Tomato feeding time

Not mentioned my Cedrico tomatoes for a while, mainly because I think they're exactly where I'd expect them to be at this point in time. Strong looking plants are being tied to canes at intervals and I started feeding a couple of weeks ago when the first tomatoes on the bottom truss reached the size of a pea.

I'm alternating the feeds as usual, with a proprietary tomato feed followed by a homemade nettle feed and then a homemade comfrey one.

Once again I'm thinning out the fruit on each truss leaving every other one so that they don't get too crowded when they get bigger. This allows those left to round up properly and not get a flat side where they touch their neighbours.

I have another experiment on the go, this bucket of soot water, basically the sweepings from a friend's chimney. Charlie Maisey the great NVS tomato champion swears by this as a feed for keeping his calyces fresh and green later in the season when night temperatures drop. I shall start applying this during August, just a dash in a watering can after it has been passed through a fine sieve to remove the big lumps of ash. Growing in a cold greenhouse my tomatoes start to show a yellowing calyx during mid to late September. I shall also attempt to get a bit more insulation on the glass at that time also.