Has anyone started toms yet ?

[kathyd]

to be honest ive never tried it with pepper or aubs, ive only done it with tom's because they root easily - they produce roots from their stems, some people earth up toms as they grow. but im pritty certain that peppers dont produce roots from their stems - but i do think you can plant them deeper, well i have in the past. as to the aub's i dont know! - i hope all of that made sense.

thanks
matt

Hmmm... I may be wrong but I've got this definite idea that my peppers did seem to be throwing out rooty looking things just above soil level in their pots last year. I've not tried aubergines before though, so no idea about those. Maybe I'll experiment and see what happens

[zazen999]

Thanks guys! Makes good sense to me, so the stem from the armpit is in effect a tiny cutting taken from a young plant?

No rooting hormones, I assume? Just shove them in potting mix?

Thanks for the speedy replies! Got to love it here.

Yes - but
a - you don't do that with Gardenperle as those are tiny plants that are bush toms, not vines. So you don't get armpits.
b - hopefully you are growing other toms as well as Gardenperle - I know a couple of people like them but lots of us find them not as good as some others - Gardener's Delight for a newcomer is a much better tom to grow.

[sowitgrowit]

Thanks for the advice - I do also have some Gardeners Delight but haven't gotten around to sowing any yet... Perhaps later into paper pots.

Would I trim the GD when they start growing?

[Matt94]

id say nip the shoots out when they are a reasonable size to pot-up maybe 5cm/2 inches, you wont get shoots coming off of a very young plant, they would be a reasonable size. you'll know what where on about when you see a little shoot growing ot of the leaf joint.

[Gearoid]

I sowed some Gardeners Delight on Monday just to use up the last of some potting mix I'd made. I checked them on Thursday and they were already up about 3cm! I sowed everything a bit too late last year so I wanted to experiment with a few early toms this year.

[Potstubsdustbins]

As to potting deep I do it with my toms, cumbers and sweet peppers. Just remember to water the cumbers from below so as to avoid stem rot.

I find the best way to start armpit toms or cuttings from cumbers is to pop them in a milk bottle so about 1/2" of the stem is covered in water. They will very quickly throw out a clump of roots that makes potting up very easy.

As to bush varieties of toms you can still get extra plants by taking a cutting and proceeding as above. The first two pics are of a Tumbler cutting whilst the second two are of a cumber cutting taken from a plant that was dying.

Colin

[Matt94]

i didnt realise you could take cuttings off cucumbers - if you took a cutting off an all female cucumber would the plant grown from the cutting be an all female cucumber?, i know it sounds a daft question but i just want to make sure!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Matt, yes the variety shown is F1 Baribal an all female mini cumber. It grew true to type and ended up my second best plant.

The original had started to succumb to stem rot, so following a mate's advice I just cut the top of and grew that on to replace the lost plant.

Colin

[lottie dolly]

thanx for that about the cue's,so it should still work with any side shoots,when you only get 4 seeds per pkt,it is a great help,reminder to self,write this down now,

[Matt94]

thanks potstubsdustbins i'll be tryng that this year.