Grow Your Own Magazine

i have been eating lovely cherry toms in the greenhouse for some weeks now, but I have been growing other toms that I cant remember what they are as threw the packet away (oops) - anyway some are huge and very green but non are ripening whatsoever, so now i am trying the banana trick, but nothing!

there is lots of foliage and I think they cant see the sun (neither can I!!) but I have given them a good trim, they are really healthy and as I said some are huge, would this trim have helped, some were behind the foliage.

I have nothing to lose, but I just wanted to know if the trim will help or hinder?

Thanks

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Gardening - A labour of love that begins with daybreak and ends with backache!
http://clarkiesveggieblog.blogspot.com/

Banana trick!?

Is that like the ping pong ball trick?

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Minor update - 10th November

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Trimming the surplus leaves at this stage will help air circulation. Don't worry - it's only half past August. There's plenty of time for them to ripen.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

Yep remove the branch the leavers are on at the main trunk. Will get air in a open up space for more sunlight. Also the plant will be sending all its goodness hopefully to the fruit not the leaves.

thanks

my word they look naked!!!! ha ha !! - but the toms are massive and i think they will need all the goodness to ripen or get even larger! they must be beafsteaks but i cant remember what was on the packet and i am 99% sure they arent! oh well as long as they taste good!

cheers everyone

PS. HW - i saw the ping pong trick in Thailand - say no more

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Gardening - A labour of love that begins with daybreak and ends with backache!
http://clarkiesveggieblog.blogspot.com/

hi squashysu i had the same problem with loads of toms but very green i kept cutting the leaves back as they would take all the water and food instead of the toms but be paitent as my toms have just stated to turn red

We've so far(from about 20 various plants!)only had 4 ripe moneymakers~&DD nicked them before we had a chance!!Our Beefsteak are looking more like green cherries!!I envisage me making lots of green tomato chutney!!

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

That's what I'll be doing...just had to pull out all my toms because of blight - nearly cried as they were doing so well It has been amazingly wet here for August - where has the summer gone?

On the positive side you'll prob still be eating your chutney by the time your 1st ones ripen next year!!

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

Saw a site on the net that showed the length of time taken for fruits to ripen it was an absolute age.

BTW I suppose that they are not a 'green when ripe' variety???

Me too! I went and had a look this morning and it's not looking good.

Can you still cook up the green toms as green chutney even if there's blight on the plants?

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Cheers

T-lady

"Can you still cook up the green toms as green chutney even if there's blight on the plants?"

After the leaves have first evidence of blight it takes a little while for the blight to invade the fruits ... so I reckon that would be a possibility.

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K's Garden blog last update 3rd August 2008

I've thrown away all the fruit with signs of blight - but I still have 13lbs of green toms to use...that's a lot of chutney!

this might some daft but this is my first year growing tomatoes what is blight and what does it look like

Black spots on the leaves/stalks - everything going yellow then brown and dying. The fruit gets brown patches on it. If you've got it you'll know

Back to the chutney factory today...

Here is something that I found on line

Fruit Set:At fruit set, flower petals and anthers senesce (die) and fall away as a pea-sized green fruit appear at each termination of the flower truss. Typically it takes 45 - 50 more days from this point before fruit is ready to harvest.

we thought our toms would never ripen....now we wish they would slow down !!!!