Tuesday 9 March 2010

Wow, a tomato!

Amazing news, I have my first tomato! My Golden Sunrise tomato plant, sown on 9th January indoors, and reared under my artificial lights, has set a tomato. I noticed it this morning, it's about the size of my little finder nail, so coming on quite well. I had tapped the stems regulary to help the pollen disperse, but wasn't sure it would be succesful. There is about 5 flowers on the first truss, and another one well on its way. I had found out one of the major problems with early tomotoes was cold night temperatures, becasue it kills the pollen. The temperature in the cupboard seems pretty constant at the moment, so fingers crossed for even more fruit. However they are in quite small pots, probably 5 inch if that. They have spread their roots through the hydrolucca, so if I do need to pot them on, I think I will have to cut the small pot off very carefully, or the roots will break. I suppose it is almost hydroponic growing. I have started feeding them, as some of the other plants are also flowering now.
My purple jalapeno has also set a chilli, and I have french beans about 1cm long. I'm really excited by the possibilities, although I will be interested to find out what the electric bill comes to!