Monty Don Urges UK Gardeners To Do 1 Job First Thing In The Morning This June

Tomatoes from the gardenGardeners will be glad to hear that our unusually dry, hot spring is set to give way to rain (even if nobody else is).After all, even a bumper crop of strawberries and mammoth early veggies can’t atone for what seemed like quite a real possibility of summertime drought. Now, it seems, we might all be able to focus a little more on the ordinary course of gardening. And for legend Monty Don, that means getting our veggies out of the “hungry gap” of growth and into the ground, ready to fruit in a couple of months. Tomatoes, in particular, need help this month, he said, advising us to do one growth-promoting job “first thing in the morning” to boost our yield. You should remove side shootsOn his site, Don shared that we should “Regularly pinch out side-shoots on tomatoes” in June. “It is best – and easiest – to do this first thing in the morning when the plant is turgid and they will snap off easily in your fingers.” Though the side shoots of tomatoes do bear fruit, they “reduce the overall harvest” by taking energy away from branches that would otherwise carry far more tomatoes.The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) agreed, writing that the rule particularly applies to Cordon tomatoes. They advised us to remove side shoots every time we water the plant, though they might not be as full and easy to move as they are in the morning. “If they’re not removed, the side-shoots grow rapidly, forming a mass of long, scrambling, leafy stems that are difficult to support, produce few fruits and take up a lot of space,” the RHS add. This should not be done with bush tomatoes, whose side shoots produce plentiful fruit.Are there any other ways to boost growth?Yes – strangely enough, tapping your tomato plants might increase self-pollination and improve your plant’s bounty. The plants have unusually heavy and sticky pollen, which usually requires either pollinators or wind (bees or breeze) to transfer. That can be a problem if they’re in a still, bug-free greenhouse – but tapping the flowers even a little, or shaking the plant, can go a long way. Related...UK Gardeners Advised To Place Lemon Peel On Vegetable PatchesUK Gardeners Advised To Place Onions On Their Lawn6 June Gardening Jobs UK Gardeners Should Start Now

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