf yellowing, and I am beginning to see that ths is due to overwatering. I’ve fed all the tomatoes weekly, and what is interesting is to see a delay of 70-80 hours – call it three days – between feeding and the subsequent growth spurt. I fed them on proprietary tomato feed, then on seaweed fertilizer, and now I am feeding them on Comfrey tea we have prepared ourselves – though I’m unsure of the strength. Images in “Gardeners World” lead me to think I’m about right diluting it 10:1.

Next in the greenhouse are two Lizzano F1 plants. There are about 9″ between plants in this row of six in the greenhouse, but these two are relative runts only about 3-4 feet high. One is conspicuously stronger than the other. They are flowering and fruiting well as of early July.

Next is what I can “anon tomato”, for it is. It might be a Gardener’s Delight – one of the three anonymous plants is. Anon tomato in the greenhouse planter is growing nicely, five foot high, flowering nicely, but not quite fruiting yet.

Finally, in the corner, there is the first of five Ailsa Craigs. This one is doing fine, five feet high, flowering and fruiting rapidly. It is another one from which we which have seen a delayed action growth spurt following feeding with fertiliser some days ago. It has been cooler this week, and I have seen leaf curl, which I now know is caused by too wide a variation in temperature. Even with the door ajar and the automatic window working, I was unable to prevent a peak of 50 C in the greenhouse during the recent sunny spell in late June. And the temperatue in that greenhouse has fallen to 8C in the coldest nights. There are four more Ailsa Craig tomatoes, all in pots on the west side of the greenhouse. None of them has done as well as those in the planter, being barely 4 foot high. All of them have shown a growth spurt in early July and two of them are pot-bound in 9 litre pots. All are flowering and fruiting; I think potting on such a plant would cause more stress than leaving it pot-bound.

So, in the greenhouse, Nagino F1, Lizzano F1, Shirley F1, Ailsa Craig, and one other. Now to the outside world. I’ve already mentioned a couple of Shirleys. Also there are two more anonymous tomatoes in terracotta pots, about 12 litres or so, on the south side of the house. Should be in sunshine early morning to mid-evening. It can be something of a windswept location; the Barrel Barn is in a windy place and at times it can whistle and even howl in winter conditions. These two are barely three feet high, and while they are flowering, are not fruiting yet. They have shown a growth spurt after feeding, and both have yellow leaves at the base – I am understanding only this morning that this is probably overwatering.

Finally we come to Tumbling Tom. We grew some bush tomatoes successfully last year, on the patio at at our old house in Surrey – something of a SW-facing sun trap. We have two Tumbling Toms, one red, one yellow. The yellow is in a large plant pot; the red, in a hanging basket container on a stand. Both are flowering and fruiting madly; the yellow one is particularly fine and we’ve had half a dozen yellow cherry tomatoes from it already by early July. But the red one is not prospering; it is poorly. Water goes straight through the soil and out through the coir mesh; I managed to get a plastic bag under the mesh to stop that but it still dries out quickly. The evidence is that it is underfed – leaves pale and yellowing. I gave it some comfrey tea diluted, and one may hope. It is flowering and fruiting well and will deliver red cherry tomatoes anyway.

9/6/23

21/5/23

16/6/23