TOMATO PLANT DISASTER / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] [Music] Okay, the tomatoes seem to have collapsed again. Let's see if we can rescue these again. Oh, guys, no. This is a proper collapse situation. They have literally buckled under the weight of their own tomatoes. Oh my goodness. I know you guys told me this would happen and now it's happened. But I'm still shocked and surprised. Oh no, guys. No. No. Bad tomatoes. No. Oh my god. Oh no, guys. some proper panicking now cuz I'm killing them all. Oh no. Oh my god. Didn't realize the tomatoes are get this bleeding big to be honest. I've never grown them this big before. They've always been little. Oh, what do I do? Oh my god. Maybe I can sort of prop them back up. I'm not sure. Where's the sticks? Right. Sticks. I just don't understand what where they're all going. They're just they're monstrous. They're just monstrous plants. I want them all to stay like that. But how? How? How? Can you stay like that, please? Plants. No, that's not going to work. Right. I've sort of propped it up with a stick cleverly at a clever angle, but this is not right. This is not okay. I'm not quite sure what to do other than just to get more sticks. Problem is, I didn't expect the tomato plants to get this monstrous. Like, I I thought they'd stop growing at some point. I've never grown tomatoes like this before, but then I've never had a polycarbonate greenhouse to grow them into. So, I've definitely learned my lesson. Now, when I plant tomatoes in here next year, which I definitely will, I'm going to make sure I've got a proper foolproof structure in here because I wasn't expecting this. That's why I just put a few canes in. I didn't know. I didn't know they get this big and give me so many tomatoes, which are crushed all over the floor now. But I can see lots of ripe ones. Lots of bright red and orange ones. So, I will pick as many of those as I can today. Take some of the weight off of the plant and then I might have to consider cutting the plant back a bit, which I'm devastated about. I don't want to do that. I want to let them grow. I want to see how big they can get. It's like my mission now to grow the biggest tomato plants in the world. Anyway, crisis half averted. How you all doing, guys? My name's Emma. These are my a lotment diaries. I'd love for you to follow along with my a lotment journey by hitting the subscribe button. I make a lot of videos. I make three a week at my a lotment plot and one Sunday home gardening vlog. It's been hot. It's been really hot and I haven't been here for a few days. Um there's one thing that I mentioned in a vlog I think at the beginning of the week, which was my blueberry plant. It died spontaneously. It spontaneously died, which is my least favorite thing to happen to any plant at the a lotment because it just leaves me in a state of absolute panic and confusion. I think I figured out what's wrong with it. So, let me go and show you. Right, here's the poor little blueberry plant. As you can see, looking very dead. Almost sort of looks like we've gone into autumn prematurely and he's gone brown and the leaves are going to drop off. Right. So my first initial thought was disease and my second thought was bug. Actually it's neither of those things. What it is is drought stress. So because of the hot weather that we've had and the lack of watering. So I haven't been watering the blueberry plant actively, it's gone under stress and this is drought damage. So here's a closer look at those leaves. They're actually quite pretty, aren't they? But I did do a Google search and that's what it came up with. So drought stress. My initial gardener's instinct was to cut the plant right back, right? Because you cut the plant back and then you release the stress from the plant of whatever's happening to it. Apparently, that is the incorrect method to do with drought stress. Because cutting this plant back in the height of summer when it's inactive growth will actually do the opposite or take stress off it. What it will do is force the plant to throw up brand new shoots, which is obviously taking even more energy from the plant. So, the last thing I want to do is prune this back hard in the height of growing and force it to throw up more shoots. What I'm going to do is leave it. And that's what it says to do online, by the way. This is not just me making this up. And to be fair, that is exactly my kind of gardening. Leave it alone, see what it does. Maybe it'll recover and then wait and see what it does next year. But until then, I'm going to give it a good water and I'm going to give everything else in the garden a good water. But yeah, always always important to do the research cuz my initial reaction would have been to cut it back. And apparently that would have made the situation a lot worse. Sometimes the best thing you can do in gardening is to do nothing at all. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Where are you going? Where are you going? No, this way. This way. This way. The pumpkins seem to be rebelling against growing up for some reason. They're not clinging on the way they normally do. I feel like it's because they've had a bit of a grow spurt and they sort of haven't quite known which way to grow. You know, it's up that way. Obviously, it's that way. You got to tell them sometimes. They seem to be getting very confused. And normally at this time of year, they're sort of clinging on themselves and pulling themselves up, but don't seem to have got the memo this year. So, seems to be an admin problem. Come on. This way. Right. So, this is one plant. This is another plant. That one's not got off the starting line. This pumpkin is Oh, no. We have sort of. We're starting to get going. Oh, well done, pumpkin. But it's this way. Okay. It's this way when you get going. Yeah, I have faith in this one. I think he's going to grow big. There's quite a few weeds around here as well. Yeah. Just all seem to sort of not be quite sure where they're going. And they're also allowing the runner beans to grow all over them instead of fighting them off, which is what I thought they'd do. What about the other side? Yeah, the same story this way. Going through there, that way up. Up. This one's got the memo. Look, he's growing up very, very nicely. Well done. You're setting a very good example for the others, but they're just not following. I'm afraid. This little pumpkin plant here, he grew a pumpkin too early. So, I took it off because I think sometimes if they produce a pumpkin too early, it sort of stunts their growth. So, I'm hoping by cutting off that pumpkin, I've given them a chance. I might actually take the flowers off as well. Let's do that. Cuz if we're thinking like a plant again, when a plant produces flowers, it takes a lot of energy. It's a lot of the plant's energy. And if the plant's not big enough, it's putting its energy into the wrong thing. I don't want flowers right now. What I want is growth. So, I'm going to take those flowers off and I'm going to panic it. And hopefully, it'll encourage the foliage and the stems to grow, cuz that's what I want it to do. No flowers. All right. Let's focus on growing up. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] I went to the garden center the other day. Don't tell me off. I know. You know what? Money is never wasted at the garden center. That's all I'll say. It's my happy place. But they had a plant sale there. So like a section of clearance of plants they were trying to get rid of really quickly. And among all those lovely plants, there were a couple of pumpkins. There was this pumpkin which is a mashed potato. It's a squash, not a pumpkin. I always call squashes and pumpkins pumpkins. A mashed potato squash. And it's quite a decent sized plant. I got it for £2 reduced from four. I know, I know. Paying £4 for a pumpkin plant is ridiculous anyway. Even paying two pound, but I couldn't leave it. I just couldn't leave it. And I thought I could put it on this archway. And I also picked up this one, which I assume is the same cuz it didn't have a Oh, it has got a label. What are you? Oh, it's the Kiki Curi. Oh, it's getting a bit windy and cloudy now. I think the rain might be coming, which is an excellent thing. Let's not complain about the rain coming when I've had drought stress on everything. Um, this is an Akiki Curi. So, this is fantastic cuz I didn't grow any of these this year. Um, so I'm going to stick them on this archway. Let's see what's going on with this archway cuz I haven't really kept up with it if I'm honest. I've left it to its own devices. There's a lot growing on it. But the question is, what is it all? Cuz I don't bleed know. I think there sort of a pumpkin there, isn't there? Is this a pumpkin? Yeah. And he's trying to grow up. Bless him. But he's too far away from it. And then this one here, he's near it and he's not trying to grow up. Oh, this is a disaster. I mean, in my defense, this archway has always sort of taken care of itself. It's never really needed my help. I feel like it does this time, though. It's like rebelling. Right. Can you two sort of unattach to each other, please? Be marvelous. All right, bees. All right, bees. Chill out here. All right. I see some space here for a pumpkin. Let's whack him in. All right. Get you in the ground, mate. Just get you. Oh, okay. Well, never mind. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Right. This is my mashed potato. Mashed potato going in here. Never heard of him before, but he looks quite fun. Looks like he's going to play nicely. So, can come in. I think it might be a little bit too late to put pumpkin seeds in the ground now. Though you could try to be honest and see what happens. I don't think there's any harm in trying. But if you do find any pumpkins in the clearance sales or any other plants like sweet corn would be great for putting in now only if it's a plant though, then go for it. Like you can find some great bargains. You really can. And then you might actually get like extra crops that you weren't expecting. So it's a great thing to go and have a look at. And a great excuse to go to the garden center as well. So there you go. You're welcome. You're welcome. Can have that excuse for free. Right. There we go. A couple more pumpkins. Then you can grow over the runner beans. You're in charge. Don't let them take over. All right. You're a pumpkin. Okay. Let's get you some water. [Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] We'll attempt the tomato rescue again. I've just found more sticks from my old broad beans that I pulled out the other day. So, right, we'll try it again. See if we can sort of get them upright. Really, that's the main plan. You know, everybody stay calm. I'm here to help. [Music] Right. Can you stay there? Yep. Great. Cool. Uh, okay. You, where are you going? Oh, where are you going? You're being very difficult for doing that. You're being very I hope you understand that you're ruining my life right now. Right. Can you please go there? Thank you very much. Don't come back and hit me on the head. I see what you're doing. No, you don't want to go in, sticky. Why not? Why not? I need you, Sticky. Please, Sticky, please. Please. I've given that a really good attempt, and that is as good as I'm going to get it without getting the National Guard down here just to keep them under control. Do you know what I mean? They are taking over the world. Once again, I apologize when you see it on the news tomorrow night. Tomato is taking over the planet. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It was them. It's them. Anyway, like I said, what we will do is pick as many of them as we can because I can see a lot that are absolutely fantastically ripe. I mean, some real whoppers on here. Some real blooming whoppers. They've done amazing. I mean, come on. It's like a shop brought tomato. I could sell these in a shop. I could replace a Tesco pack with these and no one would know the difference. They wouldn't know. Except I should charge more cuz they're organic. Haven't been sprayed with pesticides, have they? These are all so fabulous. I'm going to get hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I absolutely love tomatoes as well. I really, really, actually love them. Oh, do you mind honestly? Oh, just lovely. just so rewarding to get a good crop like that. Anyway, that is everything that I wanted to do on the a lotment today. We are due some rain on the a lotment, which I am more than a little bit happy about. I think it's been wonderful with the sun and the heat wave and the lovely weather, but it's been impossible for me to get here enough to water it all. And without a hose, it's just been even harder. So, I have taken your advice on board with the hose. I'm going to get a couple and then connect them together. Um, and hopefully that will be a game changer for the plot. But to be fair, I've never really had this problem before. And I think it's because it's the first time I've got two a lotments in a heatwave. And I've really really noticed just how much watering it needs, which I didn't before. But it's fine. It's fine. We live, we learn. Um I will sort out a hose. I will get back to it. We will move on and we will be stronger for it next year. And that is always the best way to look at it. So I hope you've enjoyed my vlog today. If you have, do subscribe to my channel. I will be back again on Sunday with a home gardening vlog or Monday at the aotment. So I'll see you then guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.