Early Tomato Thread

[zazen999]

Sowed some Grushovka and some Dragotzennost today.

[Bex]

I've only sown 3 seeds, one each of Gardener's Delight, Golden Cherry and Mini Orange which I had with my HSL membership pack. I put these in on Christmas Eve and they have all germinated.

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

My German Red Strawberry and Green Zebra have germinated (germinated yesterday).

[janeyo]

Jutst got to work out when the second phase of the moon is and get the propagator ou then will get some toms underway -

[zazen999]

According to the gardener's calendar in my signature; that would be next monday and tuesday.

[Two_Sheds]

Zaz, I just clicked on the link to your Moon calendar, and got a virus infection warning from AVG

????????

[zazen999]

It's not my calendar but I'll warn them anyway and remove it from my sig.

Thanks for letting me know. Bally annoying though.

[maytreefrannie]

I'm planning to try some early-sown tomatoes too and was going to check on the Moon Calendar site (I haven't looked at it since I stopped for the September onion seed experiment). Thanks for the warning TS - I'll stay off the site for a few days.

[maypril]

This sounds like fun. I've decided to join in. I've sown 7 different varieties of tomato. Let's see which do the best! Good luck everyone.

[bravo2zero]

Questions.

1-How do you get a tom sideshoot to root?
2-What is the optimum time take a sideshoot?
3-How much earlier will said plant bear fruit if nurtured correctly over the
winter?
4-Would limiting a plant to fewer trusses speed up cropping?
5-What variety/ies are suitable for this method?

Currently i can start cropping my toms from 2nd week in july from an end of february sowing and by the time we go camping 1st week in august i have punnits full to take with us. This season i may trial an early sowing planted into a large pot/hotbed system.Watch this space.

[gan heather]

This might be a silly question...but what does everyone do with the tomato plants until it's warm enough to keep them outside all the time? I just ordered my first few packets of tomato seeds today and would like to try this, but would a windowsill provide enough warmth and light? I don't have a greenhouse and only live in a flat, so would a windowsill be ok till they can go out on the allotment (months from now)?

[janeyo]

gan heather I kept mine on the windwsills til they could go in the unheated g/h last year or be hardened off - it was a right faff to be honest all that bringing them in and out! (drove OH bonkers lol)
I think if I were you in a flat and all I might be tempted to wait a bit longer til I sowed them.
Cos they will have to be hardened off before they can go outside on a lottie and as you say that will be months away from now.

If not just sow a few then it won't matter if you lose them and they get too leggy!

[janeyo]

Right sown tonight and into the heated propagator and on south eat windowsill, are 2 of:
Roma
Big Boy
Money maker
Red Cherry
Sungold
and 1 of sweet million.

Will post when they pop up.

Last year I sowed loads of each cos was convinced they would fail and they pretty much all came good and I was OVERRUN with toms as I also sowed some later... so am pacing myself this year...

[broadway]

Never sown anything this early before but why not, as follows :-

2 of Rosada

4 each of Moneymaker, Gardeners Delight, Balconi Yellow and Red


Also did some chilli's / peppers as follows :-

4 each of Pyramid, Cheyenne (Self Saved), and Rainbow Mixed

[Madasafish]

Just about to start sowing: Latah - very early red...propagator job on south facing windowsill.
Then into unheated covered tray in south facing windowsill...