Tomato Trial

[Tomatoking]

I've had problems growing tomatoes outdoors for the last couple of years; mainly due to having to get rid once blight strikes [and it does strike, overnight usually].

During the growing veg part of my course, my tutor mentioned growing hers sideways, i.e. letting the plants root where they wanted to and training them horizontally along canes in the greenhouse.

I also saw a method of trying to contain the foliage and thereby preventing blight taking hold by growing upright, at a slight angle, and covering the foliage with a plastic covering and just leaving the last 6 inches bare so that the plant would still get watered.

So, putting 2 and 2 together, I thought of growing some outside, horizontally under a cloche [only coming off when it is scorching hot] and having the root ball under soil but outside of the cloche; so the tomato grows fully indoors but the rain can still water the plant outdoors [ie water can still get to the roots]. Obviously if there was no rain I'd water by hand anyway.

Am I crazy? Apart from the fruit getting dirty [I'd use a sawdust mulch as we get this free from lottie neighbour], and the fruit setting [insects would still get in as the ends would only be closed up when rain is expected], and the foliage getting scorched [there's always a downside].....any thoughts on this?

After all, in the wild, they would grow horizontally wouldn't they?

Blight is airborne and usually comes from potatoes, it is caused by humid conditions, but airflow around the plant is also important. Having the leaves too close to humid soil is not the best idea. I would make a makeshift cloche to keep the rain off and well ventilated. Grow the plants upright, but well spaced for good air flow. You cannot kill blight, but a really good preventative solution is Bordeaux mixture sprayed on.
When any blight appears on the edges of leaves, cut it off straight away or if there is a lot, cut the whole leaf off. Leaves are needed to help the fruit grow, so you will need leaves from above the ripening trusses. Saying that, you could take out the odd leaf to help airflow.
Always grow tomatoes well away from potatoes, and wash your hands if you have touched the potatoes before tending tomatoes.
In the wild, I am sure they do grow horizontally, but probably in drier climates.

Good luck though, because I stupidly planted my toms too close to my potatoes and got blight. However, I saved a lot of the plants until the end of the season by spraying a couple of times and daily cutting out the blight.

[zazen999]

Blight is airborne and usually comes from potatoes, it is caused by humid conditions, but airflow around the plant is also important. Having the leaves too close to humid soil is not the best idea. I would make a makeshift cloche to keep the rain off and well ventilated. Grow the plants upright, but well spaced for good air flow. You cannot kill blight, but a really good preventative solution is Bordeaux mixture sprayed on.
When any blight appears on the edges of leaves, cut it off straight away or if there is a lot, cut the whole leaf off. Leaves are needed to help the fruit grow, so you will need leaves from above the ripening trusses. Saying that, you could take out the odd leaf to help airflow.
Always grow tomatoes well away from potatoes, and wash your hands if you have touched the potatoes before tending tomatoes.
In the wild, I am sure they do grow horizontally, but probably in drier climates.

Good luck though, because I stupidly planted my toms too close to my potatoes and got blight. However, I saved a lot of the plants until the end of the season by spraying a couple of times and daily cutting out the blight.

I'm hoping the ground isn't going to be humid if it is under the cloche from the start; and I've tried the upright way....I haven't got the space for putting an upright cloche hence the 'on the ground method'.

As I said; it's a trial.

I'm organic so won't be spraying with anything!

[Snadger]

Nah - I'm not interested in them, there's only a couple of types and I'm not buying more seeds; I want to do this on the cheap with varieties I like!

Fair comment!

I don't bother with outdoor tomatoes any more, not since I inherited two and built another ramshackle greenhouses (had four but tuther one rotted away and fell over!). (need to turf the chooks out of one of them though!) and finish glasing one of the others.

I used to grow toms outside with a plastic screen around them with reasonable success. Once it got late on in the season I unhooked the stems from the canes and laid them down in straw with a cloche over the top.
They were quite tasty I spose, but it's a damm site easier with a greenhouse!

[RedThorn]

If you have a long wall, perhaps get some guttering capped at both ends on the wall, fill with compost and root the plant horizontally through the length of the guttering. this way, you'll get good airflow and light to the toms for ripening and keep the toms off the ground.... Also reduces the slug problem

A cross between your idea and hydroponics ideas and elevating for sunlight....

[Incy]

Have you seen Bob Flowerdew's no work garden?
He has a diagram in it where he basically puts up a frame (upside down u shape) plants the toms a little behind the frame and uses it to tie them to. He then drapes clear polythene sheet over so that a little dangles in front and a lot more is stretched out at the back leaving the roots exposed to the rain but protecting the rest of the plant. The sides are left open so there is plenty of airflow and the plants are protected against the rain/blight. Seems like a really good idea to me.

[zazen999]

Lots of good ideas here; keep em coming.

Not just for me, but I'm sure there's loads who what to try different methods...

I think that Bob Flowerdew method is the one I was originally thinking of; before I found out about the horizontal method.

[Two_Sheds]

I haven't read all the posts above, and I don't know if this is even helpful, but...

... the only tomato plant last year to not get blight, was a self-sown one (the seed was in compost which I spread around) and it grew, and was sheltered by, my peas.

It was a short plant (8 inches max) but I had half a dozen lovely red tomatoes off it. I didn't even know it was there until the fruit turned red (and I wondered why I had red peas).

Perhaps the pea foliage protected it from the blight spores?

[RedThorn]

you say that TS, the only Tom's I had that were completely blight free and the snow finally killed off were tom "weeds" that grew down the side of my house from where I had grown tomatoes the previous year....

[Llamas]

I love the free weed veg I find around the compost. Last fall I had an excellent crop of potatoes which were found growing next to the pile.
Sorry to not have any useful suggestions. My outside toms were a disaster too.

[mcsee]

If you could manage it inside the cloche, could you tightly stretch wire/cord along the length, maybe 12" apart and 6" off the ground, just as a support and to keep them off the ground and improve air flow around the foliage. Sort of like a bed mattress support, if you know what I mean.

[greasyfire]

Why dont you grow it in containers?

[zazen999]

Why dont you grow it in containers?

I do in the greenhouse; but I have a huge allotment! The problem is keeping blight away without spraying anything or building a polytunnel.

[sagegreen]

I grew toms outdoors for many years with no problems at all, but I have been driven 'undercover' over the last 2 or 3 summer's. As Tomatoking says, the blight is airborne and will affect plants grown at any angle! I still get some success with tumbling toms in pots kept right under our eaves but all my cordon plants now, unfortunately, have to be under some sort of cover to beat the blight

[Incy]

I actually got a good outdoor crop last year even though the plants eventually got the dreaded blight. I reckon it was from sowing earlier than usual so they were mostly ripe before the blight hit. The 2 previous summers the whole lot was wiped out before I got to eat a single one!