GYO's Tumbling Toms

[sewer rat]

Hey BW
Naw am no - am jest a weegie who took a wrang turn an' endit up in Tain

[Alice]

Well Rat I'm sure a few of us made decisions at the crossroads and got there by the scenic route.

[sewer rat]

Alice
It was the best wrong turn I ever made - I love it here

[JazzDuke]

I have a couple of small hanging baskets into which I put three spindly little plants a three months ago. I am now inundated with tomatoes. Spectacular number of fruit for such small plants - I hope they all ripen. Flavour not quite as good as my old standby Gardeners Delight but definitely one of the better giveaways from this mag. I'll certainly plant them up again next year.

[nick the grief]

Green tomato chutney Jazz that's your answer Lol!!

[soobeth]

I got some seeds with a tesco mag and iv got 36 plants all with toms redy ripen

[bootie]

I planted 6 Gartenperle toms in a hanging basket although some were eaten by caterpillars I must have picked a good 2 kilo's of fruit. Looking forward to next years crop.

[eskymo]

I planted my free gartenperle toms in hanging baskets and they've got tons of toms on them, but they're all green and I doubt they are ever going to turn red - you must have hotter temperatures down where you are. We've had some scorching days/weeks, but still no sign of red tomatoes. I'm a bit disappointed as I thought they would do really well. I can't really plant them out any earlier in the year than I did this year so not sure I'm going to bother with them next year. Maybe just have a couple in the greenhouse instead.

[Lesley Jay]

Eskymo I kept my tomatoes on the plants last year until November and I kept picking ripe tomatoes. I think daylight has something to do with them ripening aswell. It's only August you have plenty of time before the first frost.

[eskymo]

I though you need heat to get toms to ripen. If nothing happens over the next few weeks, I might move them into the greenhouse as I've got a sugar ababy melon plant that is not producing anything but foliage and pea sized melons, so I might get rid of them to make room for the tomato baskets.

[Lesley Jay]

Mine were on the allotment and we didn't have particularly good weather last summer that's why I left them until November.

[JennieAtkinson]

Eskymo - my Gartenperle are in the greenhouse and polytunnel and still all green fruit. A number of leaves are now turning yellow (not sure why?), but the year before last (last year was a BAD year for everything!) I was picking tomatoes in October.

[Alice]

Hello Jennie, if your tomato leaves are turning yellow it might be a magnesium deficiency. I had the same problem earlier in the year. I sprayed them with epsom salts every day for a week and it realyy did the trick. You could just them greening up. Our tumbling toms have been great. We've had a stedy picking of red ones since July and have a grea big glut now. They're outside on a south facing terrace and we have had a lot of sun, so a good year for them. I don't think the flavour is very special so although they have been prolific I might try another variety next year. Hope yours come on well.

[JennieAtkinson]

Thanks Alice I'll try that. How much did you use?

[Alice]

6 teaspoons of Epsom salts in a pint of water Jennie and spray them all over. It really did the trick. I'm sure I would have lost them all without it as they were yellowing rapidly. I got that info from the Vine.