First tomatoes very nearly ripe!

Mine too Witzend. I've never grown any fruit or vegetable before so I am excited too. I have no idea what type they are, the tiny original plant was a freebie from someone's garden wall.

Well done with your toms.

Just been to look at mine. 12 plants in polytunnel. So sad. 2 have blight. Got 3 outside so fingers crossed for those. They are beefeater variety.

My hanging basket tomatoes (Tumbler) have been ripening for about 10 days now but the beauty of that variety is that you can move it around the garden so that it gets maximum sunshine to ripen them. The Alicante and Gardener's Delight in the greenhouse have only started to ripen this week and I've cropped a handful so far but there are many more to come. The cucumber plant is weighted down with far more cucumbers than I know what to do with. Recipes anyone?

Might have known there’d be a catch!
We ate the first 2 last night, taste was disappointing, a bit nothing-y, not the lovely sweet flavour I’d been expecting.

I can see myself still buying tomatoes to eat raw - and using mine to make a lot of tomato/onion/celery/pepper sauce for the freezer.

take them off when just turning ie slightly yellowish. Wrap each in paper eg amazon packaging paper and keep them inside. Mine are are ripening beautifully like this and the taste is incredible. If they are too tiny to wrap then put them into a dish with something dark and airy on top like a plate. Mine are all oudoor tomatoes

Well done, mine all collapsed with some brown spotted virus thing 3 weeks ago, they were huge beefsteak tomatoes too.

Oh well, maybe next year.....

Oh no, Witzend, how annoying, but at least the sauce suggestions here sound yummy. Mine have still a way to go.

These are from our allotment greenhouse today . Greek salad later

So roughly how much longer before mine ripen please?

It was just a few days after mine evidently stopped swelling that they started to change colour, and then it took 2-3 days.

I am checking mine everyday, still green. I put them in a bit late, first time I've grown them for some years. Must do it earlier next year, the taste of tomatoes straight off the plant is so lovely.

However, our peacocks have also been checking them, so need to get there first!

Oops, despite being staked, one of my plants had fallen right over this morning - sheer weight of the fruit, plus presumably added weight of rain on leaves.
I’ve just been out with a stout stake, scissors and twine - fingers Xed.

Success!

I’ve got about 30 tomato plants in the Polytunnel and a few outside and will be making batches of my yummy chutney again this year. I’m growing several varieties of cherry, beefsteak and plum tomatoes and a few additional plants have self seeded in the central raised beds alongside other plants!

@Witzend
The taste will depend on the variety planted, not the fact that they’re home grown. Maybe buy some tomato seeds from your local garden centre to plant next year and look for a variety that is especially sweet and tasty?

Yes, I’m well aware that I shouldn’t have expected miracles from squished out seeds, @Craicon. I used to grow Gardeners’ Delight or similar, but hadn’t grown any for years because of being away too much in summer, when they need daily attention.

I only grew them this year because at the beginning of lockdown I thought we wouldn’t be going away at all - and used squished-out seeds because the shops where you could buy seeds were all closed at the time.

I dealt with my tomatoes today, in spite of managing side shoots, they still grew into triffids. Not enough time left for outdoor ripening from a flower now so not one of my 9 varied plants has a flower or bud left and all plants have been thinned so that air and light can get to every truss. The indeterminate tomatoes have all been stopped at 4 or 5 trusses. The determinates are just trimmed here and there and as above, no more buds or flowers. Makes it much easier from now on, any flowers get pruned off. I have very many tomatoes maturing, certainly not wanting any more

I have thinned leaves out quite drastically, it is blight time in many areas
blightwatch.co.uk/

This is summer blight and autumn blight can hit hard and fast so I am taking tomatoes off to indoors as soon as viable. I cleared out 3 balconi plants today, very susceptible, lots of small tomatoes now safe indoors

We've just had the first of our tomatoes which are growing in pots outside. They tasted fantastic and the scent is just heavenly.

I think there is a thread somewhere about favourite perfumes and maybe a freshly picked tomato perfume would be quite popular.

Thanks for reminding me, @craftyone - I’ve ‘stopped’ most of the trusses and taken off any more flowers, but noticed while watering the other day that there are still a few I missed. (And then forgot!)

Also pruned a lot of leaves recently, to allow max light and air.

Hey wd witzend, its very worth doing that. I noticed fruits swelling faster now they have no flowers and fewer leaves, even just taking the lower leaves off helps to stop water splashing up onto leaves. That blight is terrible, ruins the whole crop if not pro-active

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I’ve taken 6 off my hanging basket tumbling cherry tomatoes. Beautifully sweet. Many green ones and loads of flowers. I move it around the patio chasing the sun. I’m up north and didn’t have any heatwave. Basket Asda £4.

Tonight we cropped and had for dinner the potatoes from a sprouting potato chopped up and planted in a pot. Worked well.

I wish I’d thought of planting a sprouting potato or two, @Coolgran. Because of lockdown/garden centres closed, a couple of large pots that would usually be filled with flowers are still empty. Though one has been colonised by a favourite weed/wildflower - the yellow fumitory - I think it ought to have a nicer common name!
The leaves are much like maidenhair fern, so I think I might call it yellow maidenhair in future.

I just went out and plucked every tomato that was a fair size, all green. I am having great success in ripening indoors in stacked egg trays. Losetto tomatoes are a waste of space btw, not one single tomato big enough to bring indoors. 3 plants cost me almost £10 from dt brown, they arrived very late on. Home sown tomatoes, or local nursery bought, are by far the best.

I make up a garlic spray every week which I use to keep my tomato plants healthy and it works very well. Lots of flowers showing but no sign of tomatoes yet.

I am having great success in ripening indoors in stacked egg trays. Do you mean one tomato in each egg bit craftyone?
My plant suffered in the recent storm, the canes snapped and everything is trailing over. Just when I thought I was doing so well with my first attempt at growing them.