Tomato tips

[littlegem]

in the past i have stripped leaves off my toms, i have always had massive plants with big leaves (don't know how i do it tho) and i strip leaves off at intervals once the fruit has set, my theory is to concentrate the plant on enlarging and ripening the fruits instead of it making the leaves bigger and the plants seem to do this better without as many leaves. obviously i leave a great many still on.  I have seen on the tv commercial tomato growers and the plants with fruit on always seem to have very few leaves, i suspect that they do this aswell (more than me).  eg, Jamie Oliver's gardener (the one with the beard) had his toms in lines in polytunnel and they were all pretty bare on the leaf aspect and had loads of fruits on them

[littlegem]

[PurpleHeather]

The leaf stripping is something that I was told to do right at the end of the season so that the strength went into the final fruit. I did it and the plants were none the worse for it. In fact they started to flower again and I got even more fruit.

I have heard that bananas are supposed to help the picked green fruit ripen.

The newest thing I read was that you should grow basil (the herb) in pots near the tomatoes. Can't remember why though.

[OllieC]

The newest thing I read was that you should grow basil (the herb) in pots near the tomatoes. Can't remember why though.

It's because there are very few things in the world that taste as good as a tomato and basil sandwich...