Troublesome Tomatoes

I have been concentrating on my vegetable plot this week, which has been giving me cause for concern.

Firstly my outdoor tomatoes have worried me, as the veins and stems on the plants and leaves had turned purple. I checked my books and the internet but the British sites I visited, didn't have any information on the problem. My varieties are blight resistant and we certainly haven't had enough rain, so I ruled that out completely.

Luckily I follow Thompson and Morgan on twitter and tweeted my problem to them and lo and behold in a matter of minutes, they tweeted back with an answer.

Apparently it is due to a phosphorous deficiency which occurs in cool conditions and that would make sense as with the lovely warm weather, I forget that the nights in May are still chilly and I have planted my tomatoes earlier than I would normally so I think they have gotten too cold.

I have bought a high phosphorous feed and with some TLC, I think they are on the mend.

I had another tomato predicament but this time with my greenhouse tomatoes.

They are in grow bags in plastic trays, just two to a bag. I chose bags by Tomorite as they are a bit deeper and have added seaweed extract, so I thought they would be good. I try to stick to a policy of no peat products and although the packaging doesn't say 'with added peat' I think I used blind ignorance when I bought them.

I noticed that when I watered the grow bags the water just ran into the trays underneath but the soil around the tomatoes (I plant my tomatoes into bottomless pots on the top of the grow bags to allow more room for the roots to grow) was dry. I decided that something wasn't right, so I bought some reusable grow bags and split the Tomorite grow bags open to transfer the compost to my reusable grow bags, carefully removing the tomato plants first, which luckily hadn't rooted into the grow bags yet and the compost was absolutely sodden, in big clumps that looked like pure peat!

Before I planted the tomatoes, I did jiggle the bags around, to distribute the compost about but I suppose with the bags being stacked up on top of each other, in the garden centre, the compost has become compacted.

So for me the lesson learnt is to only buy compost which says 'no added peat', so apart from not sticking to my principles, no harm was done (well apart from the peat bogs!)

Whilst at the garden centre (which seems to be my second home at the moment) I spied an ingenious product, which of course I had to buy, salad and vegetable planters by Botanico.

For a tenner you get two 97cm square planters, which are ideal for the lettuces and other crops I don't have room for in my vegetable bed. This year, with the aid of my spacing ruler, everything is planted at the correct spacing, which has highlighted the fact that I don't have enough room.

My sweetcorn, squash (two of my 3 sister planting) peas, chard and carrots are looking good in the large bed. My climbing courgettes, in pots, are putting on lots of flowers and I have noticed a baby courgette growing. Once my sweetcorn is a bit bigger, I will plant my climbing french beans beside them into my 3 sister planting scheme, so the beans have something to scramble up on.

In the greenhouse my sweet potato slips are growing nicely but will stay in there until July, as per instructions and then planted out into the space, vacated by my garlic.

I love this time of year, the beginning of summer. It's important to be in the present moment in the garden and enjoy the plants and take it all in. It's all to easy to keep thinking about the jobs that need doing and miss what's happening now.

If you are free on a Wednesday in June and July, there is no better garden to visit than White Barn near Ringwood.

Marilyn and Barrie Knight open their wonderful garden from 10.30 - 5, in aid of the NGS (details on their website or in the Yellow Book) I will be slaving away in the studio, tied to my camera but I will certainly be there in spirit, it really is one of my favourite gardens to visit.

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