TRUSS ME, I'M A TOMATO

Continuing my experiment to see how many trusses of tomato I can harvest on a plant in the polytunnel, this morning I'm up to 13. Truss 12 has tomatoes forming, and truss 13 is just in flower. The plant has now arched the polytunnel and is about to go down the far side. How many of these will turn red depends, I guess, on how much sun we get in the next few weeks. There certainly isn't any lack of heat in the polytunnel at present. Yesterday, with both doors fully open, the temperature reached a maximum of 46.4 degrees.

As it says on the welcome to Eastbourne signs, welcome to the sunshine coast, breathe it in. Good advice for Birling Gap yesterday.

Something I can't master, or get anywhere close, is telling when a melon is perfectly ripe. I have picked four so far. The first one was under ripe, so I compensated and left the second growing longer and is was close to mush, the third was over ripe slightly less than mush and the fourth, which I picked this morning was just over ripe. Infamy, infamy - the melons have got it in for me. Oh well, two more to pick, practice makes perfect - I hope. The irony is that Brodie asked this morning for my advice on when a melon is ready for picking. btsoom