Early Tomato Sowing and Growing thread - poll added please vote

[maytreefrannie]

At last!!!

My Lidl tomatoes are flowering and the Tumbling Toms (grown from seed) are budding!!! The other two plants (from saved seed) are not flowering yet but they're looking good.

[Alice]

Well done BarleySugar. My 27/12 toms are looking great and beginning to colour but not red yet - but they are outside.

[teamladd]

I now have 3 tomatoes showing! Woohoo!!! Roll on the ripening process!

[tamsin]

I have three ripe tumbling toms

[tamsin]

Here's a pic:



and more to come:

[zazen999]

Nice one Tamsin...what date were they sown on and where do you live?

[tamsin]

16th February, and south beds. They were kept inside until a few weeks ago and are now in baskets.

The one I sowed a month earlier is behind them though, more leaves, loads of flowers but less tom growth.

[Cosmo and Dibs]

I moved my toms to grow bags about 2 weeks ago, and fed them. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have moved on at all. They look healthy, but they are not exactly going upwards.

Any thoughts?

[thatshallot]

I'm so envious of those of you with fruit! My toms planted in January are looking well, most have flowers, but no sign of any tomatoes yet. I'm trying one upside down, but it's determined to grow upwards and doesn't look very happy...

[Cosmo and Dibs]

Do you need to support the trusses?

[marathon]

I know I'm not the first but really cuffed i have red fruit. 100 & 1000's have a few red fruit on each plant with a lot turning orange and the PT welcomed me with 7 red gardners delight and sevberal more were arean orange shade as too are four of my beefsteaks.

All in all I'm really pleased. Finally a good tomato harvest is on the cards.

Any one suggest a good machine to help deal with all the fruit. I was hoping to bag up loads to freeze and as I have a lot of plants it would be a huge job. I'm sure last year i saw some one talking about a plastic red one.

[BarleySugar]

Today I picked the first Sunburst from the 27th Dec sowing, almost a month after the first Tigerella. We have had several tigerellas now, but they haven't seemed to get to full size before ripening, I;m not sure that is because of the early sowing, but it makes me wonder, as it usually occurs at the end of the season for me, not the beginning.

[Alice]

These are some of my moon grown tomatoes - plantes 27/12
Growing outside.
I'm in Perthshire - so good early crop - but not an easy journey.

[The_Minkey]

You are all doing so well! I've grown Brandywine and Gardener's Delight from seed. I don't remember when I planted them though. They all finally made it into their large pots about between 2 - 3 weeks ago.

There I was feeling pleased to see them beginning to flower. I doubt I'll get many off each plant given the likelihood of a short season seeing as they're so far behind but as I've got a ridiculous amount of plants, I should have them coming out my ears.

I use those black buckets from florists too. If you can't find a friendly florists, Morrissons sell them off cheaply. My local one does them at 8 for a £1 which is considerably cheaper than buying regular plant pots.

[marathon]

You are all doing so well! I've grown Brandywine and Gardener's Delight from seed. I don't remember when I planted them though. They all finally made it into their large pots about between 2 - 3 weeks ago.

There I was feeling pleased to see them beginning to flower. I doubt I'll get many off each plant given the likelihood of a short season seeing as they're so far behind but as I've got a ridiculous amount of plants, I should have them coming out my ears.

I use those black buckets from florists too. If you can't find a friendly florists, Morrissons sell them off cheaply. My local one does them at 8 for a £1 which is considerably cheaper than buying regular plant pots.

If you've got loads of plants then you should still be fine as you could afford to pinch out the growing tip and then the flowers that you already have will set and the energy of the plant will go into the fruit. I have a lot of plants so the ourside ones I have pinched out, they all have 2 - 3 trusses and since pinching out have really come on and are now the fruit is already a good size so should ripen easily.