Growing some early tomatoes 2020

[Scarlet]

Mostly from last year and the green grapes and black icicle were from you.

Seeds I sent you last year? So they should only be a few years old. Thanks strange. I would just wait a bit longer, it's very early to sow cordons anyway and black Icicle are big plants. How do you store them? I grew both of those last year - obviously I can't remember how long they took to pop but I had no trouble with germination.

[OakR]

Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, but from Sunday morning's sowing most have now germinated, to varying degrees

From saved seed

Green Zebra - from kid's sowings 4 out of 4 now up, from mine 4 out of 8
Yellow Stuffer 0/4 so far up
Black Russian 2 out of 4 up
Unknown Pink Medium Tom - 0 out of 4
Yellow Pear \ Bell - 3 out of 4

From my Uncle's saved Spanish seed

Picon 4 out of 8
Tumaco - 4 out of 8
Rosa - 2 out of 8 literally just appeared in the last hour

From seed packets

Sungold 4 out of 4 up
The Amateur - 3 out of 4

So a mixed bag - all in the same heated propagator, with grow lights in the house. Happy some of my first ever saved seed has come up, but so far two complete failures but hopefull the next 3-4 days will see them come through. If not will look to sow again next month but try a few seeds in wet paper towels to if they are viable or I messed it up somehow - the benefit of trying these now I guess.

[quanglewangle]

Planted out our Gardeners' Delight and Mandarin into greenhouse bed. Bed soil is running at about 16°C and air doesn't go below about 8°C so I hope they will be safe.


Tomato Gardeners' Delight and Mandarin in greenhouse bed

[veggiechicken]

Mine won't go out to the GH until the air temp is 10C+(day and night).

[Scarlet]

Planted out our Gardeners' Delight and Mandarin into greenhouse bed. Bed soil is running at about 16°C and air doesn't go below about 8°C so I hope they will be safe.

How close are they? Ideally they need at least 18inch between plants.
I hope you don't get slugs...

[Jungle Jane]

You could put some plastic tubs over the top at night maybe & remove in the morning,to give them a bit more insulation from the cold air?

[quanglewangle]

How close are they? Ideally they need at least 18inch between plants.
I hope you don't get slugs...

Closer than that, I am afraid - more like 12 inches (or 0.0015 of a furlong if you want to get all jacob rees mogg about it). I am hoping that a fan and better de-suckering than last year will allow closer spacing.

I don't allow slugs.

[Jungle Jane]

Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, but from Sunday morning's sowing most have now germinated, to varying degrees

From saved seed

Green Zebra - from kid's sowings 4 out of 4 now up, from mine 4 out of 8
Yellow Stuffer 0/4 so far up
Black Russian 2 out of 4 up
Unknown Pink Medium Tom - 0 out of 4
Yellow Pear \ Bell - 3 out of 4

From my Uncle's saved Spanish seed

Picon 4 out of 8
Tumaco - 4 out of 8
Rosa - 2 out of 8 literally just appeared in the last hour

From seed packets

Sungold 4 out of 4 up
The Amateur - 3 out of 4

So a mixed bag - all in the same heated propagator, with grow lights in the house. Happy some of my first ever saved seed has come up, but so far two complete failures but hopefull the next 3-4 days will see them come through. If not will look to sow again next month but try a few seeds in wet paper towels to if they are viable or I messed it up somehow - the benefit of trying these now I guess.

From a Sunday sowing they’ve come up really quickly,the others could be slower varieties or just slower than the others

[quanglewangle]

You could put some plastic tubs over the top at night maybe & remove in the morning,to give them a bit more insulation from the cold air?

Actually the air down near the (heated) soil is probably a bit warmer than I said. At the moment, with an outside temperature 6°C I have an air temperature at 1m high of 10°C and compost temperature of 18°C

I will probably go out and drape some fleece over them before I turn in. That will take the air temperature at plant height up to about 12°C or 13°C even if the outside drops to 4°C or 5°C. Wind is the real enemy because the greenhouse is not sealed well; or at all actually.

[quanglewangle]

Mine won't go out to the GH until the air temp is 10C+(day and night).

They have got this far in the same greenhouse, just up on a bench in pots on a heated sand tray. The sand tray runs at about the same temperature as the heated compost, so not such a big difference.

[Scarlet]

12 inches apart is not enough room to grow anything other than a micro tomato?

[veggiechicken]

Closer than that, I am afraid - more like 12 inches (or 0.0015 of a furlong if you want to get all jacob rees mogg about it). I am hoping that a fan and better de-suckering than last year will allow closer spacing.

I don't allow slugs.

I space mine about 2' apart (1 per pane of glass). If you had a wide bed you might be able to stagger them like a W but one behind the other doesn't work when you need to get in to prune and pick.

[quanglewangle]

Ok Scarlet and vc. I will take out alternate ones front and back to make a W

That will give a spacing of about 17 of those inches, if pythagoras works in greenhouses, and as you say will make the back ones accessible.

Thanks for persisting - I'm not always easy to persuade....

[Scarlet]

Thanks for persisting - I'm not always easy to persuade....

You can say that again

[OakR]

From a Sunday sowing they’ve come up really quickly,the others could be slower varieties or just slower than the others

You were correct! Virtually all came up, bar the Yellow Stuffers which I will try a few seeds on some wet paper towels and see what happens as none of those came up.

I put most out in pots today as I think they were getting a bit leggy even under the growlights - this may all be in vain but I will sow again end of this month - hopefully a few make it through to the Greenhouse!