The Tomato Post — Today's Front Page

Today · LiveCulture Desk · Manchester

Tomato Party Comes North: Manchester Opens Its Doors at 1pm

After a London edition on 19 July, the FLAWD × 107 Wine Bar Tomato Party arrives in Manchester today, 9 August. Doors 1pm until 9pm. No reservations — the queue is the guest list.

What we know comes from the event's own poster: two dates, London on 19 July and Manchester today, doors 1pm to 9pm, and no reservations. We have not been briefed on the menu and we are not going to invent one.

If you go, file what you actually ate. Tasting notes logged through our Taste Lab are recorded as reader observations, with the variety named where the kitchen names it — that is how a genuine record of a tomato party gets built.

Editor's noteMatt, our editor, is attending in Manchester today. The Tomato Post is not a review site and does not rate restaurants or chefs: he is there to record which varieties are being served and how they were grown, not to score anyone's cooking.

London: 19 / 7 / 26 · 1–9pm
Manchester: 9 / 8 / 26 — today
Hours: 1pm – 9pm
Booking: No reservations

The Culture Desk · Source: event poster supplied by a reader · Checked 9 Aug 2026

Guests sharing plates of sliced heirloom tomatoes and glasses of wine at a long communal table — Illustration for The Tomato Post — not a photograph of the London or Manchester party. Photographs will follow from today's visit.

Going Today? A Reader's Briefing

Doors 1pm to 9pm, per the organisers.
No reservations, so allow for a queue.
Ask which variety you are eating; write the name down.
Taste before you salt. Then salt anyway.

File Your Tasting Notes

EvidenceGrowing · Front Page · Sourced

Do Bigger Pots Really Grow Better Tomatoes?

Root volume matters up to a point. Standard guidance is a minimum of about 10 litres per plant for containers, with larger volumes making watering and feeding far more forgiving.

A single heirloom tomato on a linen cloth in soft window light — Still life illustration for The Tomato Post

The RHS advises growing tomatoes in large containers or growing bags, planting no more than two plants per standard bag, because restricted root volume dries out and starves plants quickly.

Container-grown plants need more frequent watering and a regular high-potassium feed once the first fruits set — the smaller the container, the less margin for error.

Erratic watering in small containers is associated with blossom end rot and fruit splitting, which is why volume behaves like a buffer rather than a growth stimulant on its own.

What we do not know

We are not aware of a public, controlled UK trial comparing yields across a range of pot sizes for named varieties under identical feeding. The Tomato Post has not run one. Any figures you see quoted as a precise yield gain should be treated sceptically.

Sources

Tomatoes: grow your own — Royal Horticultural Society
Blossom end rot — Royal Horticultural Society

The Growing Desk · Last checked 2026-08-09All evidence notes →

Do Bigger Pots Really Grow Better Tomatoes?

Root volume matters up to a point: RHS guidance puts the practical minimum around ten litres per plant, mostly because small pots punish irregular watering.

The Growing DeskSourced · last checked 9 Aug 2026

Evidence

Why Sungold Tastes So Absurdly Good

Published work in Science links the decline of shop-bought tomato flavour to lost aroma volatiles — which is why sugar readings alone predict very little.

The Science DeskSourced · Science, 2017

Satire · The Back Page

Slug Interviewed Under Caution

Forty-three nights of surveillance and a suspect who declined to leave a written statement. Satire from The Tomato Post. Not a factual news report.

The Back PageFiction

Satire · The Back Page

Britain's Best Tomato Sandwich, Finally Ranked

Twelve counties. Sixty-one sandwiches. All of them invented. Satire from The Tomato Post. Not a factual news report.

The Back PageFiction

SatireThe Back Page · Tomato NonsenseSatire from The Tomato Post. Not a factual news report.

World Cup Heroes Paid in Tomatoes

An entirely fictional federation announces an entirely fictional bonus structure, payable in graded crates.

Footballers lifting this summer's imaginary trophy will, in this imaginary ruling, be compensated exclusively in heirloom tomatoes — a decision our invented federation president describes as "long overdue, and frankly quite delicious."

Bonus structures remain under negotiation in our heads. A hat-trick is understood to be worth one full punnet of Sungold, delivered warm from the vine within twelve hours of the final whistle.

Reaction, which we have made up, has been mixed. Several defenders expressed concern about mortgage lenders' willingness to accept nightshades in escrow. None of this happened.

Satire from The Tomato Post. Not a factual news report.More from The Back Page →

Football boots beside a crate of tomatoes at sunset — Illustration for a story that did not happen

Local Man Plants Six Tomatoes, Harvests 4,000

Arithmetic quietly stops applying in a Wolverhampton greenhouse. Neighbours describe the situation as generous, but relentless.

Real records instead

Open My Tomato