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Tuesday, 6 September 2011

The penalties of over-production

Amongst my tomato plants this year, I have one "Sungella". It is the tallest of my tomato plants (about 6 feet tall when I stopped it by pinching-out the growing point), and it has five huge trusses of fruit. The first (bottom) truss has produced a few ripe fruit already, though they were mostly pretty small, and oddly angular in shape.


The other trusses have set so well that each one has about 20 much larger, rounder  fruit:


As the fruit swells, these trusses have become so heavy that they are tearing away from the main stem:


So far, amazingly, they don't seem to be too worried by this, and enough moisture / nutrition still appears to be reaching the fruit. I suppose the fruit is mature enough to ripen even if the whole truss becomes detached, but I'm not sure. I'm tempted to try to rig up a support of some sort for them, but I fear that "mucking about" with them may do more harm than good, so perhaps I'll just leave them to their own devices.

I'm looking forward to a bumper harvest from this plant within the next couple of weeks...
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12 comments:

  1. Sue Garrett6 September 2011 at 18:29

    That's a bit like our plum tree - we are harvesting ripe plums now from the broken branch

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  2. Mal's Allotment6 September 2011 at 21:01

    Don't worry Mark, with the wind blowing out there I'll be very lucky to have any tomatoes left on the vine by morning!

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  3. veggiegobbler6 September 2011 at 23:25

    Ooooh so many tomatoes. I am getting excited 'cos we are heading to tomato season.

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  4. Robin7 September 2011 at 01:04

    It's probably best to leave them alone. Every time I try to support something like that...I do more harm then good!

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  5. Anita Kumar7 September 2011 at 01:14

    So many tomatoes! And that too, from just one plant.

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  6. Ali7 September 2011 at 03:33

    Oh what a fabulously happy sight to behold Mark. I'll bet you are out on your patio with your cup of tea all the time, admiring the scenery. Congratulations on such a tomato success :)

    Have you had a green zebra yet?

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  7. Jo7 September 2011 at 08:46

    All those tomatoes on one plant, great crop.

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  8. elaine7 September 2011 at 10:50

    Wow, what a bumper harvest to look forward to - sadly, except for my outdoor Sungold Tomatoes and the tumblers (which are looking really tatty)the rest have finished. Oh well there's always next year.

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  9. Liz7 September 2011 at 13:27

    Your plants look super healthy. Harking back to my HSC (A'level) biology lessons (and the elapsed time makes this very hazy)I think its the bark that carries most of the nutrients (which is why ringbarking works) so as long as that part is attatched I guess your trusses still get what they need????

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  10. takaeko7 September 2011 at 16:40

    In my case, I string twigs with heavy trusses with main stems. I do it on other trees like egg-plants and it's effective to avoid detached twigs.

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  11. Mark Willis7 September 2011 at 17:53

    If I had thought that the cherry tomatoes were nearly finished, I was wrong! I picked a HUGE quantity of them again today. Also picked a couple of the Green Zebra for ripening indoors, because I don't want to lose them to weather or blight.

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  12. Janet/Plantaliscious9 September 2011 at 09:12

    I've been having the same problems Mark, but because I feared the whole branch breaking off and the fruit getting damaged I brought the truss in to ripen.

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