Lack lustre Tomatoes

[cotswold]

Often happens, but worse this year.

In grow bags, in cold house, fed daily Tomorite - watered 500-800ml, depending.

Small varieties OK, but medium & Beef are very unshiny.

[rustylady]

You shouldn't be feeding daily. Also question your watering regime. Less than a litre per growbag per day doesn't sound enough to me. Have you drainage holes in your growbag?

[Florence Fennel]

RL's spot on I think cotswold. You can easily overfeed plants and every day is overfeeding. Is the taste affected?

[cotswold]

Great response!! Thank you both.

1. Correction - I'm actually using Chempak at present. 15ml/gal. Doing what they say - at 3rd truss, use every day.

2. Watering? Probably the most difficult thing to get right? I use an old guide:

V dull - 150-300ml EACH
Dull - 300-400ml
Cloudy bright - 700-850ml
Sunny - 1100-1300ml
V sunny - 1700-1650ml.

And we've not seen much sun! I tend to use the amount the top vents open as a guide to needs.

3. Taste is fine. They just look unattractive.

[Thelma Sanders]

Taste is fine. They just look unattractive

Lucky you! mine look lovely but some are a bit 'wooly' where they've taken so long to ripen

I know which I'd rather be eating

[Kestrel]

All sounds a bit 'scientific' to me, I'm afraid.

My toms tend to get fed 'once in a while' as I mulch with comfrey leaves. And I water when the compost is getting dry - some plants will need it more or less often depending on variety, size, position etc. My feeling is that we should respond to the needs of the plant rather than expect them to fit into a feeding 'regime'

[SarzWix]

Have you grown the same varieties before? And were they previously a 'shiny' variety? Only, I've grown lots of types of tomatoes, and they don't all have the same 'finish'... Some are matt, some are satin, some are glossy. If they taste nice, then that's probably the way they're meant to be. And unless you're growing for exhibition, I can't see that it matters really? (If you are growing for exhibition, then you would need certain highly bred varieties to get the perfect looking tom. Shirley for e.g.)

[cotswold]

Couple of valid points there.

Regime. Yes - however, at 92, with 62 plants, I'm beyond iffing & butting with each bag. It's bad enough tailoring the feed to the different growth stages.

Lustre. Yes - must make note & compare next year, but I wondered whether I could be contributing to the condition??

[rustylady]

Cotswold, I am very jealous of your greenhouse. What on earth do you do with all those tomatoes?

[Florence Fennel]

however, at 92, with 62 plants

Wow, seriously impressed now, that greenhouse looks fabulous Cotswold

[zazen999]

Taste is fine. They just look unattractive.

Lots of people have lost their entire tom crops this year. And your toms are not shiny enough? *walks away from thread.

[chris]

I was going to say similar, but zaz beat me to it

You're 92? I hope I'm still able to grow at 92

So far this year, I've had about 7 tomatoes, and they've been from a hanging basket. That's out of about 20 plants, so as long as they taste fine - I'd just enjoy them. They all look the same when they've come out of the other end away.

[poppysocks]

This is my third year of growing tomatoes, with little success. The last 2 years I was late getting them in so got plenty of tomatoes but too late in the season to ripen, made loads of chutney though! This year I got my timing much better but the plants were slower to mature due to the weather. I made the mistake of planting them in the ground in the poly tunnel and most of them nearly drowned in all the wet weather and have taken an age to recover. Fortunately, I did plant a couple in pots and upside down containers and they are doing well, with plenty of green tomatoes, I just need plenty of sun now otherwise it's back to chutney! So I am in agreement, if tomatoes ripen and taste good, I wouldn't worry about the looks, I would just be grateful to eat some!

[cotswold]

But I WANT shiny!! Or at least the reason why - apart from variety - they are not.

What do we do with them? Good question. I'll try an explanation.
First - 9 of the total are Cucumbers (see file), 4 are Chillies. Planting dates are a month apart so,this year, we start with Nectar (qv, our standby), Sungold, Bottendoro & Rosada in late June. Then Bolzano & Nepal in July, with 'Beef' & John Hawkins bringing up the rear. This year we're trying a heriyage variety - Wladeck's - impressive. We usually clear out in mid-October.
Yes - we have surpluses, but we have to have an overkill to cater for our 3, plus our lot next door when they're here - another 5. And several summer get-togethers of up to 17!! The cherries are a regular snack for the young instead of sweetmeats.

We sell some in the village & exchange some. Others are presents locally. We freeze a few bags of cherries for casseroles. We juice a lot for drinks or passata type gunge.

The few green ones that we are left with are eagerly awaited for fried green toms! No chutneys. Not a lot is wasted.

Because we may not grow them that well, our crop may not be up to commercial standards in terms of productivity.

Does that help??

PS - should this not be under Greenhouses?? Sorry.

[veggiechicken]

They look absolutely mouthwatering (and shiny) to me, Cotswold
I agree that the one in your original photo looks a bit tired, and maybe its taken so long to ripen that its lost its initial sheen. Does it also have a thicker skin than normal?