tomato leaf mould

[jayjaybee]

I agree with scarlett, my polytunnel has doors at each end and the rear door (which admittedly faces a brick wall) has been open six inches since the start of May. The front door has been either fully open or partially open every night bar one since the end of May.

In previous years, I've grown my tomatoes in the unheated polytunnel, sowing them in February and covering them with fleece until late April.

My own experience is that aborted flowers (or blossom drop) seems to be caused more by the temperatures getting too high (40C +) rather than too low.

For the first time this year I've been running a set of temperature sensors which record the maximum and minimum temperature every hour outside (I haven't yet stretched it into the polytunnel). I started in early June and since then I've had three days when the minimum temperature outside was below 10C. In each case it was there for a couple of hours and I don't think that's enough to cause any problems.

Mark, sorry it's so long after your original post but could you give me the details of the min/max recording system you have installed, I've looked for a system that recorded temperatures whilst we are away and this might fit the bill.

[burnie]

I guess it depends where you are, I'm in a windy coastal location and never leave the door open on my 8x 12, the plants are closer together than most, but I think using those green plastic rings you get to use with grow bags are part of the reason. The plant stems are well above the ground/water level and I think it might be pretty impossible to over water on my sandy soil. I have watered twice a day morning and night for those plants in the rings feeding twice a week until yesterday when I ran out of tomorite. Plants that were "spares" and put in pots are doing just as well having been watered once a day(unless it was cold and wet and compost looked damp) in the morning(same with my chillies) and are behind the ground grown ones, but are cropping nicely. I do have auto roof vents and also side louvres, but they haven't been open that often either. Most days the max temp is 30 degrees and down to minimum of 10 at night. Quite a lot of the tumbling toms flowers have not set, even though I "assist" with my hands, that is probably due the temperature being in the roof area in hanging baskets. I will grow them again, but not in hanging baskets as they are just in the way of everything else(doesn't help having 8 foot high sweetcorn in there I guess lol)

[MarkPelican]

I made it with a Raspberry Pi and some temperature sensors. I ran it for several months but then needed the Pi for another project. However, I've just bought myself a couple of Raspberry Pi Zeros (at £9.60 you can't go wrong) and I'm going to fit it up with some batteries and things and run it again this time not connected to the mains.

[jayjaybee]

The only raspberry I deal with is red sweet and juicy. I'm reasonably computer savvy, but at over 60 I draw the line at starting to program!