Page 16 - Simply Veg 1 2024

Greenhouse or
Polytunnel?
I grow my medium
tomatoes in a greenhouse
rather than a Polytunnel as I believe they thrive better in a greenhouse environment. I also think the siting of a greenhouse or polytunnel is very important as I was once told that 1% of light reduction represents
a 1% of crop reduction, so if tomato plants are shaded at all, this will have an effect on the plants yield. Hence why I grow in a well sited greenhouse rather than a plastic coated polytunnel. (The figure Keith quotes is correct, I remember learning it at college – Ed)
resulting in a good depth of growing medium for the tomato plants roots to explore and into the manure below.
Varieties
There are quite a few varieties that are capable of producing excellent show tomatoes, but what I do is select the variety I’m going to grow and trial it a year before (if possible). I believe it is essential to get
to know all you can about a variety before you grow them for exhibition purposes
as not all varieties grow the same. For example, does it want to be grown on 4,5,6 or 7 trusses? (Note – the quantity of leaves between trusses determines how many trusses will grow), is it a vigorous grower? How many tomatoes should I leave on a truss? Are the trusses single
or double? are they quicker than others? Take a note of how long the tomatoes will stay ripe on the vine and still be good for exhibiting and eating. All of these things are
Site Preparation
I dig a trench, one spade deep and 18” wide where the tomatoes are going to grow and in the bottom of the trench, I spread a good handful of Q4 per running yard and then fork it in.
I’ll then fill the trench with very old cow manure and then rake over the topsoil and top dress with a further handful of Q4 per yard run as before. When the trench
Growing Tomatoes my way for Exhibition
Keith Chambers is one of our top veg growers and has won the Tomato Class at the National Championships on seven occasions – 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Below is a summary
of Keith’s growing methods which he hopes you will find beneficial, whether growing for the kitchen
or growing for show.
Growing tomatoes for the show bench is like any other veg, it’s the attention to detail that matters and tomatoes are no exception.
is completed, I’ll get a very large growbag (35 litres or more) and “fluff it up” to ensure there is no compressed compost in the growbag and place it on top of the prepared trench.
When the growbag is in position, I’ll cut out two sections of plastic from the underside of the bag,
very important for a grower to learn and understand if they want to exhibit top class tomatoes. Most recently, I have grown and shown Dometica, Damaress and Maisey, all of which did very well for me at the National Championships and other shows.
Sowing
The timing of your sowing is crucial. Depending on the show dates I will sow all of my tomatoes in early March using a quality professional sowing compost and then take a series of sideshoot cuttings from these plants as each side shoot reaches approximately 2” to 3” long. By doing this, one can obtain 40 to 50 plants from 10 mother plants that can then be grown on to give a succession of fruiting plants throughout the growing season.
Planting
Once large enough to handle, I will grow my tomatoes in 11cm square pots using a quality professional potting compost and then push the pots together to force the plants to stretch for the light a little and when they are a good foot tall, I plant them in the bottom of the florist bucket that’s sitting in the grow bag. I will then remove the leaves from the plant except for the top two or three and then I fill up the florist bucket with the same potting compost as used for the 11cm square pot to within two inches of the top of the florist bucket. The reason for this is so the plants will root all along their stems, thus producing a bigger and better rooting system.
Staking
I grow my tomatoes up canes at a slight angle (approximately 15˚) so that the tomatoes hang that bit further away from the main stem. (See photo 1). As they are growing, I carefully twist the main stem using the leaf joints as leverage so that all trusses are mainly facing the front. I don’t want the trusses facing towards the outside of the greenhouse where I can’t see them. (See photo 2.)
Timing
The timing of the setting of the trusses
is also important. I find that my better tomatoes come from the 3rd and 4th trusses. If I think that a tomato plant is growing too early, I have been known to cut the top off the tomato plants, right down to 2 leaves (when they were already on their
There are quite a few varieties that are capable of producing excellent show tomatoes
approximately 18” to 24” apart (depending on the growbag length) and then cut out two circles on the top surface of the growbag directly above where the underside plastic has been removed. I’ll then insert a bottomless florist bucket into each circle and into the growbag compost
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
16 Simply Vegetables
KEITH CHAMBERS