What to do with 100 tomato plants?

[Minamoo]

This is my first post on here although I have been lurking, soaking up your combined wisdom for a little while now. This is my first year growing anything from seed and I was expecting only a small percentage of each of the seeds that I sowed to actually germinate. A couple of months later and I am faced with about 120 tomato plants and 30 pepper plants. Meep! Not quite sure what to do now. I have two greenhouses 6'x4' and 13 raised beds as well as a huge patio and the whole garden is south facing so nice and sunny. If I cut all the suckers off the plants, can I get away with planting 6 tomatoes down each side of the greenhouses and 4 along the back? That would at least get rid of 32 plants. Then I can try and figure out what to do with the rest. They are 7 different varieties and one type of tomatillo.

[grenhouse]

Welcome! I make this mistake every year, and have done again this year! Unfortunately you have to factor a few things in. The time it takes to water them all, what will you do with all of those tomatoes? I now sow extra and then either pot on and give to friends or throw them on the heap (don't like wasting but they will just be a drain on time and water.) I would go for 5 down each side and 3 across the back depending on variety, although someone may tell you more. I do about 30 plants which feeds us through the summer, some for friends and then some oven dried and in jars.

steve

[Two_Sheds]

lol, you sowed the whole pack didn't you?

You could give them away (church sales, school fairs, charity shops etc) but this will cost you £ in compost. I would clench your teeth, keep the strongest and compost the rest

[Buleste]

The first year I started growing I did a similar thing. I expected a low germination rate and got nearly 100%.

You could try either selling at a car boot or church fair etc or the other thing to do is put them on your local freecycle and give them away to deserving homes.

[Two_Sheds]

If I cut all the suckers off the plants

they don't have suckers ... do you mean sideshoots?

[zazen999]

I'd really make sure you could grow those 32 - pick the best 32 from your 'collection' - giving an even number from each variety and pot the rest on into small 3 inch pots and sell them at a boot fair or give them away locally [or swap for more seeds for next year].

The tomatillo can go outside after the last frost date in your area.

No matter how many times I tell my schools not to sow the whole lot - they still do. Which is why I break the packs up into manageable smaller seed packs now. It's a learning curve!

[chris]

I did the same thing too, my kitchen breakfast bar was FULL of 3 inch pots last year. I eventually bit the bullet and binned over half of them.

[Flummery]

I only sow 4 of each variety - except for those I've bred and am selecting from so I need a lot. Even so, I'm always tempted by one or two extra varieties and I always have too many. I'm supplying (tomato pusher!) a lady in the village whose late husband used to grow tomatoes and who decided to refurbish the greenhouse and get growing. I offered her plants, she accepted and we are both delighted! The rest will go to the village church to sell for a few pence.

[Nicos]

We had 30 odd plants last year too.
At the time I really thought we'd utterly overdone it- I seemed to spend most of late summer picking,bottling and freezing- but to be honest ,although there are only 2 of us most of the time, we'll have just had enough to last us the whole year.
Hard work- but I'll certainly go for 30 again. ( fortunately ours were all outdoor varieties and we do have reasonable summers over here)...but maybe not as many as 20 cherry tom plants!!!!!!

[PAULW]

And I thought I had over done it with 64 tomato plants, I have neighbours who are glad of a few plants and by the way you can get another 6 plants down the center of the greenhouse thats sorts out another dozen for you.

[pauco]

Ohhh so glad it is not just me that get's 100% germination of seeds you only need a few of. Like Peppers!! Ok ok, i know whats coming, only sow a few at a time lesson learnt. But i still did not expect such good germination, lol.

paul.

[Mrs Dobby]

400 tomato seedlings growing on happily here atm, so you arent alone! We've got room for about 90 or so in the 3 greenhouses and blowaway polytunnel, and about 12 for hanging baskets, the rest are for the allotment plant sale (1st May if anyone needs any toms) and if we've still got some left, then they will go to a car boot sale!

[Minamoo]

Funnily enough..........I didn't plant the whole packets. Well...I did plant the whole packets on the first two I sowed because they only had about 20 seeds in them. But then I sowed half a packet of the other 2. The problem is that I have lots of plants that have self seeded from a gardener's delight plant I had in a pot last year. and whenever new ones came up, I just potted them on. Probably about 40 of the plants are these self seeded ones. The problem is, they look so teeny when they first come up that you don't remember that they will grow huge! Lol!

ETA: Just found out that there's a car boot sale in Leeds. How much would be a reasonable price to charge for tom plants? I have some plants that are nearly 2ft tall and some that are under a foot. All very healthy plants. And what about peppers? I got totally carried away with buying seeds and easily spent about £70. It would be nice to make some of that money back!

[Two_Sheds]

How much would be a reasonable price to charge for tom plants?

It depends on lots of things: what quality they are, how busy the car boot is, how many other people are selling (in which case you might want to undercut them), what other people are charging. They go for 30p round here

Have a look around and see what B&Q etc are charging.

[Mantha81]

I'd be interested to know what to sell them for at boot sales. I've looked at plants from suttons or Mr fothergils and you can buy between three to five plants for £5 - £10!