Just my toms! (Scottish windowsill)

[Notostraca]

I love seeing everyone's tomato pics, I don't have much to share yet this year, but have got to have something tomato-related to do while waiting for them to ripen!

Attached are pictures of my precious windowsill tomatoes. I always grow my favourite Tiny Tim and have two healthy heavily fruiting plants in relatively small pots (4L maybe?). I also have two Tiny Tim plants outdoors...but those are much smaller and while they have fruit...don't look quite so photogenic.

Next up is a potato leaf type variegated variety I bought from a Hungarian grower on eBay as "variegata"of which I'm growing two at home, followed by a Sweet'n'Neat Yellow F1 which is doing stupidly well in a teeny 1L pot (very sturdy, compact growth despite little light). I also have a few reserve plants I might put outdoors after the storm we're meant to have tomorrow, give to friends or pot-up indoors if anything happens to my main plants - I'll deffo be germinating more tomato seeds this year anyway, I can't help myself .

Finally is the standard regular leaf variegated tomato, properly known as variegata, which apparently originated in Ireland, but I bought seeds from a different again Hungarian grower on eBay. It's more commonly (seemingly incorrectly) known as Splash of Cream, so I'm calling it that for now to avoid confusion with the potato leaf variegata...also because Splash of Cream sounds lovely!

Feeding a mix of organic and salt fertilisers, I even play these plants music/thunder/rain sounds often when I'm watering (my housemate thinks I'm mad lol...she's maybe not too wrong). We are just past Midsummer, and some of the plants (especially the variegated ones) are struggling for light a bit, so I plan on replacing the 36W CFL room light I moved over them with a 105W daylight bulb. It won't be much extra light, but can only help.

More pictures to follow later in the season, thanks for looking .

[Whwoz]

Looking good Notostraca

[bower]

The music is surely working!!

[Notostraca]

Thanks! The music can't hurt, at least I enjoy it when tending to the plants .

Will hopefully be able to share some nice ripe tomato pictures soon.

[Notostraca]

Ate my first couple of Tiny Tim tomatoes a couple of nights ago . The attached pic is from before I ate them, a few more have turned red now, I'll probably post some more pictures as I pick them to eat.

The Sweet'n'Neat Yellow F1 I have in the office at work is catching up too, but the tomatoes have a while to go.

[Notostraca]

I've resisted the temptation to eat more tomatoes, there may even be enough of them ripe at one time to make it into a salad or sandwich at this rate . I have a bad habit of scranning the fruit straight from the plant as soon as I see they are ripe, so it would be nice to actually use them in something this year. I'll try post some sliced tomato pics soon!

Tonight I did my usual routine of putting some calm, relaxing music on the Bluetooth speaker for both me and the plants (my plants favourite track), used an electric toothbrush to pollinate any and all flowers I see, gave them their weekly feed of Phostrogen (a high-potassium chemical salt feed - I also give them a little organic BioBizz Bio-Bloom every 1-2 days depending on how their colour looks) and gave them all a good spray of pure deionised (same as RO/distilled/rain) water to remove any dust or residual Epsom salt from the leaves and help them breathe. The only visible issue I have had with the Tiny Tims this year is a very slight magnesium deficiency showing, probably just because they are relatively large plants in such small pots with little soil/compost (mix), so I both foliar fed and root-drenched them with some Epsom salt last week.

The pics show my two Tiny Tim plants, the Sweet'n'Neat Yellow F1 in the relative shade behind them (germinated at the same time at the one pictured above I have at my work) and a full view of my cluttered living room windowsill, which is illuminated with a 105w CFL "daylight" photography bulb to give the plants a few extra hours of light at night (but not 24h light, which studies show would be counterproductive in the long run - plants need sleep too!).

Two of my five outdoor plants have been destroyed by the high winds here this week, but I'm totally used to this weather and knew it was a big risk putting them out without any shelter, so I'm not too upset about that. I have some plants in reserve to put out, so will get on that ASAP and post some pics. I'm a little disappointed I wont have any Roma tomatoes to eat this year though, usually they are tough enough to survive the elements here, however I did leave them more exposed than usual, so it's my fault rather than the plant's lol.

I've just learnt I'll be able to work from home from next month, so I'm hoping to have much more plant time =D. I forgot to water them before rushing to work today, and spent a considerable amount of time worrying about them drying out. They were just OK when I got home tonight, the extra time spent with my plants will certainly do both them and me good though.

OK, that's enough blethering for now, happy growing everyone!
Emilia

[Worth1]

Good show.

[Harry Cabluck]

nice photos. Plants here enjoy classical music.

[Notostraca]

Uploading these pics and ramblings at 8am with no sleep before I forget lol, I take lots of random plant pictures but most often forget to put them on my PC/the web .
My two Tiny Tim plants are doing excellent! The tomatoes taste great and I've been able to share lots of them with friends as starters before meals, as well as snack on them directly from the plant whenever I'm passing it. With Tiny Tim (and the other heirloom verities I have grown), the tomatoes on a truss don't all ripen at the same time, so sometimes I accidentally let some get a bit overripe and do split slightly, but this causes no issues indoors so I just happily immediately eat any have split.

The one on the right hand side of my windowsill is starting to show more advanced signs of magnesium deficiency and some nitrogen deficiency, but the left-had-side plant hasn't shown any further signs. I will give them another spray with Epsom salt sometime in the next couple of days, have started feeding Phostrogen (chem. salt fert. with magnesium) twice a week instead of just once as the package states, and am also now feeding BioBizz BioBloom (a weaker organic fertiliser) daily with every watering. The pots these two plants in are very small (3-4L) considering the size of the plants and number of fruit at this stage, so I'm not too surprised to see deficiencies TBH. If I use such small pots again next year, I will start off with Phostrogen twice a week and also give them a couple of sprays/drenches with an Epsom salt solution earlier on.

I think the reason the right-hand-side plant is showing more deficiencies is simply that it is slightly closer to the 105W CFL light and receives slightly more light in the morning due to the way the sun rises above the houses across the street (it has produced a couple of more trusses of tomatoes than the left plant). I've just started working a night shift job from home and have forgotten to turn the light off to give the plants darkness a few times - I hope I've not stressed them out or overtaxed them by not letting them sleep, as studies show 24h light can reduce fruit production :/.

The surviving outdoor plants are recovering OK, I've attached is a picture of my last remaining Roma VF plant, which got snapped in half by the wind, but I'm going to leave it out and see what it does anyway - at least it has healthy new growth! I forgot to take pictures of the outdoor Tiny Tim with toms already on it, and the healthiest outdoor plant (Sweet'n'Neat Yellow F1), but will soon.

Also attached is a picture of the potato leaved "Variegata" plant, which is healthy but has been very slow growing, with no flowers yet.

[Harry Cabluck]

Notostraca, Sent you a PM. Wishing you well.

[bower]

Those Scottish windowsill tomatoes look darn amazing. Especially with the good bread. Yum.
I find that my toms often have 'deficiency' signs when they start to ripen their fruit. General ferts (NPK) work really well for that. Fish emulsion is a nice liquid fert for containers, but even better add some blackstrap molasses to cut the fish smell and top up the potassium.
For some reason it's the peppers in containers that seem to have more Mg issues. I would know more but the aphids have driven me to ditch them and prevented me from learning.

[GrowingCoastal]

Your plants and fruit look really good. I love the windowsill picture.