buying tomato plants in the NE

[tomsk71]

Hi everyone.
I've tried growing tomatos from seed without much success. I tend to buy cheat, buying young plants. Last time I bought them at my local Homebase in Sunderland but its now closed down.
Basically I'd like some suggestions for where to get them this year in the North East.
Cheers
Paul

[Guest]

Car boots, peoples driveways (where they sell off surplus), garden centres, diy stores. I don't know if wilkos or £1 shops go into the realms of plugs and plants. I am sure some grapes will soon say

[veggiechicken]

My local corner shop sells a great range of reasonably priced tomato plants. Not much use to you, I know, but you need to keep your eyes peeled. A lot depends on what varieties you want too.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Most major suppliers do toms by post. I suppose it depends on how many you want. But as a for instance Marshalls do 3 plant packs for around £5-45 I presume plus postage.

[starloc]

Aldi usually have them in about a month or two, ebay is a better bet as there are more varieties when available

[Alison]

Depends on what you want, if you're happy with standard varieties then loads of shops will sell as discussed above but if you want something more unusual you'll want a proper garden centre or the internet but obviously that will include postage.

[tomsk71]

Had a bad experience buying tomato plants online from Marshalls last year. Dead on arrival and much smaller than buying in a nursery.
Guess I was looking for specific recommendations from forum it's in NE.
Will keep eyes peeled though

[Kristen]

Hi everyone.
I've tried growing tomatos from seed without much success

Any chance we could help you with the "from seed WITH success"? You'd still have the option to buy plants if it still doesn't work. Plants you buy will be 6-8 weeks old, so you have anything up to 6 weeks from sowing to decide if they are keepers, or not ...

What went wrong in the past?

[Guest]

Guess I was looking for specific recommendations from forum it's in NE.

When you say you haven't had success is it at germination stage or they are leggy or they don't get far enough on to give a good crop? Would it be worth you trying again with help and support of grapes?

Ops, Kristen bet me to it

[Kristen]

Ops, Kristen bet me to it

I figure its going to be "Ask 2 gardeners and get 3 opinions"

[greenishfing]

After the majority of my homegrown tomato seedlings committed suicide last year I bought babies everywhere. Signs on garden gates etc . The best of the lot were 2 "Mortgagebreaker" plants I bought in a local charity shop for 50p each. They were about 4 feet high and a bit leggy but with a bit of love and care they produced amazing fruit.

this year I'll plant seeds again but I'll plant early so that I can buy plugs as a back-up.

[tomsk71]

Think I'll give seeds another go. I probably started them too late and they did end up leggy. How do I avoid that? Always got b&q, Dobbies , et Al as back up.

[Alison]

They go leggy due to lack of light so give them more light

[Potstubsdustbins]

Tom how far NE are you as this can make a difference as to when to sow.

As you can see I am in Notts and set seed around the middle of March. I have them on a window sill in the house to start with which gives enough warmth and just about enough light. If they get leggy I just plant them deep at the potting on stage. As they then develop further roots I find this makes for nice strong plants at the end of the day.

[NatalieCooke]

I'm sure ive seen them in Wilko's. From what i can remember they seemed a little smaller then the ones i had growing at home.