on the subject of tomatos....

[Socks]

cheers for the feedback and there are some great hints comming through!

as for the hanging baskets, i normally use my hanging baskets for strawberries so ive no experience of tumbling tom or other basket varieties, however i do water last thing at night and add some jel resevoir stuff which holds water.

another tip when trying to ripen the last of your toms , and it worked for my 'cordon' money makers and gardeners delight last year (see, im learning!) was to remove all the leaf branches when you are trying to ripen the last of the toms leaving just the trusses on the plant, as the plant doesnt need to grow, just get them ripening in the sun. this is a tip that i heard monty say about (cant remember when) and it worked when i was down to two or so trussses.

hope this helps!

chris

[nick the grief]

Hi Sock,

It worked for me as well. Mind you I was getting a bit stuck for space in the greenhouse by November!!

[Patsy]

Another tip for ripening toms,(courtesy of Alan Titchmarsh) when it's getting too late for them outdoors is to strip off remaining leaves and hang the whole plants upside down in the shed. Worked a treat for our bush tomatoes last season and gave me loads to use in Sophie Grigson's slowroasted tomato sauce. Yummy!

[poultrychat]

Hi JennieAtkinson, I grew the same tomatoes in a hanging basket with the same problem so ended up putting the hanging basket on top of a bucket of water overnight

[JennieAtkinson]

Hanging Baskets

Thanks for all the tips - hopefully I will have more luck this year!

[Nicos]

seed shortage

Have just called into my plant nursery (which does't officially sell to the public) to see about Ferline and Red Alert tomato plants.He had never heard of Ferline so I'll have to grow them from seed but....I thought I'd let you know that he said there has been a seed failure for Red Alert this year and they would be only producing a very limited number of plants grown from leftover seeds from last year. Presumably the seed packets are going to be either old or in short supply too.He thought this would be the case throughout the country. So, although I still recommend the variety,those of you who are thinking of growing it should be aware that you may have problems getting hold of seed. As we only have about 6 seed left from last year, it looks like I'm going to go for Ferline after all! Maybe I should put them up on e-bay!!!
I wonder if any other varieties have been affected?