Growing tomatoes outdoors

[Justcallmemrbloom]

Hi,

I've finally got my hands on an allotment and, having never grown a thing in my life, am now wondering what the hell I am doing!!

I've started by making a tall raised bed and have filled with around 18 inches deep of horse manure and soil. I would like to grow tomatoes in it. My questions is, is it possible to plant seeds straight in to the raised bed or must I grow tomato plants first ready to put in? I'm tempted to just scatter a load of seeds in to see how many germinate then take it from there or is that a ludicrous suggestion?

Thanks in advance to any advice at all

[Bigmallly]

Hello Mr Bloom & welcome to the Jungle. You firstly need to source outdoor Toms, otherwise they will need to be grown undercover. I wouldn't scatter them, it's too cold just yet & it will be a right job thining them out. If you have a bed ready, now is the time for getting your spuds in.

[Justcallmemrbloom]

Photo

Hi,

I've finally got my hands on an allotment and, having never grown a thing in my life, am now wondering what the hell I am doing!!

I've started by making a tall raised bed and have filled with around 18 inches deep of horse manure and soil. I would like to grow tomatoes in it. My questions is, is it possible to plant seeds straight in to the raised bed or must I grow tomato plants first ready to put in? I'm tempted to just scatter a load of seeds in to see how many germinate then take it from there or is that a ludicrous suggestion?

Thanks in advance to any advice at all

A photo of where I'd like my tomatoes to grow

[Bigmallly]

A photo of where I'd like my tomatoes to grow

.......................

[bramble]

Hallo Mrbloom. As Bigmally said. First you need to get tomato varieties that will grow outdoors.
Next, you need to sow the seeds in little seed trays (or modules),as we call them on here.
When the seeds germinate you need to grow them on indoors until the last frost in your area.
In that time, you can start putting your plants outdoors in the daytime to harden them off and get them used to being outdoors.
After that you can plant them out.
Its a long and complicated process, but its worth it.

[roitelet]

Don't put outdoor tomatoes out until mid May at the earliest. They could do with some protection from rain. Not solid just some sort of umbrella to stop the rain falling on the leaves. That is what encourages blight.

Housse de protection et serres pour tomates - Nortene

Some thing like this. The French gardeners use them all the time with great success.

[Lumpy]

Hello Mr B and welcome to the Vine.

All of mine are outdoor bush varieties to go into pots and at the moment they are on the kitchen window sill. They spent the day outside yesterday and the day before but it is still too cold for them to survive outside.

Have a look at Glacier, Totem, Princeps Borghese, Losetto etc if you want toms that do not need massive amounts of support.

[hamamelis]

The problem with sowing them straight outside, at least in the UK, is that they really just don't get a long enough growing season to stand a good chance of ripe fruit.

I get plants pop up from the compost every year, but, even though I have left them to it out of curiosity or laziness sometimes, I've never had one ripe fruit from one.

Tomatoes like the heat; even if you do everything by the book, in a poor summer outdoor ones may barely crop. I'm not trying to put you off growing them, nothing beats homegrown tomatoes, but it ain't as easy to grow 'em as the gardening shows make it look...