tomato plant help

[neil1280]

hello, i just grew a tomato plant from seed about a month and a half ago it has about a dozen stalks in a 4 inch pot. thats far too much isnt it? can they be seperated? or do i need to just put them as they are into a large pot?

[perkin]

Hi Neil,
Do you mean you have 12 separate seedlings coming out of the compost? In which case you have 12 tomato plants, not one - and you certainly need to separate them out into pots. Do you need/want 12?? If not, then you can sacrifice the smaller ones and just pot on how ever many stronger ones you want to grow to maturity.
But you should wait to pot them on until the seedlings have 2 true leaves on them (the ones that appear after the seed leaves) otherwise they'll be too delicate to handle and you might lose them all.

[neil1280]

ok so i seperated them tonight there heres the pic, i found i was breaking lots of small root i was worried that may kill them but fingers crossed and il see how they are tomorrow. and yes these were all in one of these pots. lesson learned

[Tomatoking]

Hi Neil

Well, it looks as though you still have more than one in each pot, which I am afraid you still need to separate. You will have to do that ASAP, if you do not need all the plants then it might be eaiser to cut the weaker ones out.

Next time sow them sparingly in a seedling tray, and transplant them a lot earlier. Some people even just put one seed in each small section of a module tray, which means the roots do not get disturbed when you pop them out.

The plants will need plenty of light from now on, and they probably will green up in the new compost.

Good Luck

Mr TK

[Two_Sheds]

If I were you, I'd buy in a couple of plants too.

[neil1280]

yeah as said lesson learned. i have since sowed all my pea, and bean seeds in module trays.

i didnt seperate the one that were relly close together i was afraid of ripping the roots apart i shall sperate them more then i guess

[falkon]

rather than loosing both plants while trying to separate them, keep the the stronger one and pinch off the weaker one..