My tomatoes are starting to have babies. Little green fruits are appearing on the stems as the plant continues to put out more trusses, and shimmy further and further up its cane. In a previous entry about tomatoes, I mentioned that as soon as the first truss appeared (trusses are the flower stems), you should start feeding your tomato plants and watering regularly. Here’s my regime:
I feed the tomatoes every other day with comfrey tea. This is high in potassium, which is important for the formation of good fruits. I dilute the mixture one part ‘tea’ and ten parts water. On the other days, I give the tomatoes a comforting milky brew, as milk is a good organic tool for fighting off nasty diseases such as blight. This is pretty simple to make: I pour half a cup of milk into a 2 litre watering can, and serve up to the plants.
Watering regularly and consistently will prevent tomatoes from splitting or developing blossom end rot. Blossom end rot develops when soil moisture levels fluctuate wildly, and manifests itself as a blackened spot at the base of ripening fruit. The way to combat this is to make sure you give your plants a nice good drink (without drowning them) every day. If you are growing in containers, bear in mind that these dry out quite quickly. When I planted out my balcony tomatoes, I sank mineral water bottles with a few tiny holes punched in the bottom into the soil, and water the plants this way once a day. The soil mixture I wrote about for The Guardian also helps combat this condition, as well as blight.
To protect your tomatoes from blight, never water their leaves. The plants react in much the same way as humans do when they get soggy: they sulk. And sulking produces blight, which is the end of your tomato crop for the year. There’s evidence that watering in the morning is safer than in the evening, as plants will not remain damp overnight.
