Hi Lynne:
I never fertilize after the end of August. Enough fertilizer builds up
in the soil over the summer to last through the Fall. Fertiliser isn't
all used up week by week. Some of it takes months to be used up, so a
little ac***ulates week by week, or every other week in your case.
The classic cause of split tomatoes is inconsistent watering, that is,
the soil is allowed to dry out too much, the tomato skin hardens, and
when the tomato is watered again it grows so fast that it cracks the
skin. During the growing season, I water my tomatoes (at the roots, not
the leaves) every day, and sometimes twice a day if it's very hot
(>35C). Right now, most of my tomatoes (including a 1.25 pound beauty)
are either ripening on the kitchen window sill, already made into
pickles, or bottled red ripe and waiting for consumption in February,
March, etc. I also eat a few sliced tomatoes with mayonnaise on bread
once in a while.
In my greenhouse, I have a few (about a dozen) remaining tomatoes that
are beginning to ripen. As soon as I see a bit of red, I cut them off
and place them on my window sill. They ripen within a week, sometimes
faster. I let a few ripen red on the vine, but I usually have all my
tomatoes picked by early October. I cut off all the flowers and small
tomatoes about 3 weeks ago, thus letting all the goodness flow into the
larger tomatoes.
As frost approaches, tomatoes will grow more slowly, and the law of
dimini****ng returns will start to become obvious. Don't let frost touch
them.
Generally, you want to keep your greenhouse door closed all the time,
unless you are using it solely to reduce the heat. An overhead vent is
best, because moist hot air can rise and escape. I don't know your
setup, but if it's 33C in my greenhouse and I open the door for a few
hours the temp will only drop to about 30C, not a big change. It's a
good idea to keep a thermometer in a greenhouse so you can get a feel
for what's happening temperature-wise.
I think I've addressed your questions. If not, let me know. I haven't
grown cherry type tomatoes, but the principles are the same as for
larger tomatoes as far as I know. Remember, a split tomato can be caused
by just one missed day of watering.
Occasionally, I get a split tomato, but they taste great and they can
be bottled or made into pickles. Why do you say yours were ruined?
Doug
Lynne Loveys Kane wrote:
> I want to let my tomatoes ripen on the vine for as long as possible.
They
> are in a green house and are continuing to produce a few new fruit
> s****adically. Should I continue to fertilize with 20-20-20 every other
week
> until the weather turns consistently cold? Last week when the weather
was
> cooler I closed the greenhouse door for a few days and all of the near
ripe
> 'sweet million' variety (a cherry type tomato) split and were ruined.
Could
> this be related to overheating during the day? Should I leave the door
open
> until the first frost? Any comments are helpful -love to garden but
veggies
> are technically challenging for me!.
>
> Thanks,
> Lynne
|
