As you might recall, at the end of July, we planted tomato seedlings in pots inside our enclosed verandah.
At the time we were hoping to overcome problems with verticillium wilt and fruit fly in the garden. But we were never confident that the plants would actually ripen indoors. A couple of weeks ago we had large, bright green toms that appeared to have stagnated.
Then last week, amidst the overcast, cool Spring that we’re having in Sydney this year, we had two hot days – on Friday the outdoor temperature hit 34C.
Bingo! The tomatoes started ripening before our eyes! I took these photos a couple of days ago – the ones above and below are from the big Apollo plant near the window, which gets the most sun…
This tomato is in a container full of Grosse Lisse plants – a variety which fruits very heavily, and needs lots of support…
The Black Russian seeds that my friend Christine sent me are growing well and just starting to fruit…
A couple of weeks ago, we harvested one of the green Grosse Lisse toms and left it on a windowsill to see if it would ripen. It did! Hooray!
(As you can tell, we’re very excited about our tomatoes)
This morning, Pete harvested the ripe tomatoes – the bright red one and the small one are from the Apollo plant in the corner, and the other one is from the Grosse Lisse plant. We’ll let them ripen up a little more before eating…
If anyone is thinking about growing tomatoes indoors in pots, do give it a go! You’ll need a sunny aspect, an electric toothbrush to pollinate them, and some decent potting mix. The plants won’t produce nearly as much fruit as they would outside, but it’s certainly doable. And it’s been such a joy to watch them grow from tiny seedlings to enormous productive plants in just thirteen weeks!
Addendum: I was having a discussion yesterday with Pete about why we have so many problems with fruit fly in our backyard. He believes that it’s because we live in a suburb with lots of established fruit trees – the neighbours on the left have fig, papaya and citrus trees, and the folks on the right grow mangoes. As we’re unwilling to use pesticides or tomato dust, it makes it very difficult to grow uninfested fruit. Thank goodness for the enclosed verandah!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
It is funny how ripened tomatoes can make one happy- but it is true!
Our first tomatoes had me fondling them and smelling the tangy fragrance and doing a tiny little dance on the way into the house.
But it is hard to be uncheered around red tomatoes.
Heidi, the aroma of the tomato leaves is so strong – I never knew that until we grew the plants inside. The red toms really are very cheery! :)
As we head from autumn into winter, I can only rely on you to remind me that there’s warm sunshine at the end of our dark, dreary tunnel. Oddly, however, my Argyranthemum frutescens, the marguerite daisies, are still blooming even though we’ve had several frosts. I keep deadheading them, and they keep blooming!
Misk, how fabulous that you’re still getting flowers this late in the season! I’ll keep the garden photos coming! :)
Your tomato portraits are fabulous! Aren’t they handsome creatures? I once grew Marmande and they were so huge the plants ended up being clad in scaffolding to hold them up, these sound something similar. I hope they taste as grand as they look.:)
Jo, we haven’t tasted them yet, but we’re very excited! I don’t know if we’ll grow the Grosse Lisse again – they seem badly designed – the fruit is way to heavy for the stems they grow on, so they’re in need of perpetual stringing up!
What a brilliant result, you will be eating tomatoes already! isn’t that first taste of fresh home grown fruit just wonderful! c
C, it’s very thrilling – these will almost be our first unblemished tomatoes (as I mentioned in the post, we have quite a bad fruit fly problem here, which makes it hard to grow things organically).
You should be proud of your lovely tomatoes. It almost seems a shame to eat them, they are so beautiful.
Deb, thank you! They have pride of place on the kitchen bench at the moment!
How did you manage to get them pollinated? Did they have a chance for bees to do their magic..or did you shake them or hand pollinate them?
Hi Caroline, thanks for mentioning that, I’ve amended the post accordingly. We used an electric toothbrush (actually, it was a little electric flosser) and buzzed each flower as it opened. Worked a treat! :)
LOL..wonderful idea with the toothbrush..I will have to give it a go!…have to tell you tho….in your amendment..you called it fertilizing them..lol..something I can recognize doing as I am well known for putting words in that seem right coming off my fingertips..but my fingertips are so silly and jokey at times..lol
Oh yes, should be pollinating, thank you! The vibrating pointy thing had me confused. ;-)
LOL!!!
Such beautiful tomatoes. My mum used to sprinkle salt on a half as our snack, sometimes with cottage cheese.
Em, that sounds like a perfect way to eat them! :)
Didn’t you take such beautiful photos… and the tomatoes are just perfect. They will taste so sweet!
Thank you! We’re really looking forward to trying them out! :)
What a beautiful harvest so far!! So glad it worked. I am jealous as we are heading into winter and it will be very hard to find any decent tasting tomatoes for many months now. With them being in the veranda it is nice that you can keep a close watch on them and also you won’t have any other nasty buggies or whatever, bothering them since they’re in pots:)
Thanks Mel! They’re actually in self-watering pots too, which means it’s pretty easy to keep the water up to them. They’re thirsty plants! :)
So exciting! What a great proud feeling you get when you harvest your own- you feel like sticking a straw in your mouth, hooking your thumbs in your suspenders and displaying them for days before actually eating them…. or is that just me? I might give this a go next year, down here the focus is on how to possibly pick tomatoes for Christmas, but that is very rare indeed :(
Becca, haven’t eaten them yet! We really DID feel triumphant when the first one started to go red! :)
Hurray! I was hoping they would start to ripen soon. Nice tomatoes, they should taste great.
Manuela, I think it was one of your comments that inspired us to try this in the first place, so thank you! :)
One of my favourite times of the year is when the new seasons tomatoes start to become available, so I completely understand your excitement. I have had absolutely no luck growing them up here in the hills, with wilt following me wherever I move them, but I’m giving it one more go this year.
Amanda, we’ve bought a couple of packets of seed to try outdoors which are supposedly wilt-resistant – have you seen them? One from the Italian Gardeners people, and also some at New Gippsland Seeds (both listed in the Suppliers page above).
I totally understand your excitement Celia. Those tomatoes look fantastic! I was wondering about the electric toothbrush but I see someone else was as well. I can’t wait to see how you eat them.
Claire, it’s so nice to have homegrown tomatoes without bugs in them! We’re still admiring them – haven’t eaten them yet! :)
what a treat having your own tomatoes so early in the season..and they look so beautiful..i’ve only just planted a few seedlings so mine are months away..
Jane, it IS early, isn’t it? The ones that have self-seeded in the garden are nowhere near fruiting. I hope your seedlings work well!
Hi Celia, I was told yesterday to put a brown paper bag over my tomatoes to stop the fruit fly. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Jo, please do! I’d love to know if it works, although I’m not sure we could bag all the tomatoes in the garden! :)
I don’t use ‘toxic’ pesticides for fruit fly in my garden but use Eco Naturalure which is BFA registered so can be used in an organic garden. I have had great success with it and I know our area has a healthy fruit fly population. Quite expensive in comparson to some other pesticides but it means my tomatoes, capsicums, eggplants etc are bug free! Greenharvest.com.au (I’m not affiliated with them) has good info about Naturalure. It is readily available at nurseries, Bunnings etc and certainly worth a try.
Bronwyn, we don’t use any “-cides” in the back garden, although we might have to consider an organic fungicide if the apricot tree out the front ever comes good, so thank you for the recommendation!
In the back veg garden, we don’t want to knock out predators, and also the chooks are eating all the garden surplus.
They’re like bursts of sunshine! :D Well done to you and Pete!
Thanks Lorraine!
Wonderful, Celia (and Pete!). So glad the Black Russians are happening at your place, enclosed veranda and all. I can’t wait until we see some tomato action here. :)
Chris, thanks again for the seed! The yellow pear is growing as well, but no fruit yet! Bring on the hot weather! :)
the figs attract a lot of fruit flies. I will take a look (soon) in my book to see if there is anything you can do with essential oils. I am going to try this, as the wind keeps on ruining my tomatoes :)
Tandy, I hope it works for you! I’ve seen tomatoes growing indoors in a small pot next to a north-facing window, so I know it’s certainly doable, even if you don’t have an enclosed verandah like we do!
WOW! This is so beautiful dear Celia, how much I love tomatoes… I wished to have in my home too, Thank you, Have a nice weekend, with my love, nia
Thanks Nia! Have a wonderful weekend too! :)
Very encouraging indeed. I wish I had time to plant some!
Tania, they do take a bit of fussing! But it’s worth it – there are several more ripe ones on the plants this morning! Very exciting! :)
Fantastic! Who would have thought it was possible. Yes, tomatoes need that lovely warmth, hence they ripened. Brilliant idea!
Lizzy, thank you! It’s very rewarding to have perfect fruit while knowing that absolutely nothing was sprayed or dusted on them! Good to know it’s the heat that ripens them, I wasn’t sure if it was that or the light…thanks!
wow the tomatoes sure look great! makes me think if I’ll be able to do the same in the small apartment I have here – I have space for a few pots but not an indoor verandah, sadly!
Janine, as I was saying to Tandy above, I’ve seen them grown in a pot next to a north-facing window! It might not produce masses of fruit indoors, but you’ll probably get a few tomatoes for eating. :)
My tomato seedlings are about 1 cm now – can’t wait until I get to harvest them. I understand why you are taking pictures and will be doing the same when they fruit!
Sally, thank you for understanding how excited we get about things like this! Can’t wait to see your tomatoes! :)
Beautiful Tomatoes.
It’s amazing how a green thumb like yours sheds new light on botanical law, and cause fundamentalist to scratch their heads,questioning their own explanations of what light, or shading are necessary to complete the chlorophyll stage of photosynthesis, and trigger the fruit into the ripening stage. I know, a mouthful, right?
I’m no botanist by any means, but, as one who came up in a farming family, with a grandmother who had the green thumb like yours…I know a great grower when I see one. You just have the “Mater-Midas” touch!!!
I bet they taste as good as an outdoor version, depending on the soil you were able to use.
Bless You
paul
Paul, thank you, but credit where it’s due, it’s Pete with the green thumb, not me. I’m his trusty sidekick and dogsbody! :) We used a good potting mix, and I think Pete’s been feeding them worm juice as well…
Amazing that these beautiful looking tomatoes came from a pot indoors! Well done.
Chopin, I went into the “conservatory” and there are seven more today that are nearly ripe enough to pick! It’s very exciting! :)
Jolly well done, Celia!
Cindy, thank you! :)
Ow wow fantastic celia! My tomatoes are still so small. You could try other vegies too in the same spot?
Mrs B, we also have some capsicum and chilli plants growing in there, although I don’t know how they’re going to go. We couldn’t grow caps outside last year – they took so long that they were completely buggy by the time they were ripe!
Beautiful photos of your tomatoes. Congrats on a very successful harvest! It makes me want to grow some of my own.
Thank you! I hope you give them a go – it’s great fun! :)
I love tomatoes, but I really love just the smell of the tomato leaves and stems. That’s summer and childhood all rolled into one for me.
Brydie, I never knew how strong the aroma was until we grew these indoors. Outside there are so many competing smells, but the verandah smells so strongly of the tomato leaves, it’s quite amazing!
Your indoor tomatoes are looking just amazing & juicy! I also had red & yellow tomatoes growing indoors last year & it was also a huge success!
Sophie, that’s great to know you’re growing them inside too! Thanks for letting me know!