Your comments and tips

08 Oct 11, Tracey in Melbourne (Australia - temperate climate)

Basically from the start of October to early November is considered tomato planting time in Melbourne but exactly when to plant out your seedlings depends on the microclimate of your garden. If your veg plot is sheltered from cold wind and gets lots of sun, or you have raised beds (which warm up quicker than an in-ground garden), or you are growing your toms in large pots (again, warmer than in-ground beds), then you can get away with planting them now. I have a heavyish clay-based soil which tends to take a little longer to warm up, so will not be planting mine out until around the end of this month. As far as planting in less than full sun, the minimum recommendation for plants like tomatoes is usually given as 6 hours of sun a day, so your patch doesn't necessarily need to get sun from dawn to dusk. If it's currently getting 6 hours you can proceed as per usual. I have a spot in my garden that is shaded by a shed in winter/early spring, which I'll be using for a tomato plant this year. I'll pot up the tomato seedling destined for that spot (an early fruiting variety) into a bigger pot as necessary, and plant it out mid-November, by which time the space gets about 6 hours and the seedling will be a good size.

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27 Aug 11, Bill (Australia - temperate climate)

My dogs like to eat manure and blood and bone drives them nuts, so last year I used mushroom compost together with liquid fish fertiliser on the tomatoes. Had a staggeringly large crop.

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24 Aug 11, Moshe Ioh (Australia - temperate climate)

Is it possible to use mushroom compost (alkaline) with tomatoes (liking acidic soil)? Has anybody used this technique and what were the results?

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23 Aug 11, MICK (Australia - temperate climate)

DO YOU PRUNE GRAFTED TOMATOS THE SAME AS A NORMAL TOMATO

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24 Aug 11, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

I don't prune tomatoes at all. Diggers Club did a comparison of pruned vs unpruned and found no difference in fruit production.

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13 Jun 11, Les Telfer (Australia - tropical climate)

My Tomatoes Flowered Then turn black and drop off ?

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19 Mar 11, THOMAS (Australia - temperate climate)

Forget the Triffids. Cherry tomatoes will engulf the world. Not one corner of my 3 acres has escaped being colonised this year & I only had them in my vegetable patch last year. Harvesting bucket loads & making sauce but have to beat the field mice to them. Thomas

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17 Mar 11, Elisha (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I have planted some tomato plants about 3 weeks ago in a supposed to be organic soil I got trucked in. Which as mill mud a sugar cane by product, and other goodies in it. I mixed dolomite, dynmatic lifter in the soil then planted. I am using sugar cane mulch and have liquid fertislied them with seasol and healthy earth. My tomatoes have now started to wilt. I don't believe its a fungus or a disease as when I cut the stems it looks healthy and green. I had 10 plants and now only have around 4 standing strong. Any suggestions what is going on? Oh I did fertilise them just before wilting as we have had a heap of rain recently with potash and blood and bone. Have I maybe over feed them. I didn't think that was possible.

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17 Mar 11, Liz (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Elisha, your seedlings might have 'damping off' disease. This is caused by too much water staying round the roots allowing a fungus to grow on the roots. If the plants don't improve in a day or so, it would be best to remove them and start again. Make sure that your soil is well drained.

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22 Aug 11, Deborah (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Damping off can be avoided by spraying seedlings every few days with chamomile tea, which kills the fungus which causes the damage. Also move mulch back a bit from the stem of the seedling to improve ventilation.

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