The Weather Is On The Turn

The temperature is dropping and it seems as if the Autumn is here. This is the time when the tomatoes slow down their ripening and I still have a few plants that haven't even started to produce fruit yet!

The large varieties are usually the last to ripen but there is still a Garden Pearl, in the greenhouse of all places, that has just started to fruit.

The Red Alert, Tumbling Tom red, and the Maskotka are on their last, but the Tumbling Tom yellow is still going strong and the First In The Field (I call it last in the garden!) has just come into its own.

My favourite large variety, Oregon Spring, didn't perform well this season, and neither did Gardener's Delight which is an old dependable - usually - but tasted watery this year.

There are a number of things that affect tomato taste:

• The variety.
• The amount of water a plant has received.
• The way a plant has been fed.
• The amount of sunshine.

I think that the last one, the amount of sunshine, has been the most significant in the UK this summer - I've had quite a few reports of poor taste in varieties that would normally shine :)

Still a few weeks left - and all those green tomatoes yet to ripen!