Your comments and tips

16 Jun 08, Damian (Unknown climate)

My tomatoes grow really well and are producing lots of fruit but the fruit is getting a brown/grey leathery patch on the bottom of it. Does anyone know what this is and how to stop it?

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09 May 08, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Audrey, you could try piling up tons of mulch around the plants, or covering them with agri-fleece or other frost protection sheeting that nurseries supply. Ordinary clear plastic sheeting can work too, but I've found it needs support, while agri-fleece is light and can be placed directly onto the plants and anchored round the edges.

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08 May 08, Audrey (Unknown climate)

I have some cherry tomato vines growing in my garden (left over by previous tenants). I have no idea how to keep them from frostbites since they are growing on the ground instead of pots. But i would love to maintain the vines since it is winter is round the corner. How do i keep them from frostbites? Is there anything that i can buy to cover over them? Would appreciate some advice.

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16 Dec 07, Liz Hutchinson (Unknown climate)

Spray tomatoes with copper at least once a fortnight. If the weather is humid and/wet spray weekly to prevent blight. Organic gardeners can use copper. Also mulch well and keep up the deep watering during dry spells.

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28 Nov 07, Judy Ramsey (Unknown climate)

I had some success last year with planting the lateral shoots taken off the main plant (put in water for a few days until roots develop). Great site - very useful

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31 Aug 07, Chris Hutchinson (Unknown climate)

Clive Blazey in his Diggers Club book "The Australian Vegetable Garden" (http://www.diggers.com.au/books.shtm#vegbook) describes how they ran pruning trials and found that pruned plants produced much lower yields (25% in Tigeralla and 33% in Grosse Lisse compared to unpruned). They also found that pruning had no effect on the size of the fruit.
They did find that late pruning tended to produce larger fruit, but with greatly reduced yields.

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22 Dec 13, pat (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I pruned the leaves that turned yellow but the plant in now nearly leavelessr, although theres still tomatoes on it, should I pull it out and start again

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30 Aug 07, Norman Genuis (Unknown climate)

Tomatoes - to prune or not to prune. Is the difference between the two just whether you want less quantity of fruit but in bigger size or more quantity with smaller size? Thanks.

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20 Aug 07, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Local advice is to wait until Melbourne Cup day before planting out tomatoes or anything frost sensitive.

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