Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

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tllwd
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by tllwd » Thu Jun 26, 2025 12:56 pm

mellie wrote:
Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:30 pm
Eat seasonally
Tomatoes season in Siberia.
pmdrsng.jpeg
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mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:12 pm

Looks more like they've had a freak dump of snow , unseasonably cold snap. Tomatoes just won't grow in the snow, they're suited to a Mediterranean climate and don't like frosts.

Trust me, I've tried, and the best I can do is wait for Melbourne Cup day and place tomatoe seedlings into the ground which I've raised in my laundry lol.

Even then I pray we don't get another frost. 😆
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mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Thu Jun 26, 2025 4:20 pm

I think AI might have helped Siberian snowmatoes grow there...😉
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mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Thu Jun 26, 2025 5:03 pm

Have you tried the humble tomacco plant?

https://youtu.be/Xx1ztJROpyU?si=dwUQvdAMeOLHnF6s

You might have better luck growing these up your way. 8-)
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mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Thu Jun 26, 2025 6:33 pm

tllwd wrote:
Thu Jun 26, 2025 12:56 pm
mellie wrote:
Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:30 pm
Eat seasonally
Tomatoes season in Siberia.

pmdrsng.jpeg
You might be able to grow these up your way in winter Tld, but they'd be no good for us, our winters are as cold as a mother-in-laws kiss, and Siberian tomatoes still don't like the frost, regardless of them being able to set fruit down to 3c, well apparently, but I think all tomatoes need sun and heat to produce the full flavour they're capable of. I'm not a fan of insipid tomatoes this time of year.

I'd rather just enjoy them at their best.

Bit like Victorian ocean swimming in winter.

Ok, it's possible, with a wetsuit ....but do many of us like it?

The sharks don't mind if we do. :c


Have you considered growing your winter tomatoes in a pollymete tunnel garden, polly- tunnel?
Very affordable and easy to set up.

Where you live, your best bet would be to try growing a hardy disease resistant variety like hardy Tom in a polly-tunnel as they would be tricked into thinking it's spring/summer perhaps?

Only thing you may struggle with is natural pollination, may have to manually pollinate them yourself, even up your way due to less hive activity and available pollen being about.

I found this on AI ... ( I shake mine in spring and early summer and can vouch for this method yielding more fruit)



" Tomatoes are primarily self-pollinating, but shaking the plant or flowers can help improve pollination, especially indoors or during winter when natural pollinators are less active. Gently shaking the plant or using an electric toothbrush on the flowers can help dislodge and distribute pollen.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Self-Pollination:
Tomato flowers have both male and female parts, allowing them to pollinate themselves.
Pollination Boost:
While tomatoes are self-pollinating, shaking the plant or flowers can dislodge pollen and improve the chances of successful pollination, especially in indoor environments.
Hand Pollination Methods:
Gentle Shaking: Gently shake the plant or individual flowers to release pollen.
Electric Toothbrush: Use an electric toothbrush (with the head removed or a dedicated one) to vibrate the flowers and release pollen.
Cotton Swab: Gently tap a cotton swab into each flower to distribute pollen.
Optimal Conditions:
Tomatoes pollinate best when temperatures are between 70-85°F (21-29°C) and humidity is below 70%, according to Gardening Know How.
Winter Considerations:
In winter, with fewer insects around, hand-pollination methods are particularly helpful for indoor tomato plants. ""


I would be interested to see a winter crop, and have often pondered growing a hardy species like tiny tom inside on a windowsill. I have seen UK chefs like Jamie Oliver do it, a kitchen garden, and I have had limited success with herbs 🌿 like parsley and dill, but it's nowhere near as good as growing them outside...they grow slower and aren't as green, and aren't as flavourful either.

Living where you do Ltd, you would probably be able to grow anything any time of year, so long as you shake your tomatoes to help along pollination.

Have you checked out your local farmers markets?

These are a great indicator of what's possible in your local area.

Asking the sellers how they grew their tomatoes might be helpful too. Most are happy to discuss cultivation methods, only the ones who buy fake-stuff from a city market and claim it to be local produce might be reluctant to talk about their methods, in which case, do you want imported / false produce that's not genuinely local anyway?

Friends of my parents at South West Rocks grow avocados year round.

The best avocados I've ever tasted too.

I am a seed saver, and when I buy a nice piece of organic pumkin I keep the seeds for my own garden, same with really nice tomatoes because they are usually a prolific and disease resistant variety, why else would a commercial farmer choose to grow them afterall?

It's not just the variety that matters, it's the soil, temperature and how much love you give them that can turn an ordinary commercially bread tomatoe into something incredible.

You've got me thinking outside the box, I might consider indoor tomatoes yet.
Where I live has incredible soil for growing most things, it's volcanic soil which is very rich in nutrients.

You are equally blessed living on a flood plane, alluvial soils are often fertile and rich in nutrients too, making them ideal for agriculture.

The question is, which of the two will yield the best tomatoes?

Will you accept the tomatoe challenge?

Mine will go in after cup day, as is the tradition here in Ballarat.

I may consider window cultivation, but only one or two plants, because contrary to Jamie Oliver's UK success growing in his kitchen, I'm not overly confident about growing them over winter, and I doubt that they'd taste anywhere near as good as the very same variety would in summer.

Tomatoes love a warm Mediterranean and dry climate.
~A climate change denier is what an idiot calls a realist~https://g.co/kgs/6F5wtU

mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Thu Jun 26, 2025 7:37 pm

One thing I've noticed with the heirlooms....

They're not as hardy or prolific as the common farmed varieties.

They might taste amazing, but if you only get a single flush of diseased fruit, all that hard work and love , not to mention water goes to waste.

I was once an heirloom vegetable catalogue browser/seed buyer, until I figured out that the species itself isn't as important as the soil quality and character.

These days I keep it simple, I just have half a dozen plants, 4 for us, 2 for gifting and I don't care what anyone says about grow- bags and container gardening.... a tomatoe plant will always do better in the ground, in healthy soil safe from the harsh afternoon sun than anything you can produce in a contained space.

I have also found growing smaller varieties like baby Roma, cherry and tiny Tim to small medium sized tomatoes far more hardy and disease + worm resistant. Sure the large heirlooms look amazing on the seed packet, but unless you are prepared to dust flowers with insecticide or the whole plant itself with anti- fungal agents, then you can keep dreaming. Remember, dusted tomatoe plants flowers inhibit self- pollination so they're less likely to yield a bumper crop

Anyone here had great success with some of the larger and rarer varieties?



Tomatoe plants root systems seem to thrive on self- determination, they seem to have the ability to find the perfect rootsystm pathway rather than being forced to make-do in a confined space.

I know many will argue that the container method is better because you can control it's location, exact right amount of nutrients, water , sun etc, but I think it's this very intrusion on their liberty that turns them into what you can get at the supermarket anyway, so why bother growing battery tomatoes?

My eldest daughter and I have very different philosophy's on our tomatoe growing.

This said, she's limited with her garden beds as her soil isn't local soil, it's a 3 year old house on land that was filled with soil from God only knows where, could have come from anywhere, interstate even ... so I get why her gardening is mostly container gardening + grow bags.
~A climate change denier is what an idiot calls a realist~https://g.co/kgs/6F5wtU

mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:08 pm

Back in my early uni days, a bit-of-a hippy peer once said to me if you can grow gorgeous tomatoes with ease like this, ( after I took some to uni to share) then you could grow amazing dope as well, as her father grew dope plants and told her that the trick was to raise them as you would tomatoe plants.

From then on, I have often wondered if dope and tomatoe plants could cross- pollinate, if someone were to grow both right next to each other.

I tried CBD oil gummies when I was first diagnosed with RA and was going through a "try anything " phase, as I was already stage 3 when diagnosed thanks to covid lockdowns...... have any if you here, or anyone you know had sucess companion gardening with both these plants?

Why I ask is because this peers father swore by companion gardening of tomatoes & dope for keeping the insects off his tomatoes.

Or was this just his convenient excuse for discreetly growing dope I wonder? :lol:

No judgement if anyone here grows their own weed/ medication, I am just genuinely curious about the alleged benefits and also wonder about cross pollination potential.

I don't want to google it as my daughter and I can see eachothers search histories, and I don't want to clear my browser either because it makes finding what I need ( my frequently used links) easier.

Besides, often people post crap online

My preferred method of keeping aphids and moths , bugs & fungus off my plants is a special concoction I got out of an old gardening book that I found in an op shop years ago.

Remember, if you're doing something right, your plants should be healthy enough to resist disease anyway.

Since living in Victoria, I've not needed to use anything on my tomatoe plants, because they're very healthy to begin with.

I have had some issues with other plants though, especially the plants ie, pallergoniums + others I could easily grow in Sydney that prefer a warmer climate. The frost weakens them and renders them more vulnerable to disease, insects etc, so....

I have used a concoction containing neeme oil and olive oil ( combined) with garlic and a few other herbs. I use it in a spray bottle and I make another spray out of soap and chilly.

My biggest problem is blackspot ( a fungus) that I unfortunately introduced to my own garden from an infected plant I bought from a nursery. It gets on my roses too, but th we neeme oil keeps it at bay.

Anyone else have a brilliant potion for their garden they have had reasonable success with?

The trouble with neeme oil, chilly, soapy water is that you need to keep applying it.

Note, black spot is difficult to remedy entirely, another person from a different nursey advised that I burn the effected plants, that this would be the only cure. In other words, it's not possible to eradicate entirely, but you can manage it.

Fortunately, my small vege patch out the back which is currently fallowing has not been effected with any disease yet.
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Bobby
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by Bobby » Mon Jun 30, 2025 7:30 am

mellie wrote:
Thu Jun 26, 2025 7:37 pm
One thing I've noticed with the heirlooms....

They're not as hardy or prolific as the common farmed varieties.

They might taste amazing, but if you only get a single flush of diseased fruit, all that hard work and love , not to mention water goes to waste.

I was once an heirloom vegetable catalogue browser/seed buyer, until I figured out that the species itself isn't as important as the soil quality and character.

These days I keep it simple, I just have half a dozen plants, 4 for us, 2 for gifting and I don't care what anyone says about grow- bags and container gardening.... a tomatoe plant will always do better in the ground, in healthy soil safe from the harsh afternoon sun than anything you can produce in a contained space.

I have also found growing smaller varieties like baby Roma, cherry and tiny Tim to small medium sized tomatoes far more hardy and disease + worm resistant. Sure the large heirlooms look amazing on the seed packet, but unless you are prepared to dust flowers with insecticide or the whole plant itself with anti- fungal agents, then you can keep dreaming. Remember, dusted tomatoe plants flowers inhibit self- pollination so they're less likely to yield a bumper crop

Anyone here had great success with some of the larger and rarer varieties?



Tomatoe plants root systems seem to thrive on self- determination, they seem to have the ability to find the perfect rootsystm pathway rather than being forced to make-do in a confined space.

I know many will argue that the container method is better because you can control it's location, exact right amount of nutrients, water , sun etc, but I think it's this very intrusion on their liberty that turns them into what you can get at the supermarket anyway, so why bother growing battery tomatoes?

My eldest daughter and I have very different philosophy's on our tomatoe growing.

This said, she's limited with her garden beds as her soil isn't local soil, it's a 3 year old house on land that was filled with soil from God only knows where, could have come from anywhere, interstate even ... so I get why her gardening is mostly container gardening + grow bags.

Heirloom tomatoes won't have many of the qualities demanded by supermarkets -
mostly long shelf life but for taste you can't beat them - fresh off the plant
and on to your plate or as part of a salad.

I can't be bothered growing them anymore.
I go to the supermarket and buy one or 2 truss tomatoes every 3 days.
that does me for my cheese , ham and tomato toasted sandwich which I like for breakfast -
and sets me up for the whole day.

mellie
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by mellie » Mon Jun 30, 2025 8:59 am

Fair enough Bobby, then I'd stick with buying, especially this time of year, we buy very few over winter. I do like a toasted cheese, tomato and ham sandwich myself, and as I door dash groceries at least twice a week, I occasionally get a battery tomato 🍅 truss, from Coles or IGA. We generally avoid produce that's not in season because it's overpriced rubbish. I begrudge spending more for less, it's the principle of the thing. Supermarkets know people will pay more even when the quality is far less. #Arseholes.
~A climate change denier is what an idiot calls a realist~https://g.co/kgs/6F5wtU

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Bobby
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Re: Tricked by tomatoes at Woolys

Post by Bobby » Mon Jun 30, 2025 9:26 am

mellie wrote:
Mon Jun 30, 2025 8:59 am
Fair enough Bobby, then I'd stick with buying, especially this time of year, we buy very few over winter. I do like a toasted cheese, tomato and ham sandwich myself, and as I door dash groceries at least twice a week, I occasionally get a battery tomato 🍅 truss, from Coles or IGA. We generally avoid produce that's not in season because it's overpriced rubbish. I begrudge spending more for less, it's the principle of the thing. Supermarkets know people will pay more even when the quality is far less. #Arseholes.
I agree with you. :)

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