tomato ripening & watering advice please

[Alexis]

Hello,

Hope I'm putting this in the right place of the forum...

I'm very new to growing my own veg so please bear with my questions that may seem obvious to some.

I have a greenhouse that I am growing cucumbers, tomatos and green peppers in. So far the cucumbers have been great, although I have a growbag with 2 femspot plants in that have given us lots of cucumbers already, and up until yesterday I had a ridge plant in the middle. I have taken this out (cut at the end of the main stem), as it only produced one cuke and it was more like a cactus with sharp bits all over it and tasted awful. I had also had red spider mite on the leaves at one point. So it is now in the compost bin. Anyhow, I have just read someone elses post about wilting leaves on their cucumber plant - I had this happen last week but they have perked up now, so is this ok?? I read that watering near the stem caused the problem......... helpppppppppppp.... as mine are in growbags I water everything near the stem!!!!!!!!!!!! Should I aim the water flow away from the stem??? Quite hard to do in a growbag....

Tomatos - I have 2 growbags, one has 2 Alicante plants and the other has 3 Alisa Craig in it. We are always taking the side shoots off and have some lovely bunches of toms growing - however, some of them are quite large now but have been green for about 3 weeks - how long does it take for them to ripen? We feed them once/twice a week and water every day.

Peppers - nothing much to report on those, the plants are still quite small.

Ants - I keep getting ants nests in the cracks of the old concrete base we have the greenhouse on. Is there a way to deter them?? Unfortunately, I have put nippon powder down the two cracks they formed a nest in as I had a mass of flying ants too. They have gone, but i would much prefer to get rid of the nippon and use a natural organic method.

Very long post - hope it's ok to put everything into one post??..

Thanks very much for any advice.

best wishes to all fellow gardeners,
Alexis

[DavidT]

Alexis, as you are getting good results from your cucumbers you are obviously watering correctly. The problem they get is when the base of the stem is kept wet. As for the ridge cucumber that needed to be grown outdoors. If you want to speed up the ripening of your toms place an apple or banana on the growbag and under the plants. The only non chemical way I know of to get rid of ants is boiling water. And as for your peppers, why are they small, did yoiu sow them late? I ask because they should be flowering and showing fruit by now.

[paulsherwin]

Yes, a kettleful of boiling water poured carefully down the cracks will kill the ant queen with any luck. Do it several times over a few days.

It's still a bit early to expect ripe tomatoes, even if you've grown them in a greenhouse.

Paul

[heskie]

There is a difference in the conditions preferred by the plants you have there. Cucumbers like it more humid than tomatoes, if you kept the greenhouse as moist as cucumbers prefer you'd get blight on your tomatoes. I quite agree with David, stem rot is a curse of cucumbers, the watering advice is usually "a little and often." I lost three cucumber plants (I grow in the greenhouse borders) back in May after really soaking the beds before we went away for a few days, big mistake. The replacement variety I planted is unfortunately a male and female flowered one - the male flowers have no little mini cucumber behind them - and these have to be removed all the time ot you get what you experienced - bitter cucumbers.

Ants - well I just let them get on with it, if you disturb them, they'll move their nest somewhere else.

Good luck with your growing, there's always problems and gardening is a continual learning process, and always worth it.

[DavidT]

Originally Posted by heskie

There is a difference in the conditions preferred by the plants you have there. Cucumbers like it more humid than tomatoes, if you kept the greenhouse as moist as cucumbers prefer you'd get blight on your tomatoes.

Going to disagree with you there Heskie. You have it the wrong way round. Cucumbers want a DRY atmosphere, that is why they are planted near the door, and Tomatoes want a HUMID atmosphere, that is why they are planted at the back of the greenhouse away from the door.

[Gardening]

The tomatoes need more light to turn red,ie to ripe correctly and quickly. The lack of light may be your main cause. Try to give them some daylight.

[paulsherwin]

The weather is awful for tomato ripening at the moment. I have lots of toms, but all of them are completely green. We need a couple of weeks of hot sunny weather to get them going.

Paul

[GillB]

Should I be removing leaves and/or shoots from my bush tomatoes?
I have got flowers, many small green fruits and have harvested a few ripe ones.

[paulsherwin]

Bush tomatoes stop growing once they're a few feet high so don't normally need pruning or pinching out. Pruning applies to vine tomatoes which just carry on growing until they're pinched out or the frost kills them.

Still no ripe tomatoes here - I can see a lot of green tomato chutney being made in the autumn

Paul

[greengirl]

This has been so helpful! Thanks for the tip about the banana or apple under the tomato plants. As Paul says, lots of chutney. I'm selling mine to my local deli!!! That is, if the apple or banana doesn't work in the next week! Can I ask about cucumbers and courgettes? Do you have to get the flowers with nothing growing behind off as quickly as possible because they're male???

[agail]

Hi there,

here is a good article I have found on growing tomatoes and why its sometimes difficult to perfect them - growing tomatoes facts.

There are some helpful tips on watering - interesting that tomatoes have 2 sets of roots - 1 shallow for feeding and 1 deeper for water. 1 tip is to insert a pipe to the deeper roots to concentrate your watering to those roots that require it most.

Also, I have been using upside down planters this year with mixed success. Here are some resources for growing tomatoes upside down (a good tutorial on making your own hanging tomato planter)

Andrea