Tomatoes dilemma

[alim0229]

Hi there,

I am relatively new to tomato growing, I have grown plants (lots of different varieties) from seeds. I potted onto small 6cm pots.

As the plants had grown larger and a bit too big for the windowsill, last week I planted the tomato plants into growbags in the greenhouse

I have now read that you should only put plants into growbags once they start to flower

Help! I have messed up and transferring to growbags now very bad? Should if try and remove and put in smaller pots. or will this be ok

Many thanks for your help

[Brentalist]

I think they should be ok as long as it doesnt get too cold in our area, if they are small I suppose the roots could rot as there is too much soil/water around them. If you cover them with some sort of fleece in the evening and water sparingly then they should be ok.

I am putting some of mine out in the greenhouse for a few nights this week as its looking milder until the weekend then they are coming back in!

good luck

[jacob]

You'll be fine -- don't over-water as they won't like sitting in a soggy growbag. Greenhouse shouldn't be a problem at this time of year (you'd need a really hard frost to damage under glass).

[VirginVegGrower]

No, I put mine in before flowering and have no trouble cropping each year.

[Two_Sheds]

I have now read that you should only put plants into growbags once they start to flower

Well, that's a new one on me ... whoever thought that rule up?

[taff]

I have now read that you should only put plants into growbags once they start to flower

stop reading whatever it was you were reading when you read that.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I think it's more likely that what is meant is that if the plants have developed flowers then it's time that they were planted on as opposed to actually waiting for flowers to develop.

[hollychap]

planted mine into there final place at the lottie greenhouse and not a flower in sight
this year i have grown them from seed in a cold greenhouse i normally start them on the spare bedroom window cill .
not heard of waiting for flowers before

[zazen999]

stop reading whatever it was you were reading when you read that.

Yes, and if you could point us to wherever it does say that - we can have a re-read for you and see what other non/sense has been spouted.

[SarzWix]

I think this is old-style thinking - my grandad always said wait for flowers before putting in final position because that way the plant doesn't make roots and foliage at the expense of fruit. Or to put it another way, you get earlier fruit if you force the plant to flower by restricting to a small pot. Personally, I think it better to have a plant with a healthy root system and foliage from giving it sufficient space and nutrition to grow steadily. I might do an experiment though, just to see if it makes a difference...

[Leeds_lad]

The vegetable and herb expert explains the method of putting the plants in their final position once your first flower truss has set

[redser]

I think this is old-style thinking - my grandad always said wait for flowers before putting in final position because that way the plant doesn't make roots and foliage at the expense of fruit. Or to put it another way, you get earlier fruit if you force the plant to flower by restricting to a small pot. Personally, I think it better to have a plant with a healthy root system and foliage from giving it sufficient space and nutrition to grow steadily. I might do an experiment though, just to see if it makes a difference...

It's not by design, just because the weather is so bad to plant out, but my plants in pots all have flowers (got first marmande set a couple of days ago - a whopper with ridges and all). So will be interesting to see how they go over the summer.