Terry Walton takes care of his plants that are feeling the heat
Tomatoes and melons require a lot of attention right now to fruit well
What a pleasant spell of weather we’ve had in the last few weeks. The mercury rose to the high 20s and stayed there. As midday approached it would become too hot and humid out on the plot, so it was a question of retiring to the shade of the shed and sipping a cool drink.
I gazed down at those poor plants sitting there in that hot sun and sympathised with them as they were unable to move into the shady areas with me. The plant I felt most sorry for was the Brussels sprout. This is a plant designed to deal with the harsh winters and provide crisp, green, button sprouts covered in frost. There it was flagging in the heat and looking decidedly floppy. I wish there was a suntan cream for plants, as I’m sure these sprouts would have welcomed a coating of something to protect them from the searing heat! They’ll survive and I go back in the evenings to give them a refreshing drink.
In the cool of the early morning I busy myself in the greenhouse, giving my constantly growing tomatoes some attention. They’re at five trusses high now, and plenty of green tomatoes are beginning to swell. I put figure of eight ties on their supporting canes so the weight of the forming fruit doesn’t pull them over. I also look among the foliage for any forming sideshoots and remove them.
With this fruit formed, these ever-hungry plants need feeding to support a big crop of tasty tomatoes. I use a twice-a-week feed with half strength Seafeed Xtra to sustain all this growth activity. I also give them a watering with a handful of hydrated lime in my two-gallon watering can to increase the calcium content of my border.
In my opinion, this helps prevent blossom end rot – a disease that affects the end of ripening tomatoes and is caused mainly by intermittent watering. A drought and soak regime helps the plant take up calcium.
After all the attention lavished on my tomatoes, it’s time to give some to my ‘orphan’ melon, which I wasn’t going to grow this year. It has settled nicely in its drum in a corner and is growing upwards quite well. It’s now starting to send out sideshoots and it’s these I want to train to grow a few melons. To this end I’ve constructed a bamboo frame and attached it to my greenhouse so I can train these sideshoots along these supports. This method may give me a few melons to taste this year. All I have to do now is wait for some to form!