People in glass houses

John is in the greenhouse where indoor grapes cropped well and cherry tomatoes have outshone their larger relatives

C rops in the greenhouse, may be well protected from the worst of the weather, so the incessant rainfall did not worry grapes, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, but lack of sunshine has been a big problem.

Sunshine is necessary to give crops a decent flavour and help to sweeten up the grapes.

There has been some great very warm days but they just never last long before the rain arrives.

Outdoor crops have suffered the most.

Autumn strawberries have been prolific, but botrytis rot has affected a lot of them, and many are not very soft or sweet.

Some outdoor grapes are just shrivelling up. They have had enough.

Last year I got enough for a couple of demijohns of wine, but crops this year will not be producing vintage wine.

However my Solaris and Seigerrebe in the greenhouse were ready for picking in August so I picked a great crop and all now sitting happy in a demijohn, with fermentation completed at 14% alcohol, though I did have to add a few ounces of sugar.

Black Hamburg grapes are normally ready in late October but poor weather is holding back ripening and some grapes have gone mouldy.

These get removed immediately before the disease spreads, and ventilation is also very important to prevent dampness building up.

Tomatoes have given very good crops, but now damp atmosphere due to lack of sunshine and too much rain has encouraged botrytis rots on fruit, leaves and some stems of Alicante.

However all my cherry tomatoes (five varieties) have cropped well except Cherry Baby.

It produces trusses with well over a hundred flowers, but most of these fall off so the number of fruits ripening is very poor.

Supersweet 100 is my best red cherry for flavour and cropping, (over 100 tomatoes per truss and most ripened) and Sungold my best orange cherry.

Sugarglass is also a good cropper but flavour and texture not as good as Supersweet 100.

Hopefully tomatoes will continue to crop for a few more weeks depending on weather, but then it is time to harvest all remaining fruits and ripen them indoors.

The old plants can then be removed and the soil or growbag get tidied up.

However ahead of this operation you can sow a few salads for planting in this space once it is available.

Use winter hardy lettuce such as Hilde or Winter Imperial and some spring onions and rocket.

It produces trusses with well over a hundred flowers, but most of these fall off so the number of fruits ripening is very poor