Impact of weather

[annie8]

I am interested on what people -particularly those up north - are doing with greenhouse tomatoes as a result of the poor weather recently. It has been wet and not very warm for some time now and the only ripe tomatoes I have had are a few sungold. The plants are fine and healthy looking and a decent amount of tomatoes on them plus flowers, but just not getting enough sun to ripen. I have been taking out a bit of the foliage, below the first truss and few others to enable the tomatoes to get plenty light, but am debating whether to take th top off the plants. I wouldn’t normally do this at this stage of the year but really don’t want to end up with very few ripe tomatoes. Because I grow in the greenhouse I can keep growing for a few months yet so maybe the weather will improve?

[Andraste]

Hi annie8,

I'm in SE Wales but pretty high up. Our toms are in a blowaway & in a similar place to yours (although only Moneymaker so no ripe Sungolds for us).

I've done the same with the lower leaves but have also nipped out the tops last week: we have 4 trusses on them now & they'd be hitting the top of the blowaway otherwise. I hoped it would focus the plants on ripening fruit & I did see my first bit of orange blushing on the biggest ones this morning - but I'm not sure if it's because of the trimming or if it would have happened as quickly anyway More knowledgeable people than I will be able to let us know I'm sure

Here's hoping for some sunshine

[ameno]

I live in the south west and my greenhouse tomatoes are only just starting to ripen. But then I am growing only beefsteak varieties in the greenhouse, and they do take longer to mature.

[Penellype]

Tomatoes do not need light to ripen, they rely more on heat. I am leaving mine as they are and hoping things will warm up (we may get some heat for a few days at the end of next week, but it is not certain yet). I have a couple of Shirleys in the greenhouse that are just starting to turn red in the last couple of days.

[mrsbusy]

I'm South Chilterns. Greenhouse toms beefsteak and cherry not ripening.
the Outdoor Girl ones are doing well and I'm picking ripe fruit
Also a few Sungold growing outdoors are ripe.
I'm keeping the g/h door closed at night to try and keep temp up.

[smallblueplanet]

Keeping the greenhouse door shut to keep in the heat just leads to too much humidity. It's a pretty poor season all round. June's heat stopped some stuff growing and now July's weather is doing the same but differently. Bit depressing really.

[mrsbusy]

The door is open 2 inches and the roof window fully open. I open the door mid morning and close as mentioned at 7 ish - so far so good.

[annie8]

I understand the point about air flow. My greenhouse can get very hot so I have to manage it carefully. I have an automatic vent but also will open the Louvre or the door when the temp goes up a bit. I’m closing everything at night though to keep the temp up. Interesting about it being heat not light. Might wait for another few weeks. In the meantime might do a wee check on how many trusses the plants have. I don’t mind if I still get a decent crop but later. This was what I was getting at this point last year.

[Jungle Jane]

The weather was very warm & sunny last year,this year different plants will do better with this wet weather,beans are definitely growing better this year. It’s raining every day,the tomatoes are just staying green for so long,they still have till October to ripen before the frosts,all my plants are outside/no greenhouse,I haven’t topped the plants yet.

[annie8]

Had a good look at the plants and they and the fruit are looking really healthy, so I just tidied up a bit and will leave hoping for a good but late crop. No blossom end rot this year which is good as I get that on my black icicles sometimes.

[Babru]

I've just picked my first Glacier and Sungold, grown because they are very early. Not that early this year, but still first. I've taken the tops off a couple of weeks ago and have started removing leaves.

I have some Matskotka in a pot outside just starting to colour.

[Sweet savory]

I too have only had 2 ripe gh tomatoes so far here in the sw. I’ve taken off the lower leaves and topped them now except for the tigerella which is the most vigorous. The 2 outside crimson crush look very healthy with large trusses but all green at present. Apart from today the forecast here for the foreseeable is the low 20s at best with a raindrop every day.
Next year maybe I’ll think about more of a mix between early and later vars.

[annie8]

Yes similar to me. I grow all mine in the gh and usually I find it gets too hot, but not at the moment. Forecast here high teens 20 at best. I’m growing about 10 varieties so it isn’t a particular variety and I’ve grown successfully for quite a few years. Still only sungold and rosella have produced any ripe tomatoes but a few signs of colour change in others now. I have them a good talking to yesterday so we shall see……

[smallblueplanet]

Keeping the greenhouse door shut to keep in the heat just leads to too much humidity. It's a pretty poor season all round. June's heat stopped some stuff growing and now July's weather is doing the same but differently. Bit depressing really.

Keeping the g/h door closed also led to a nasty and large scale (we didn't spot them early enough) infestation of whitefly type insects. After spraying with Bio-D washing-up liquid (big squirt in 1l of water - which killed most of them), this resulted in large loss of leaves. The plants have been saved, although the aubergines are looking particularly sad and bare. In a better summer I think they would have recovered quite quickly and put more leaf back on. The peppers and chillies have fruit, as do the aubergine, but in nothing like the quantity we normally expect. The smaller toms, particularly Sungold started slowly ripening and we picked some about a week ago. The outside toms are looking very green leafed but we're keeping a close eye out for blight. We've been thinning leaves from the plants in the g/house and outside and the potatoes were topped as there was the beginning of some blight.
Today is cool, windy, rainy, grey and miserable although the last is my mood not a weather phenomena! Our new garden greenhouse looks good though - Elite High Eave 6 x 8 ft with green bar-capping .

[Nicos]

Your garden looks smashing SBP…love your greenhouse!