I haven't been doing much work in the greenhouse during the last week so the plants were a bit out of control. Tomatoes grow really fast and if you are growing them single stemmed like I do there are a few weekly jobs that need doing.
Every week I twist each plant around the support string. You can see how much new growth there's been since last time I've done it. You can also see a sucker, which is growing between the main stem and a leaf node. I pinch all of these off as I don't want a bushy plant, I want a plant growing straight up that puts all the energy into the tomatoes developing on the main stem alone.
I've twisted it around the string, removed the side shoots, removed the leaves growing at the base of the plant and we're left with a cleaner, airier plant.
The fruit is developing nicely
I'm growing the tomatoes this way because I can fit a lot of plants in a small area, for example I have about 30 tomato plants, 6 cucamelons, 4 lemon cucumbers in area of 3m x 1.5m. They're a bit too crowded for my liking but they don't seem to have any problems so far.
Have a look at my cucamelons, they're about to reach the top of the greenhouse; they've pretty much formed a cucamelon wall. There are hundred of female flowers but so far I haven't seen a single male one which is pretty weird. Hopefully the males won't be long now.
That's all for now.
Cheers!