So let’s change up a gear…. Foot off the brake…. And…. GOOOOOOO!
That’s kind of how it’s felt over the last few weeks with the tomatoes: now they’re all in their final growing places and have had the chance to put down roots, the rate of growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. Plants which three weeks ago were weedy and slightly starved (I got distracted – again – by the general madness of the garden in June and some of them didn’t go into the ground as soon as they should have) are now deep green and sturdy, and making a bid for the greenhouse roof.
It's so important to keep up with your tomatoes right now: pinch out side shoots and tie in the stems regularly – that’s at least once a week - otherwise they’ll get away from you and you’ll end up having to cut out massive unwanted branches and with it a lot of wasted energy from your plant. The less green growth a tomato plant puts out, the more tomatoes you get to pick, so it’s really worth staying on top of it all.
Outdoors in the open garden, progress hasn’t been quite so eyecatching. I am not used to growing tomatoes outside as I normally avoid it due to the high risk of blight here, but trialling five blight-resistant varieties this year has taken me out of my comfort zone and forced me to give it a go.
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