Early Tomato Sowing and Growing thread - poll added please vote

[zazen999]

Mine are also doing well.

I pricked some out and put into their own pots - nice. I also put the extras of both toms and peppers into a pot together [2 peppers, 3 toms and 3 marigolds - 3 inch square pot].

The extras are twice the size now of the ones put into their own pots.

I've also pricked out some of PWs seedlings that he gave me at the weekend into a tray of modules.

And, I'm starting to let all toms and peppers out into the sun for an hour or two each day, to start hardening off.

I've looked at my records, and on the 25th March, my top Aurora tomato was 18 inches high. This gave me a red tomato harvested on 2nd June.

I think we should measure all ours at 3 months [which will be the end of the month sometime] and post the results here.

[bramble]

Well its 10 days now since i sowed my tomatoes and all except are up. They came up within 6 days which was quite fast. I took them out of the heated propogator and they are now in the conservatory where they get a little bit of heat at night.
Will probably pot them into seperate 3 inch pots next week.

[BarleySugar]

'Tomato fruit will not set until the nighttime temperature is above 55° F (13 C) for at least two nights in a row. Tomato flowers need to be pollinated within ~50 hours or so, or else they abort and drop off. It takes about that long for the pollen to germinate and travel down the style to fertilize the ovary in temperatures close to, but above, 55° F. The pollen takes much longer to do so in colder temperatures, so the clock runs out on the pollen if the temperature is too low.' Tomato Harvest Versus Planting Date

I thought this was interesting, especially as I was thinking of putting my tomatoes in the greenhouse, and they have small flowers coming. I don't think I want to heat to 13 C at the moment. Even in this mild snap, the max temp during the day has been 10C, and the min temp 7C. I don't get much sun in the back garden yet, so the greenhouse hasn't been getting very warm.

[Victoria26]

Can anyone suggest how many "tumblers" I should plant into a normal hanging basket? I'm confuzzled....

[selfraising]

Hi Victoria26, I planted 3 last year in one hanging basket.

[Victoria26]

Thanks SR. I got these hanging flower bags and they say to put 8 plug plants in. I've done that with my strawberries but I think thats too excessive for the tomatoes.

Believe it or not - I've grown all sorts before and this is my first season attempting tomatoes!

[tamsin]

If I sow all my tomatoes at roughly the same time, how long will they keep cropping for? Or should I sow some later to get a continuous supply?

[Victoria26]

bush varieties and tumblers produce once but if you keep picking the fruits from indeterminate varieties they will keep fruiting.

[ukmastiff]

My Legend seedlings

lo all, can a tomato guru help me out please. I have no idea what is a good tom seedling and what is a leggy one. These have had loads of natural light and are curently kept as you see them no cover on. I am 'hopeing' they are O.K.

http://www.englishmastiff.org.uk/pics/legend1.jpg

http://www.englishmastiff.org.uk/pics/legend2.jpg

The hand is just for scale , same seedlings both pics

Cheers Mas

[janeyo]

I potted most of mine up from modules or 3 inch pots to 4 inch yesterday. (from 27/12 sowing)It was warm and sunny but quite windy. After about an hour outisde I had to bring them in again cos they had started to shrivel and looked like they were shivering!
Second sowings have been potted on and seem sturdier, but not done on a moon day that I know of.

[tamsin]

lo all, can a tomato guru help me out please. I have no idea what is a good tom seedling and what is a leggy one. These have had loads of natural light and are curently kept as you see them no cover on. I am 'hopeing' they are O.K.

Not an expert but when potting them up I'd do it so the soil is about 1-1.5" from the seed leaves. That's what I did and now it's grown and the stem has thickened up it looks nice and stocky

[pigletwillie]

All tomatoes are now in 3" pots and in a cool (10degrees C) greenhouse. Second leaves on and just like me, "stocky".

Some are potato leaved variants the rest have standard tomato type leaves.

[bramble]

If you pot them right up to the seed leaves the stem will produce more roots and this helps to anchor the plant better. Just a suggestion.

[gojiberry]

Haven't got any at he potting on stage yet. Have held back this year due to the colder winter, don't know if it was a wise decision,

Ian

[braders]

lo all, can a tomato guru help me out please. I have no idea what is a good tom seedling and what is a leggy one. These have had loads of natural light and are curently kept as you see them no cover on. I am 'hopeing' they are O.K.

http://www.englishmastiff.org.uk/pics/legend1.jpg

http://www.englishmastiff.org.uk/pics/legend2.jpg

The hand is just for scale , same seedlings both pics

Cheers Mas

The deeper the better, especially for a leggy tomato transplant, it’s a good practice to bury a significant portion of the transplants stem under the soil.

Deeper planting will allow the tomato transplant to grow stocky as it receives direct sunlight after being placed outdoors in the garden. More importantly, the plant will grow a stronger root system, as roots will develop all along the portion of the stem that is buried under the soil.

For extremely tall tomato transplants place the plant in the ground at an angle rather than straight up and down, and gently remove the leaves from the portion of the stem that will be underground.