Tomato help needed !!

[supersam]

Hi all, problems again doh! When it was warm about 2 weeks ago i put my toms, peppers and cucumbers (also 3 melons but that tale is in the fruit section ) into my plastic greenhouse in their peat pots into grobags. Made drainage holes and string to guide them upwards !! Then the weather changed (we are North West) so I lit my heater. Temp did to fluctuate a bit and also had a lot of condensation. Im currently trying to keep tem at around 60-62 F. Results are peppers and cuc's are not too bad, melons have laid down and died and my toms are wilting badly (one appears dead) leaves are a bit yellow. The bags are damp not too wet and Im now opening the door in the day to cure condensation (I have no other opening) The toms are Alicante and garden pearle. I also put some garden pearle outside in tubs, they are still alive but looking a bit sick. Where did I go wrong?? They had around 6 to 8 leaves and were about 3/4 ins high when they went out. Sorry to be lonf winded but if you have all the factors it saves confusion!
All advice very welcome

Sam x

[SimonCole]

My guess is under-watering. Toms can take all the water you can throw at them.

[nick the grief]

Melons like a free draining compostand won't appreciate the cold either. Grow bags aren't the best thing either they are shallow so the roots can over heat. Also if they were small when you planted them out there is a lot of compost in a growbag and if the rootball is small it won't use all the water up so the roots can rot off as they basically drown so careful watering till they fill the growbag.

The suden change in temperature would mean that they won't use so much and it could check them so if you are careful you may be able to rescue them without any problems.

Hope that helps

[rustylady]

I take it you're using a paraffin heater - be careful, if the wick isn't trimmed properly they can give off smoke and fumes that will kill your plants instead of keeping them warm. Newly potted plants don't need too much water until the roots have started growing into the new compost, as Nick says.

[terrier]

Unfortunately,I don't have a greenhouse at the moment,but in my flower growing days I grew toms in pots in an unheated greenhouse The pots were about 12"high and 5 to 6 inches across. The plants were put at the botom of the pot and as the plant grew I filled the pot with compost. I was always told that the plants didn't like "cold feet" so if the weather was cold, I stopped watering. They were fed from the top and watered from the bottom ( water reservoir) . The plants were always short and stocky and produced loads of toms. The last few years , I've used grow bags and the plants are very poor. I think my main problem is that in growbags, I can't control the ammount of water and feed they get. Any tips on growbagging?

[Alice]

I've always had a problem with growbags. Can't judge watering or anything else. I prefer to grow in pots where I can see what is happening.
Supersam, my tomatoes and cucumbers are outside in 12" pots and doing well. Peppers are indoors and in the greenhouse, but eating the peppers.
I planted the toms and cucs indoors and once too big for 3" pots, moved them into slightly bigger pots and out to an unheated greenhouse with fleece over their heads at night. Temps were down to about 5 degrees at night, but not colder.
Once up in size, potted on into 5" pots, then flower buds appeared, then potted into 12" pots and moved outside with fleece , which was gradually removed until hardened off. They're still having fleece at night.
Forecast for next few nights is dodgy, so hope I don't get caught with frost last week in May !
I do have a very sheltered south facing garden, so maybe the method wouldn't work for everybody.
Hope this helps a bit.

[Alice]

Here's my squash, cucumbers, courgettes living outside earlier in May. The tomatoes have joined them since then. Hope they're all still alive tomorrow. Have later planted backups in the greenhouse - just in case !