Gardening resources and tips, etc.

[herbidacious Profile]

There are lots of different types of determinate tomatoes but did you want to put them in hanging baskets? The Summerlast ones I posted a pic of above are determinate and blight resistant. They are supposed to be cherry and a very compact plant but have not been either, really, for me (thankfully!) Will post pics of the plants tomorrow so you can get a better idea.

https://www.suttons.co.uk/vegetable-see ... usQAvD_BwE

Bloody butcher isn't a trailing/bush/determinate one so if that's not necessary then try one of the blight resistant cordon types - Crimson Crush (Plum or Blush), Mountain Magic (although this last one is somewhere between a cherry and a normal sized tomato.)

Depending on how many you want to grow, you could resist 'normal' (not necessarily blight resistant) one too...?

My mother is very happy with the Tiny Tim ones I grew for her. They are on a sunny ledge in her sitting room. Tiny tomatoes but apparently the skin is just right. (I'venot tried one.)

[KeenCook2 Profile]

This is a question for Badger'sMate - if you happen to see this!

A while back you told me to be patient, the tomatillos would fill out ... of course, you were right

Can you tell me when to pick them? Some fall off, which is fine, but the ones that seem ripe still need a bit of a yank to separate them from the plant. Even the ones on which the membrane is splitting open.

I had understood that with various fruits, eg apples, when you gently twist them, if they come off easily in your hand, then they are ready to be picked.

I was wondering what applied to tomatillos? I wondered if it was when the little stalk that attaches them to the plant goes black, but that seems not to be the case ...

Any advice gratefully received! Thanks!

[ZeroCook Profile]

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They're very similar to Cape gooseberries, KC2, if you've ever grown those, and as you say, some fall off and some need a tug. Main thing is that the berries are plump and filled out. Either way works, as does quite how ripe you like them for the use you want them for - tart or slightly less tart, depending. Freeze well in the husk, too.

T&M have a mini sale - found while looking at their tomatoes
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/tomat ... /TX00608TM

Speaking of which re: seed buying, they were my mother's go to seed catalogue choice.

Slimpers - are you looking for trailing for pots/baskets or for in the garden?

Some interesting varieties here:
https://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/t ... l-tomatoes

[herbidacious Profile]

Cape gooseberries go a definite yellow though and they don't fill their lanterns. They are not throwing any insight onto tomatillos for me (This is the first year in ages I've not grown cape gooseberries.)

I think the thing is that you want to catch tomatillos (just?) before they are technically ripe and going yellow?

These are my summerlast tomatoes in case anyone wants to know how big the plants Iand indeed fruit) are.

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[ZeroCook Profile]

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Was comparing Cape Gooseberries to the way the fruit comes off the plant rather than the colour - much darker yellow than tomatillos - almost orange. Tomatillos are picked when plump and colour is light green, indeed, herbidacious. The tang's the thang! Nice looking tomatoes, as well. Do you feed them with anything?

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Ah, that's helpful, good to know tugging them off is fine

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Yes, tomatillos seem to either jump or need a tug. As I mentioned a few days ago, I grow the violet ones, which give you a big clue to their ripeness by changing colour. However, as others have observed they don't have to be fully ripe to be used. Mine seem to be a bit behind yours, but we've only recently cleared last year's crop out of the freezer (I hope!) so a few weeks without them doesn't hurt.

We've got our local chilli festival this weekend 'at the Lordship'. That will definitely focus my mind on tomatillos.

[slimpersoninside Profile]

Thanks for your assistance with tomatoes.

I want to grow a few different things on my small patio (it's just outside the back door, it's easy to care for the plants and it gets more sun than the garden). I have more places to put trailing plants (a couple of hanging baskets and a shelf to stand pots of trailing plants on) than standing pots on the floor - I definitely only have room for 1, maybe 2 - hence wanting to plant trailing varieties. In light of Herbie's info I will probably put the tomato on the ground and grow it upwards and supported, it must be a proper size tomato not cherry or smaller. I might even experiment and see what happens if I leave one of the same variety to fend for itself on the shelf without support .

I'm really not much of a gardener at all but I do like to have a little dabble as long as it's not much bother.

In my non-expert view Herbie your tomato plants look lovely and healthy.

[herbidacious Profile]

Well I have just roasted some (tomatillos) to make a salsa. Hopefully they will be ok, but tbh I don't know what they are supposed to taste like anyway.

re feeding tom plants, the second one is on a quadgrow system so in principle gets the food they sell with it. It goes into the tank with the water so the plants get a continual supply. There should be 4 plants on here, but I just have one, and a pepper. All my other tomato plants just get whatever tomato pant food I have.

I use Plants of Distinction too. My interesting aubergines, for example, come from there.

https://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/a ... toga-0108c

I didn't realize they were supposed to be so small. I guess mine are nearer to being ready than I thought. I should also have stopped the plant getting so tall (abut 2ft) it seems... I also just found a long black in the greenhouse. I am really loving my greenhouse. (Although some snails have got it... can't find them.)

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[ZeroCook Profile]

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Slimpers - a big pot (or two) like Herbidacious' above with a really good tasting heirloom type tomato variety that you can't get get in the shops might be a better bet than trying to get them to hang over the edge of something - gravity might be their undoing.

You have a lot of great looking fruit n veg plants growing there, Herbidacious. As you may probably guess, I use tomatillos quite a bit. I sear them briefly to blister in a pan Mex style along with garlic cloves, onion pieces, and jalapenos then blitz etc with cilantro for cooked salsa verde. Also good raw for fresh salsas - very gently tangy and refrescante. They have a delicate but distinct flavour - think green/unsweet Cape gooseberries (again!).

Also super good in LA Mex type green chile stews. Usually meaty pork rib pieces but would work with anything dense and proteiny. A fave.

Asking about plant feeding and also wondering if anyone does composting?

Also how does everyone decide or choose what edible seeds/plants they fancy growing of a year?

I hadn't grown anything edible for ages but after the past pandemic year really felt the need - as well as not being able to travel like before.

[slimpersoninside Profile]

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Slimpers - a big pot (or two) like Herbidacious' above with a really good tasting heirloom type tomato variety that you can't get get in the shops might be a better bet than trying to get them to hang over the edge of something - gravity might be their undoing.

Thank you.

After the advice here I will be growing the tomato plant in a pot, no point asking if you don't take notice! I might, if I have the space, have an experiment with a second plant trailing, just to see what happens.

I think I have my final list of seeds to order....just take a while to mull it over, and have a good check to make sure I have the room for them!

Thank you again to all for your assistance .

[Earthmaiden Profile]

My garden is very small. I just buy two tomato plants a year to grow in pots. If I start them from seed, even if using only a very few seeds, I'm inundated and keep too many, plus giving some away. If you live in an urban area and have local Facebook, it's worth looking out in the Spring for people giving away excess plants they've raised from seed.

[herbidacious Profile]

I made some roasted tomatillo salsa verde this evening. Possibly a bit hotter than ideal but very nice.

re choosing... i just buy what I fancy and grow far too much, it seems... I do try to buy disease resistant varieties, but I am a sucker for novelty. Growing things you can't buy or thigns that are relatively expensive to buy (such as cavolo nero) has to me a must.

re what vegetables I grow it's still a work in progress working out what's worth doing for me. I devided I don't love runner beans so didn't do them this year. It's always tempting to grow cucumbers and courgettes, though, because they are quick and easy (although both can succumb mildew). I just can't seem to crack alliums...

[ZeroCook Profile]

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Really good idea EM - with or without FB.

Slimpers - it only occurred to me as I visualised bunches of large juicy tomatoes hanging heavily over a suspended basket wafting precariously in the breeze

Was that your first Tomatillo salsa, Herbidacious? Lovely stuff. You could make a little more and leave out the chili and combine, or if frozen for later - which it does well - loses some of the fiery heat. Using same type recipe for ripe tomatoes makes a great cooked tomato salsa.

I think most people are attracted to novelty, especially given the very stasame recipeed seeds and packets of seeds to choose what to grow for the coming season - part of getting through the long back stretch of winter. Definitely produces a change of mindset.

My squash plethora came from seeds saved from a particularly good squash bought from a roadside seller a few years ago. I wondered if the seeds were still viable - and they almost all were. I put in 12 plants and have about 20 squash. They're not exactly the same as the squash they came from, surprise surprise, even though I imagined or hoped that they might be, but they are roughly a similar shape. The original was a green grey flattened round ribbed shape - quite a classic pumpkin shape - with very dense sweet orange flesh.

I have various colours from off white to tan to tan with a bit of striping to grey green. If I grow squash again next year, I think I'll go for a bought packet of heirloom grey hubbard squash. Though there is something to be said to selecting traits in offspring grown from saved seeds until they breed true, which means possibly saving seeds from the grey green ones.

The only alliums I've ever grown have been from sets.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Over here, squashes are very much more popular than formerly. At one time everyone grew marrows and a few grew pumpkins for harvest festival displays. Nowadays there are many different sorts grown commonly with the result that cross-pollination is possible. Furthermore some are a bit marginal in the UK and F1 hybrids have been introduced. Saving seed therefore can be a gamble. Seed swaps are becoming more common, with a consequence being that self-saved mislabelled packets and outcrossed seed are being passed around as specific varieties - my 'Queensland Blue' isn't, for example. Some come true, I've got away with saving the seeds from Turks' turban for a few years and they still look and behave like their forebears did. So whereas I might be the only one growing let's say achochas or tomatillos within a 200 yard radius and there would only ever be two varieties being grown in the county, squashes are all over the shop.

Alliums, both decorative and edible are usually OK from sets. I had success recently with banana shallots ('Zeebrune') from seed and it's been a good season for leeks (from seed) for me at least. However, some plants don't work in some places - accept that, give it a good go and if it doesn't work, don't get despondent about it.

[scullion Profile]

unless you are really careful, use the paper bag over developing (and newly pollinated) female flowers, hand pollinating from selected male flowers you will not get a cucurbit that grows true from seed. they are notoriously promiscuous and if there are any other's being grown, within a few miles, the progeny will be hybrids. hence the bitter courgette problem last year.

[Suffs Profile]

.... The original was a green grey flattened round ribbed shape - quite a classic pumpkin shape - with very dense sweet orange flesh. ....

Sounds like a Crown Prince ... probably the best of all the commercially grown larger winter squashes. I've stored them in a frostfree garage until at least March.

The Hubbards are good ... but pretty big!

We're growing Uchiki kuri and Honeybear this year ... we find theyre a more convenient size for the two of us and have great flavour ... both are doing well ... looks like we'll have plenty to store

[scullion Profile]

We're growing Uchiki kuri [...] this year

so was i - until a couple of huge, well stuffed slugs hiding under a watering can went for an early doors meal one night. even the one developing squash that they left from the previous visit was consumed.
at least they had a good last meal...

[Suffs Profile]

NOT FOR THOSE OF A SENSITIVE NATURE ...

We've been plagued with Spanish slug hybrids this year ... huge things ... in the past i've left the normal large black and red slugs alone as they eat the smaller slugs ... but now they've hybridised with the Spanish ones and they're rampant ... I found dozens of the blighters lurking under the hardy geraniums as I was cutting them back the other day ... fortunately I had the secateurs with me (sorry to those of a squeamish disposition but if I'd left them they'd have been ankle deep on the terrace by next week they were laying eggs all over the place).
They've been eating the courgette flowers ... but so far the squashes have escaped ...

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

I'm afraid my secateurs are also employed as lethal weapons when I find a slug (of any kind as I'm not sure which are the good guys )