Catch up on tomato chores
DO you have tomatoes in your greenhouse? If so, they’ll need training. If you haven’t planted any, this is an excellent time to start a new crop. young plants should be available at garden centres and other outlets. But if you can’t find any, there’s still time to grow a crop from seed.
Seed sown today should ripen their first fruits in August and will continue to bear until well into autumn. Choose cordon or ‘ indeterminate’ varieties for greenhouse culture. Bush tomatoes are better for outdoors. Greenhouse tomatoes are usually grown as single-stem cordons.
When the plants are about 15cm high, transfer them to a greenhouse bed, into growing bags or into ring culture containers. As each plant grows,
remove all side shoots as they appear. Support the stems on canes or near-vertical strings, fixed to the greenhouse roof.
Flower trusses develop at the point where each leaf is attached to the plant. Take care not to damage either flowers or baby fruits as they form.
Keep your crop regularly fed. For the first couple of feeds, use all-purpose liquid plant food. Change to high potassium tomato feed (such as Tomorite or Chempak 4) when the first fruit has set. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions and take care not to overfeed. you’ll need to pinch out sideshoots regularly all summer.
If the greenhouse is in a sunny spot, you may also need to shade the glass with netting, or by painting the glass with a product such as Cool Glass or Vitax Summer Cloud.