Today's Edition — The Tomato Post

Today's Edition

Front Page · Page 1 of 8

All tomatoes. All the time.

Today's edition, page by page: the wire, the beds, the kitchens and the nonsense. Swipe or use the arrow keys — your place is kept.

Growing · Tomato Post original
Side-shooting season: what to do this week
Cordon plants push new side-shoots fastest in warm spells. Guidance is unchanged: pinch small, pinch often, and switch to a high-potassium feed once fruit has set. Bush varieties are left unpruned.
The Growing Desk · RHS — Tomatoes: grow your own, Checked 9 August 2026
Weather · Externally sourced
Where to check blight risk, rather than guess at it
We do not issue our own blight forecasts. Fight Against Blight, run by the James Hutton Institute, publishes confirmed GB outbreaks and genotypes from grower-submitted samples.
The Tomato Post · James Hutton Institute — Fight Against Blight, Checked 9 August 2026
Markets · Tomato Post original
Tomato Index: the price ticker stays blank until the data is licensed
We will not publish invented wholesale prices. The Index currently tracks varieties, regions and reader-reported harvest dates; price rows appear only once a licensed market feed is in place, with its source and date shown.
Markets Desk

Breaking News · Page 2 of 8

Sourced reporting carries its publication and date. We do not invent real-world news.

Weather · Externally sourced
Where to check blight risk, rather than guess at it
We do not issue our own blight forecasts. Fight Against Blight, run by the James Hutton Institute, publishes confirmed GB outbreaks and genotypes from grower-submitted samples.
The Tomato Post · James Hutton Institute — Fight Against Blight, Checked 9 August 2026

Growing · Page 3 of 8

What the beds and tunnels require this week, and what readers are reporting from theirs.

Growing · Tomato Post original
Side-shooting season: what to do this week
Cordon plants push new side-shoots fastest in warm spells. Guidance is unchanged: pinch small, pinch often, and switch to a high-potassium feed once fruit has set. Bush varieties are left unpruned.
The Growing Desk · RHS — Tomatoes: grow your own, Checked 9 August 2026
Markets · Tomato Post original
Tomato Index: the price ticker stays blank until the data is licensed
We will not publish invented wholesale prices. The Index currently tracks varieties, regions and reader-reported harvest dates; price rows appear only once a licensed market feed is in place, with its source and date shown.
Markets Desk
Growing · Tomato Post original
Pot size: what the guidance actually says
About ten litres per plant is the practical container minimum in standard guidance, largely because small volumes punish irregular watering. We are not aware of a public UK trial comparing named varieties across pot sizes, and we have not run one.
The Growing Desk · RHS — Tomatoes: grow your own, Checked 9 August 2026

Restaurants & Chefs · Page 4 of 8

Grower, variety, kitchen, chef, plate. No stars, no rankings — only the chain.

Manchester
Black Krim, whey, cured egg yolk
“We do almost nothing to it. Salt an hour ahead, spoon over the whey, done. The variety is the recipe.”
Ida Fenwick, The Long Table · August to September
Bristol
Sungold and brown butter tart
“Sungold is nearly too sweet on its own. Brown butter and a hard cheese give it something to argue with.”
Marcus Ade, The Quayside Room · July to September
Machynlleth
Brandywine, elderflower vinegar, hazelnut
“A ripe Brandywine has more water than people expect. Salt it, drain it, and use the liquid as the dressing.”
Cerys Llwyd, Tŷ'n y Coed · September

Varieties · Page 5 of 8

Each variety carries a Tomato Passport: origin, flavour, habit, season and who grows it.

Sungold
Intensely sweet with tropical, almost mango-like notes and a light finishing acidity.
San Marzano
Low seed content, firm flesh, balanced sweetness and acidity — the classic cooking tomato.
Brandywine
Rich, complex and old-fashioned — the reference heirloom flavour, long finish.
Black Krim
Smoky, savoury, faintly saline — one of the most distinctive tomato flavours in cultivation.

Markets & Weather · Page 6 of 8

We publish datasets with source, date and methodology — and nothing where we hold no licensed data.

Growing · Tomato Post original
Side-shooting season: what to do this week
Cordon plants push new side-shoots fastest in warm spells. Guidance is unchanged: pinch small, pinch often, and switch to a high-potassium feed once fruit has set. Bush varieties are left unpruned.
The Growing Desk · RHS — Tomatoes: grow your own, Checked 9 August 2026
Weather · Externally sourced
Where to check blight risk, rather than guess at it
We do not issue our own blight forecasts. Fight Against Blight, run by the James Hutton Institute, publishes confirmed GB outbreaks and genotypes from grower-submitted samples.
The Tomato Post · James Hutton Institute — Fight Against Blight, Checked 9 August 2026

Culture & Humour · Page 7 of 8

Serious about tomatoes. Never serious about ourselves. Everything on this page is labelled satire or opinion.

Science · Opinion
We keep measuring sugar when we should be measuring aroma
Brix is easy to record and nearly useless on its own. Published work on lost flavour volatiles suggests tasting panels should log aroma separately — which is how our Taste Lab is structured. This is the view of the editorial desk, not a finding.
The Tomato Post editorial desk · Science — A chemical genetic roadmap to improved tomato flavor, Published 27 January 2017
Odd News · Humour / satire
SATIRE: Local Man Plants Six Tomatoes, Harvests 4,000
Arithmetic quietly stops applying in a Wolverhampton greenhouse. Satire from The Tomato Post. Not a factual news report — read it on The Back Page.
The Back Page
World · Opinion
Why processing varieties and salad varieties keep drifting apart
Breeding priorities for canning and for fresh eating have long differed — firmness and solids on one side, aroma on the other. An editorial explainer, not new research.
The Tomato Post editorial desk