Forum Topic

Tomatoes - some advice

Last year I grew tomoatoes for the first time with great success. I made lots of tomato sauce and used it my various pies, bolognese and lasagne dishes as well as giving some of the fruit away to people at work.This year I am having some problems. I've grown the tomato plants successfully from seeds and have planted them outdoors. Since then they do not seem to be at all happy. I've checked for slugs etc, but they do not appear to be doing at all well. It looks as if something is feasting on them as the leaves are tattered. I'm not sure if the cold spell we've had has had any bearing on this or whether there is a little critter who has taken a liking to my plants. As far as I am aware I am not visited by Tufty or Foxy Loxy, so any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

J Smith ● 5992d2 Comments

Tomato leaves are usually immune to most nibbling critters. So it is hard to know who might be to blame.One year I left out some tomato seedlings overnight. The next morning there was only sad looking stalks left - all the tops had gone. The culprit was pigeons. luckily I had time to start again. But, I learned not to leave out seedlings without protection. If it is pigeons try putting plastic collars around the plants (made from cutting off the top and bottom of a plastic drink bottle). That will protect them until they are big enough to take care of themselves and should protect them from a late frost too.Slugs don't usually eat tomatoes...as long as there are more juicy things to nibble on. But leave out some slug traps just to be on the safe side. a container half filled with cheap beer should do the trick. Squirrels and foxes will only eat the fruit - so I doubt it would be them. Squirrels are easy to spot - but foxes are nocturnal. To check if you have foxes in the garden leave out an egg. If it disappears overnight - the only animal large enough to take it would be a fox....or if you are really lucky a badger.good luckChristina

Christina Fox ● 5992d

Thanks Christina. I have a feeling it could be pigeons as only have a small courtyard garden and everything is grown in tubs. I've never seen a fox or a squirrel at the back so will get some plastic bottles out to protect the few that are still with leaves. I've planted a few more seeds and as soon as they get bigger I will plant them outside.

J Smith ● 5992d