Toms, results from this year

Toms, results from this year

I’ve only grown two varieties this year – ‘Gardener’s Delight’ (I grow a few plants every year as I love their taste & they are prolific!) & ‘Sunstream’ (a small heart shape/plum type of tomato).

I got the seeds for this variety from some tomatoes that were substituted in our online shopping just before Christmas. I liked the very sweet taste of the tomatoes & decided to save the seeds from one of them. These I sowed in the greenhouse on the allotment, about March time I think, & they germinated very well indeed. From the start I could tell they would make strong plants & so it turned out to be.

Instead of going through the usual process of transplanting the seedling into ever bigger pots before planting out I did only one transplant later putting the (slightly) bigger plants directly in the prepared beds in the first days of June. Both varieties took to the change quickly & soon got under way I put this down to the warmer soil than normal after a mild winter. They very quickly grew into big plants, especially ‘Sunstream’ proving to be exceptionally strong plants.

I harvested my first tomatoes from this variety a full week at least before ‘Gardener’s Delight’! They were firm, sweet fruits. I noticed that as the plants got higher the trusses became ever longer!!

I was very pleased to see just how many long trusses I was getting on both varieties – that is until those couple of very cold weeks in August came along to ruin the “fiesta”!

The plants started to show the first signs of blight! I picked off leaves as I noticed them with the first signs but it just got beyond my control.

Last Friday (6th Sep) I picked as many green tomatoes as I reasonably could find free of blight the rest, including the very small forming fruit on the higher trusses, I had to leave on the plants.

It practically broke my heart to see so much fruit going to waste! There was at least as much left on the plants as that which I’d already picked, including the green ones.

Last year I grew some beefsteak ‘Marmande’ at the top of my plot, about 6-8 plants. I also grew one plant in the greenhouse on the allotment plus 4 or 5 on my balcony at home. Well a seed, from the ones growing on my allotment last year, germinated & bore 4 big toms. But they all caught blight & the plant & fruit had to be disposed of over a week ago.

The curious thing about this plant is that the one seed germinated & grew to produce full size fruit in much less time than the other two varieties started off weeks earlier.

I also found another plant of ‘Marmande’ growing on my balcony.

I’d sown seeds of ‘Gardener’s Delight’ on my balcony & up till the moment they flowered I thought they were all ‘Gardener’s Delight’ but one at that time behaved exactly the same as ‘Marmande’ did last year, that is it produced a VERY thickened stem at the time of flowering from which a mass of flowers appeared. Once a few flowers set fruit the plant continued to grow as any normal plant. It has only four big tomatoes with all the other flowers not having been fertilized but continuing on the plant.

It hasn’t produced any more flowers/fruit since then though now I’ve just noticed some flowers forming way up high just below the point I pinched out the growing tip a couple of weeks ago!

Most of my ‘Gardener’s Delight’ have up to six trusses filled with fruit though not nearly as good as on the allotment. In fact, yesterday I let our 2 grandkids pick the first of the (very) ripe tomatoes of this year on the balcony. They should have been picked at least a week ago but I was saving them so they could pick them when they came on Saturday (6th Sep) I wanted to get a couple of photos of them doing so & they like to “help” me on the balcony when they come round.

I’ve picked all the fruits I could save on Friday (5th Sep) even though the majority I would have waited another week or two before picking, so as to give them time to ripen a little more.

Next time I go down to my plot I don’t expect to find any fruit unaffected & in fact I’ll be going down just to pull the plants up & take them to the heap at the top of the allotments field where our green waste is collected by the council – maybe twice a year – if we are lucky!

The plants by all rights should be burned to kill the spores but the rules & regulations that govern our use of the plots won’t let us light bonfires. So they will rot away on the heap & spread millions of spores all over the country to make sure that no member of the potato or tomato family can escape their insidious infection!

Gardener’s Delight?

Gardener’s Delight?

This year I have only been growing two varieties of tomatoes on my allotment plot, ‘Sunstream’ & ‘Gardener’s Delight’. The first is a small plum shaped tomato.

‘Sunstream’:

‘Gardener’s Delight’:

I’ve found that while ‘Sunstream’ is a very vigorous plant it suffers from BER (Bloom End Rot) as I’ve found one or two on most of the ripening trusses, especially the first to form. Yet on ‘Gardener’s Delight’ I can’t remember having found even one fruit with BER!

Here is a photo showing ‘Sunstream’ with BER:

These plants are growing in two beds on my allotment which are side by side & received the same preparation back in the spring, namely lots of well rotted horse manure being dug in & used as a mulch as well.

‘Gardener’s Delight’:

‘Sunstream’:

I also have some plants of ‘Gardener’s Delight’ growing on my balcony at home. None of the trusses of fruit have shown any sign of BER. There plants are growing in compost obviously as garden soil can’t be used in pots. They are growing well, albeit a little more spindly than the plants on the allotment. The first fruits are now ripening – a couple of weeks behind the ones on my plot.

Now I wish I’d brought home a few plants of ‘Sunstream’ then I’d have been able to compare the results of the two varieties, those grown in soil on the allotment with those grown in compost on the balcony.

Shame we are at the end of the season & that Blight has reared its ugly head & is killing on my plants on the allotment. I reckon I have no more than a week to ten days to harvest what I can before they are irretrievably lost.

Just a few photos showing some of the tomatoes I’ve picked so far this August to put an end to this blog:

Now we are nearly through June & harvesting has begun!

Now we are nearly through June & harvesting has begun!

I’ve already harvested the first Potatoes & Strawberries of the year this month, as well as Lettuces & Broadbeans!

I’ve been able to finish off the Lettuces ‘Little Gem’ planted in the greenhouse border as well as those that were left over from that planting at the end of February & were planted outside under a dwarf apple tree in front of the GH.

There are more to be harvested from my allotment, Plot 12A, I planted them between the two rows of bamboo canes that make up my bean frame. They will have been harvested long before the runner/green beans block out much of the light.

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ inside bean frame:

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ just harvested & cleaned up at home:

I also sowed some more seed of the same Lettuce, (May). I accidently had 2 packets of seeds as I thought the 1st had been lost & bought a 2nd. The 1st turned up on the GH bench, under a tray of seedlings! As each packet has 1,000s of seeds I won’t need to buy any more this summer!

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Talking about sowing seeds, I sowed some Beetroot ‘Detroit 2’, in the GH, in March, which I planted out on my plot in early May – at the same time as the Lettuces. I also sowed some Beetroot ‘Cylindra’, a few days ago, (June) in the narrow bed alongside the bean frame.

Beetroot ‘Cylindra’ just sown in bed No.3:

Never grown this type before, only the round ones. I’d added spent compost from my balcony in this bed to lighten up the soil while making it more water retaining. I’d sowed the seeds of Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ here a week or so earlier but there was still space to spare for some more seeds. This will be the first time I’ve grown cylindrical Beetroots as till now they have always been the round ones. I’ll report back on the results in a few month’s time.

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In the middle of March I planted out my early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ & ‘Pentland Javelin’ & repeated the same mistake as other years of planting them too close together!

1st Early Potatoes ‘Rocket‘ being sown:

The spacing between plants in the same row isn’t too bad but I plant the rows too close together resulting in a mess once the plants really get going as I can’t get to them properly to earth/hill them up! I put in 3 rows where I now realize I should have only put in two! A mistake I’ve made previous years! Perhaps I ought to put up a sign to remind me next year to only plant two rows of seed potatoes in each bed!

I’d “chitted” (sprouted) a bag of seed potatoes ‘Rocket’ which were planted out at the same time as ‘Pentland Javelin’ which were not “chitted”. In fact I bought them only the day before planting them out!

All the potatoes were sown in the same bed which I’d dug horse manure into a few days earlier. Potatoes being the only rootcrop that doesn’t mind growing in freshly manured ground.

Just 2 weeks ago (10th June) I dug up all the ‘Rocket’ potatoes, there was only one row of them almost the width of the allotment. I ended up with quite a decent crop as well.

Potatoes ‘Rocket’ after harvesting:

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I also sowed some Leeks ‘Musselbourgh’ & ‘Red’ Onion seeds (from my daughter) in Gerry’s GH, to go in my plot, during March. These germinated very well & have since been planted out on my allotment.

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During March I also lifted the Parsnips that had been in the ground all winter as well as lots of Leeks.

Parsnips just harvested, now in greenhouse:

I put them in the GH to dry off a little for a couple of days. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Leeks Musselbourgh just lifted:

I was very pleased with the amount of Leeks I got this winter. I harvested them every couple of weeks.
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Near the end of March I planted up a bed of Onion sets ‘Stuttgarter’ as well as a row of Garlic cloves.

Onion sets ‘Stuttgarter’ just sown:

A month before I’d planted out some Onion sets ‘Setton’:

Garlic cloves just sown:

I planted out a bed of these same Onion sets in Gerry’s 1/2 allotment.
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In early May I sowed a 2nd packet of Broadbeans as the 1st packet sown in February gave me only 3 plants – one of which I hoed away! They are called ‘Sutton’ & are a dwarf variety. Most of these seem to have germinated & are now making nice plants.

Broad beans ‘Sutton’ just germinating:

The 2 plants from the earlier sowing are flowering. This week I’ve picked some of the pods.
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May was a very busy month for me because I also planted out lots of Runner bean seeds on the bean frame, most of these were mixed seeds from last year. Some were black seeds, some speckled, some white & also a packet of ‘Scarlet Emperor’ I’d bought.

Runner bean seeds saved from 2013:

Runner beans germinating:

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Beetroot ‘Detroit 2’ seedlings inside bean frame:

Beetroot ‘Detroit 2’ in Bed No.4 (bean frame):

What a difference 14 days make!

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During May I also planted out 2 beds of Tomato plants; one, ‘Gardener’s Delight’ (a particular favourite of mine!), the other, ‘Sunstream’, a small, plum shaped fruit whose seeds I’d saved from some tomatoes my wife bought during the winter. I liked the taste of them & saved some seeds. These germinated very well in the GH, as did the others.

Tomatoes ‘Gardener’s Delight’ just planted out:

Tomato ‘Sunstream’ just planted out:

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On my plot I also sowed some Carrot ‘Purple Haze’ seed from my daughter. Never grown purple carrots before!:

I also sowed a few Sunflower seeds she gave me as well. These are in the middle of the narrow bed alongside the beanframe.

I didn’t know when I sowed the Sunflowers that they were a dwarf type! Now they are shading out the Purple Haze Carrot seedlings!

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At the far end of this bed I planted out the pots of Pansies, Daffs & Crocuses that had been growing on our balcony railings. The Pansies are doing very well & have flowered a lot. They add a welcome note of colour!

Just this week a light pink Hyacinth has begun to flower!!! I’ve never, ever heard of a Hyacinth flowering in the middle of June before!!!

Well that just about resumes what I’ve done on my allotment, Plot 12A, over the last few months!

Be back next month with more news on Gerry’s plots!