Outdoor tomato plants

[Emmylou]

Hi, I'm having a go at outdoor tomatoes for the first time from seed this year. I have succesfully grown about 16 plants from the freebie seeds from GYO, Garden Pearl. I've potted them on into individual pots today, they are about 3-4" I suppose, and are in a plastic, delapidated outdoor greenhouse thing at the moment. I am hoping to plant some at the lottie. I assume they want to be in a fairly sheltered, sunny spot? Do they need any protection? Not sure when to plant them out.......presume when they are alot bigger and it is alot warmer!? Any help with lottie toms would be appreciated, thanks!

[Alison]

It depends a bit on the variety and type, I grew some Red Alert outside last year in quite an exposed spot and they were find until they got blight but bush types aren't as tall and therefore I find they can cope with more wind etc. I don't plant outside until the end of May / start of June but I know some people who are already going for it. I find that by growing them on more in pots first they do better outside. Mine are now (as of Sunday) in 5" pots and sat on the floor of my cold greenhouse.

[Flummery]

Grow them on a bit if they are still small. They do catch up - honest! And make sure you harden them off well. Once the winds drop a bit you can leave them outside all day and bring them in at night for a couple of weeks. Then it won't be such a shock (and it'll be nearly June) when you want to plant them out.

[Hazel at the Hill]

That's really useful, Alison and Flum, thank you - can I hi-jack the thread and ask a supplimentary q?

I'm growing 2 of each of a number of varieties in order to plant one of each out at the Hill, and to have the other in a pots here at home (in an attempt to foil the blight, and to see how they compare)

The tommies are all about 4-6" tall in 3" pots at the moment, and are pretty well hardened off already.
1 should I pot the Hill-bound ones into larger pots, or can I plant them out from the 3" pots at the end of May/early June?
2 what size pots should the ones end up in that I am growing here at home?

[Flummery]

It's usually better to go up pot sizes a bit rather than go to the big pot (10" across the top sort of thing) at one go. Gives the roots chance to move out into fresh compost gradually.

For out doors, I think I'd still pot on - say into 5" for a couple of weeks. They'll put on a fair bit of growth in that time. It also gives them fresh compost. Your original compost in the 3" pots will be exhausted by now.

[Alison]

I'm with Flum on this one which is why I've just potted mine on, just think, in a couple of weeks they'll have put on quite a bit more growth and the pots would look pretty small by then. Having said that, I've not had time in the past and ended up with rather pot bound ones for planting out and they've ended up OK. Unfortunately I've never done half and half so can't compare that way. Maybe that's an experiment you could try for us all..................

[Hazel at the Hill]

Thank you, both, I'll pot both lots on, and we'll go from there.

Have already inadvertently done your pot-bound-tommies experiement, Alison - the first year at the Hill and we planted out 2' tall tommies that were still in 3" pots

They were planted out about 8" deep to try to get a decent root system going. They were pretty rubbish, then the blight got them.

[Emmylou]

The potatoes on everyones plots got blight last year, but it was very wet (!).
Do you think the tomatoes will end up blighted or may it be a bit weather dependent, it prefers warm and damp doesn't it?
Is there anything you can to to prevent?