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Tomatoes harvesting & dying 2018

balcony

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Tomatoes harvesting & dying 2018

Back in March 2018 my daughter gave me 5 packets of tomato seeds.

I sowed some from each packet of five varieties & the majority germinated within a week.

After another couple of weeks in the flat I moved them outside & put them in the mini-greenhouse on the table in a corner of the balcony.

At the beginning of May I put the small plants in 3" pots which were then planted into 4 growbags on the floor of the balcony.

I started to harvest the first of the tomatoes during the last week of August. My 3 grandchildren helped to pick some as well.

It’s now the end of September & I’ve picked lots of tomatoes. ‘Ukrainian Purple’ has been one of the most prolific & also the earliest to start, though ‘Black Cherry’ was right behind!

I’d also planted 3 hanging baskets with 4 plants of ‘Red Robin’ in each. These were really prolific tiny, tasty tomatoes & I will definitely be growing more of this variety next year!

‘Alicante’ was later to start ripening than the others but has produced quite a lot of fruit as well. I’d forgotten to take photos of this variety so I’ve just quickly taken this picture to show a few of the fruits I’ve picked in the last week or two. There are still more green tomatoes on the plant that is left.

Last of all, when I thought I must have lost all the plants or given them away,‘Speckled Roma’ put in an appearance! I had only 2 plants of this variety but at last they have had a few ripe fruits. I haven’t tried them yet but in the next day or so I will.

The cold weather has now begun but the tomatoes loved the long hot summer we had this year! I’ve never seen the plants grow so well & so strongly in the 15 or more years I’ve been growing them on the balcony! The first 2 ‘Ukrainian Purple’ have finished harvesting & I have removed them from the growing bags. A few of the ‘Alicante’ plants have finished as well & have been removed from the pots they were growing in. I still have one plant with lots of green fruit, I’ve started to pick any tomatoes that are showing any hint of ripening so as to leave the others to “fatten up” a little more. I am doing the same with all the plants now & in a couple of weeks time I expect to have cleared the balcony of all the tomato plants then I can get on with putting up the big, round white table in the corner & put the mini-greenhouse on it for the winter/spring.

These are some of the very last tomatoes I picked yesterday. I will have to pick the rest of the tomatoes that are still green & bring them in to ripen.

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Comments

 

I only grew 2 varieties this year. a salad one called Harbinger and a full sized plum tomato whose name I cant recall and I cant find its label. but both have cropped well and they still have plenty on but I doubt they will ripen on the vine now.

30 Sep, 2018

 

Our only really salad tomato was 'Alicante' which has given a good crop as well & there is still one plant with 3 trusses of unripe fruit.

Good to hear you got a god cop as well! It seems to have been a very good year for them!

No they will find it difficult to ripen now & I, myself, have removed some of the tomatoes that were showing any signs of starting to ripen. I pulled up several plants on Saturday that I had removed the last tomatoes from but I still have over half the plants with a few tomatoes on each. As we are forecast a "warmish" week I thought I would leave them a few more days.

1 Oct, 2018

 

hubby made a green tomato pie last year and it was almost as sweet as an apple pie. we had it with cheese. made the same way as an apple pie if you are interested.

1 Oct, 2018

 

Sounds interesting! Balcony how do you manage to eat all those tomatoes Guess you give lots away?

1 Oct, 2018

 

It's great that you could grow all those different types on the balcony, and it seems you've had good crops from them all.

2 Oct, 2018

 

Thanks for your comments! πŸ˜€

Thank you for that, SB!

Stera, I do eat most of them myself! πŸ˜€

I can't complain about the crops I've had from the tomato plants I've grown this year on the balcony, Hywel! I've never grown so many plants of tomato before nor have I ever grown such a variety of different tomatoes! Nor would I have done if my daughter hadn't given me those 5 packets of seeds either! There won't be a repeat next year.

I can't fault 'Ukrainian Purple' for the number of fruits or their size but I found them to have little taste! It was one of the earliest to produce fruit as well. I won't be growing this one again.

'Black Cherry' had a huge number of fruits & is a very vigorous plant! The taste of them wasn't too bad but I didn't find they were particularly "tomatery". I may grow a few plants of this one again next year.

'Alicante' as always performed really well & the plants look exactly like you think a tomato plant should look like! They also tasted quite nice! I'm probably going to grow some more next year. These are the favorite tomatoes of my wife's.

But I was very disappointed with 'Speckled Roma' it has only produced a few tomatoes & very late. I have a couple of plants with green fruit still which I will have to take off in the coming week once the weather once again turns cooler.They will never ripen on the plants. I still haven't got around to tasting the 2 fruits that ripened on the plant. So I can't comment on taste. Nevertheless I don't think I will be growing it again in the future.

Perhaps the best of the bunch was 'Red Robin"! This is a very tiny plant that produces no end of tiny tomatoes! I planted 4 plants in each of 3 hanging baskets & they are still producing fruits! The taste is quite "tomatery" & I scoff them by the handful!!! This is one I shall definitely grow again next year! I recommend it to anyone who would like to grow this tomato on a sunny windowsill for example. I think one plant should grow happily in a 6" pot. I may try a few plants this way myself next year!

2 Oct, 2018

 

Great crops you have there well done I bet your grand children enjoyed picking the crops.

3 Oct, 2018

 

Good crops! We didn't grow tomatoes or any veg this year. "Red Robin" sounds a possibility for next year. I like small tomatoes. When my father grew them commercially I used to be allowed to pick the very tiny ones that hadn't developed. Some were no bigger than my thumbnail but were absolutely delicious.

3 Oct, 2018

 

Wow you did well Balcony, I have removed all my plants now and the remaining fruit is in a tray ripening off in the greenhouse, I agree its been a brilliant year for tomatoes, I did very well with cucumbers also, some of your varieties look very interesting, will you save some seed from them....Nothing better than tomato's straight from the plant, I always eat them by the handful also...

3 Oct, 2018

 

Our best varieties were Super Sweet Cherry Tomato and Shirley. I will make a note of Red Robin........done. It is in my gardening book.

4 Oct, 2018

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