Tomato damage update

I’m sure most of you know about my problems with tomato plants (and others) affected by weedkiller-contaminated compost. This is a follow-up, giving the latest situation.

Well, I suppose the first thing to say is that although my tomato crop will be very small this year, and not of good quality, I will at least get SOME tomatoes!


Apart from the strange shape, those tomatoes don’t look too bad. The trouble is, each plant has only set one decent truss, whereas I normally get five from each. The lower parts of the plants, up to and including the first truss of fruit, are largely unaffected, but above that the damage is severe. Most of the plants have set a small and very deformed second truss, but the yield from these will be negligible.

However, it’s not all bad news. In the axils of the lower leaves, sideshoots are forming as they usually do. Normally I would pinch these out to ensure that the plant puts most of its strength into the main stem, but this year I am not going to remove them, because the leaves don’t look too bad.

With a bit of luck the sideshoots will produce some fruit to augment those on the trusses growing directly out of the main stems.

So this year, my main crop of tomato plants will be converted from cordons to bushes!


This plant would be grown as a bush in any case. It is “Maskotka”, probably my favourite of the smaller tomatoes. I hesitate to call this one a “Cherry Tomato”, because its fruits are often much bigger than cherries. They will be red when ripe.

One of the reasons why I like “Maskotka” is because it fruits prolifically. This year the crop will be a modest one, but in the circumstances very welcome!