Friday 18 May 2012

first tomato

Today I noticed the first tomato fruit had set. It's on the variety Harzfeuer, which I got from Lidl.


This plant has two trusses of flowers while Alicante, sown at the same time, has just one starting to form. If we eventually get some sun this summer I'm hoping for an earlier crop than usual.

I'm growing more tomato varieties than normal this year simply because I seem to have acquired a lot of seeds. They're a bit like potatoes in that there so many to choose from. Come to think of it, they're a lot like potatoes, both being of the genus solanum. Anyway, it's great fun trying all the different ones in order to select those that you really want to grow. I hate it when people say things like 'I only grow Moneymaker as I get good yields'. Is that really the point of growing your own? I can understand the commercial boys wanting to maximize yields but I'm growing stuff that I want to eat!

I'm almost at the end of the greenhouse grown first early potatoes but the first of the outside crop are well behind due to the cold weather. Looks like I'll be buying potatoes for a couple of weeks after this weekend.

It's interesting how fast they bulk up once they get going. The first lot I lifted at the end of April gave around 210g per seed but after a further fortnight they were giving 540g per seed. I don't normally get more than 1kg per seed from the first earlies but I've never left them till they finished growing, preferring to eat them small.

Although May has so far proved to be a bit of a disaster from a gardening point of view there are some bright spots so here's a few pics of things floral. They all have an edible connection so don't start thinking I've turned into a flower arranger!

ramsons (wild garlic)

rosemary

blueberry

1 comment:

  1. Hi Colin - great to see the tomatoes forming - mine are coming into flower now too. I haven't tipped out any potatoes from the greenhouse yet - the foliage is lush but I have no idea what lies beneath - do I wait for them to flower?

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