Earlier in the season this greenhouse tomato plant (v. Akron) collapsed under the weight of fruit on the vine almost snapping the stem. Optimistically I hauled it back upright and secured it again in the hope of salvaging some of the fruit. It continued to thrive but did the same thing again; once more almost breaking the stem completely – but not quite. I repeated the exercise, securing it rather better, and it has remained productive all season so it’s well worth persevering with a plant with an almost severed stem even though the damage looks terminal at first!

Akon is a really heavy cropper and the lesson here is to provide much better support in future. This F1 hybrid variety has been known to produce up to 7Kg fruit per plant! Highly recommended for flavour, yield and length of cropping.