Tumbling tom advice

[Nannysally99]

Bless you Marb, I'm sure you will get some tomatoes, I've got five plants and only a little cherry one us cropping.
The other 4 show no sign of being ready to ripen.
I always use Verve MPC and then tomato feed after the first month, weekly

[Lumpy]

I have lots of flowers, yellowing and sickly looking leaves and no fruit.

Oh joy for the weather as we go from cold and very wet to scorching and dry.

[bearded bloke]

Could be shock from going outdoors to greenhouse & outdoors again I wonder, if it were me I'd carry on watering & feeding & see if the foliage returns over the next week or two

[Marb67]

I have had a few toms already but unfortunatley it won't be for much longer as most of the flowers have fallen and no new flowers forming. It's such a shame as it started out so healthy. Why the middle stem is turning orange is beyond me. All my home grown toms from seed in the greenhouse seem ok. I have put some manure pellets in a plastic bottle with water to make a concentrate liquid. I will dilute and give it a feed to try and green things up. It's not blight for sure.

[veggiechicken]

Have you had toms off the "orange stem"? Just wondering if that stem has done its bit and could be cut out now?
I often do that when a stem has finished. It may not be enough to give it the kiss of life but it'll look better

[Marb67]

I will do that VC when the last 2 toms have ripened as 2 large ones on that stem. There was a leggy sideshoot I took out a few weeks ago and potted on as a new plant. Not as big with many flowers but I could try and nutrure that.

I will say that when I put the main plant in the hanging basket, I used black polythene from compost bag with a few holes in ot for drainage. The growbag compost was very dark and clumpy so perhaps lack of air circulation between roots ? I should have perhaps mixed in some perlite in hindsight. Perhaps too dense.

[veggiechicken]

I find hanging baskets really difficult to manage - from a planting, watering and feeding viewpoint. They take a lot more care than a similar sized pot. Maybe its because the baskets are always above my eye level and I can't see what's going on on the surface.
I think its too late for me to grow any taller and Hanging baskets at waist height may be a bit hazardous

I only have a few outside tomatoes this year and none of them have had any ripe toms. Even the green toms are a long way off ripening. So you're not doing so badly.

[bario1]

You mentioned that you took out a 'leggy sideshoot', Marb. Looking at your picture, I can see quite a few snipped stalks? I'm sure you know that as the plant is a bush variety, it's not necessary to take out sideshoots... in fact, if you do cut out the sideshoots, then what is left will just try and ripen its fruit and then the plant will think it's job is done and die off. Could that be what's happening? Your plant looks how my basket toms usually look in October. I never, ever take out sideshoots on my basket toms.

[Marb67]

It was just one, long stray leggy shoot that was in the way all the time. Surely just this one side shoot wouldn't cause the whole plant to die ? It's even worse now and all leaves are wilting, despite giving water.

[Potstubsdustbins]

^^^^^^No that wouldn't be the problem I trim some of the shoots of my tumbler if they get to high or are overlong and never get this problem.

[Marb67]

This is the thing. Why, when I do all the correct things does this happen ?

[SaraJH]

Are you giving them enough water Marb?

I find watering to be a complete dark art but for fruiting plants I always err on over watering. Or maybe they have been over fed? I'm just guessing as I'm no expert.

I do really feel for you, it's so frustrating to apparently being doing everything by the text book and for it to be going wrong.

[veggiechicken]

Another question, Marb. You said the basket was lined with a plastic compost bag - are there plenty of drainage holes? Just wondering whether there is a pool of stagnant water in the bottom of the basket?
The top could still dry out but underneath might be soggy?
Just a thought!

[Marb67]

You could be right VC as the top always seemed dry despite the watering. Is it too late to rectify ?

[veggiechicken]

Poke your finger down deep into the compost and see if it feels soggy.
Stab a few holes through the bottom and see if any water comes out. Then water it and see if the water comes out then. At least that will show that its draining properly.
Its a really hard balance - needing to keep the compost moist but not soggy.
Hope your tom recovers