While I have not yet had the pleasure of one single red tomato, the three plants that I have growing in the
tomato growhouse are looking pretty promising. So far they have fattened up without any bursting, without any sign of disease or distortion, and look almost ready to pick even though they are still green. The plants - Alicante, Italian Plum, and Gardener's Delight - have grown right up to the top of the growhouse at which point I pinched off the tops of the main stems to stop them growing taller. All the same, they have managed to grow fruit right up at the top too. How wonderful! To think, not long ago I was worried about
pollination and fertilisation of the tomatoes.
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| Alicante |
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| Italian Plum |
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| Gardener's Delight |
It's been a strange summer so far weather-wise. It's gone between cool and roasting hot, windy and still, dry and pouring with rain. A friend told me that the other evening, just 3 miles away from here, her garden was exposed to an outbreak of hale to the point that she thought her windows were going to bring and that there was a deep coating of ice on her patio. Ice in August. These weather extremes have caused a reaction in my tomato plants and some of the lower leaves, more exposed to the sunshine, curled despite the plants being well watered. The upper leaves, however, more sheltered in the top of the growhouse, remained wonderfully healthy. Therefore, I am convinced that the leaf curling is not caused by tomato blight or any other disease. Gardener's Delight began to form shoots out of the centre of its leaves while Alicante sprouted leaves at the end of one or two of the fruit laden 'vines' or spurs. Apparently, the growth of leaves in such odd places is an indication of stress and happens when the plant fights to make more leaves which it uses for the production of energy via photosynthesis.
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| Curling of tomato leaves caused by stress |
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Growth of new leaves out of centre of
older tomato leaf |
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| Tomato leaf growing at end of fruiting spur |
I'm happy to say that despite the leaf curling and leaves being produced in odd places, the plants look otherwise healthy and are producing healthy fruit. Of course, they haven't ripened yet.
