Early Tomato Sowing and Growing thread - poll added please vote

[Edwardo82]

Planting 6 Gardeners Delight, 6 Berry and 6 Sweet Olive all in seperate small pots in John Innes Seed Compost. Popped them in propagator on widowsill. First time growing Tom's from seed

Will also be growing Salad Festival and Fruit 'n' Spice peppers from seed, again never done this.

[maytreefrannie]

I potted on the 3 biggest yesterday (these were from the tomato seeds sown on 27th Dec) - they were looking leggy, so I potted them almost up to the leaves. They look fine now, though still thin looking. The rest are still in their 3 inch pots.

The Tumbling Toms I sowed on 11th March are now showing a number of seedlings.

[Oleander]

My early sown toms are about 5" high and now in five" pots. They have been outside sunbathing during the day for the past week and coming in at night.

They have a lot of side shoots - I don't remember them having side shoots at this early stage last year. Should I remove them? The varieties are Gardener's delight, Garden Pearl and Tamina (potato leaved variety)

thanks

Oleander

[BarleySugar]

Quite a frost here last night. I brought in the later sown tomatoes (mid Jan), peppers and chillies, but the Dec 27th ones are in their final pots, so I covered them with fleece and put the fan heater on the frost setting. I've just been out to check and they are all fine. Haven't told OH yet that I used the heater tho

[di]

Most of my Dec sown ones are absolutely massive!!!Ready to take over the world...O.K,my kitchen!
I've got a few still in their original pot which haven't grown too much...they can stay there till I have more space
Just wish I had the ability to be ruthless & lose a few...may give a couple to the school to look after!

[BarleySugar]

The Tigerellas from Dec are flowering now, if they set, then it's been worthwhile. The ones from Jan 22nd are showing flower buds, but nowhere near opening yet. It will be interesting to see when the first fruits from each sowing ripen.
The large pots are the Dec ones, the smaller ones are the Jan sowing. I really only have room for 8 plants in the greenhouse, and I did a count up, I have 32

[zazen999]

Barley...get your paintbrush out and sweep it across each flower every day.

It worked for me last year.

[starloc]

Does tapping the plants work to polinate them?

im having trouble getting to the flowers untill i get the greenhouse built or put the citrus outside, the living room has turned into a jungle , the tomatoes are up to the roof from one side of the room to the other with the citrus against them about 8 foot deep, there now covered in yellow flowers that need polinating

ive been using a brush tied to a long cane trying to polinate them, then someone told me i could tap the flowers so ive been banging sharp tapps with the cane on the support canes to knock the flowers, not sure if it works though?

Do commercial growers use gibberelic acid to polinate them, like with tree fruit?

[Flummery]

You certainly can tap them. I tap the stems. It's enough to disturb the pollen.

[starloc]

You certainly can tap them. I tap the stems. It's enough to disturb the pollen.

Thanks, i will keep tapping them as its so much easier than moving things to get close to the plants

[Herbie]

Moved some of the early toms into the greenhouse today. I left a courgette seedling in there under a placcy bottle and its been ok for over a week so did the same with the toms. I am really pleased with them, they have really started to take off over the last few weeks, some of the indeterminate varieties are about 8-10 inches tall, the smaller varieties for the hanging baskets are 3-4 inches tall and are stocky and healthy, glad I took part in this experiment as I would never have started toms in Feb, hope they keep going and give some early fruit. I did some tomatillos at the same time as the toms and they are about 8 inches tall. Ive kept some of the early toms up in the bathroom just in case things go wrong and can always fall back on greenhouse heater if and only if necessary. Very pleased with me tommy's

[hydrogardener3]

This year I was looking for small plants with large fruit. I decided on Bush Beefsteak tomatoes. I planted the seeds on February 14th. in rockwool cubes. When the roots emerged I planted the cubes in coconut fiber and perlite. The seedlings are being fed with a mild nutrient solution and they are moved to the greenhouse during the day. In the evening I place them in the basement.

[shirlthegirl43]

Those are fine looking plants! I managed to lose more of mine over the weekend. I have been hardening them off a bit and putting them outdoors to enjoy the sun. I don't know if the wind caught the Tamina or if the cat decided to sit on them but one is a bit battered and the other got broken. I have put it in the soil to see if it will root but it was looking ver sad this morning.

Hey ho!

*note to self - sow more Roma and Tamina tonight

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

Sowed a variety of toms at the beginning of this trial. Lost my Orange Banana and Pigletwillie Black toms a while back. Looks like I'm losing my Grushovka, leaves are wilting from the bottom up. No fungal disease, on a sunny windowsill etc. My peppers and chillis are thriving - same conditions, compost etc. Never had toms die on me before, any ideas?
Grushovka toms went into the compost bin today (28/03/09).

[maytreefrannie]

It's in my signature under Moon Gardening.

I transplanted some of PW's seedlings today - toms and peppers - into modules.

Zazen, I know you've had success with moon planting experiments - but the site you mention
Vegetable Garden planting guides - Gardeners Calendar
- well, it's very interesting but it gives three moon planting systems, much of the time they disagree with each other.

Do you pick one and follow it? Or switch and use the one that suits, say, the one that says Root Day if you want to sow carrots for example (I'm afraid I've done that a couple of times).

Different books also seem to say different things.

I've got completely mixed up with trying to follow moon planting, I'd love to do it but I guess I feel it would help if those who promote it all said the same thing.

Would value your comments, thanks.