The Beechgrove Garden 2022 episode 11: Calum and Carole are back with a weekly update, featuring great advice and top tips for gardeners across the country. In this episode, they are at Beechgrove working in the vegetable plot as part of a series of features that sees a part of the garden redeveloped. Calum has already built a pallet deck and has his raised bed ready, and now it’s time for the first plants of his own plot to go in.
Meanwhile, George tackles more viewer questions from his garden in Joppa, and Beechgrove visits Buckie for an update on Lizzie Schofield’s award-winning garden. Gardening programme dealing with Scottish horticulture and growing conditions, with tips and tricks.
The Beechgrove Garden 2022 episode 11
How to grow cordon tomatoes
For growing purposes, tomato plants are divided two distinct categories according to their growth habit. ‘Bush’ (determinate) types are left unpinched and need only to be loosely tied to canes to prevent them sagging. ‘Cordon’ varieties (indeterminate), also known as vine tomatoes, need pinching out and training during the growing season to get the best results.
Left to their own devices in the British climate, cordon tomatoes will produce masses of leafy growth with some flowers and little useable fruit, but with regular care your plants will keep producing tomatoes until early autumn.
The cordon growing method refers to training the plant on a single stem, tying this into a cane, and removing all the side shoots that start to form between the stem and leaves. With plenty of light and regular dressings of tomato feed, plants will start to flower soon after the 10th true leaf has formed and will continue to produce flower trusses right up the stem. Under glass – in a porch, greenhouse or conservatory – expect to get up to six trusses of fruit for each cordon-trained plant by mid-September.
