Tomatoes and Sweetcorn safe to go in Polytunnel?

[unclefudgly]

Just finished reading James Wongs book "grow for flavour" in which he says that feeding tomatoes with molasses instead of fertilizer, watering with salt water and spraying with aspirin all result in tastier tomatoes. My take on this is that a little cold stress will make stronger plants down the line, but also being in the sun for longer should also help. Not sure I would do all those but interesting none the less.

[Jay22]

Help!! Have repotted my toms and cucs into bigger pots but have run out of windowsill space, could I put them outside in the blowaway during the day and bring them in at night? Been high teens in temps during the day but cold at night here. Thanks in advance!

Should have said they are Tumbling Toms and Maskotka and Marketmore cucumbers.

[Bacchus]

I've been putting my chili's out during the day and bringing them in during the night for a couple of weeks now and they are more cold sensitive than tomatoes so your's should be fine. I had a small blowaway a few years ago and I found controlling the temperature in it very difficult - good luck.

I've also succumbed to instructions from the OH about removing windowsill tomato plants - so 6 of the largest have went out into the polytunnel permanently - though I covered them with a fleece last night for extra protection - just in case

[Kristen]

Just finished reading James Wongs book "grow for flavour" in which he says that feeding tomatoes with molasses instead of fertilizer, watering with salt water and spraying with aspirin all result in tastier tomatoes. My take on this is that a little cold stress will make stronger plants down the line, but also being in the sun for longer should also help. Not sure I would do all those but interesting none the less.

All that I have read/heard about growing sweeter fruit centres around starving the plant (of both nutrients and water). Cold Stress to me is something completely different, in that it changes the physiology of the plant and prevents the uptake of phosphorus (might be that its just an evolution thing to enable the plant to survive the cold). The plant will get over that, and then grow "normally". People who I have chatted to who have tried cold stress (sometimes inadvertently!) say that their (subjective, of course) view is that the fruit were less sweet that season. I think if you subject them to cold stress, but then grow them "as normal" for the rest of the season then it is unlikely to improve flavour (compared to starving the plants). I'll be interested to hear how you get on - cold stress, early in the season is easy enough to achieve (in fact its hard to avoid!!) so if it is a winner all of us will eb able to easily achieve it in future seasons

could I put them outside in the blowaway during the day and bring them in at night?

They can come in anywhere for the night - corridor / utility room - so perhaps not as "unacceptable" to spouses and family as windowspace?!!

It would do them good to get toughened up a bit so that they are hardened off when they eventually go out and stay out

[Scoot]

Weather set to turn cold again next week with overnight frosts and even sleet and snow.

[Jonnyt]

Depends where you are, I've only had three frosts all Winter at my location, last Winter had none. My next door neighbour but a cold water pipe outside 7 years ago and never lagged it, this Winter it burst. Not a bad run!

[marchogaeth]

In the absence of overnight temperatures above 10C but with plants gagging to be potted on, I have re-potted all the toms today and moved them out in the tunnel. It definitely shouldn't be frosty tonight, even so I did build a fleece cage over them but I'm wondering if this will make any difference to the temperature they experience. I know either Martin or Kristen proved cloches (blowaways) inside a bigger tunnel didn't work. Any thoughts? (I don't have 2 thermometers or I'd check!)

I think the actual plants look way healthier than in previous years when I've been less of a slave to the 10C rule. I've already got flowers on which is certainly earlier than usual for the same varieties.

I'm going to keep bringing the peppers and chillies in as they are still relatively small.

[GreaterMarrow]

I've had my micro toms in the blowaway greenhouse day and night for a couple of weeks now and there's no sign of any problems with them....and we've had a couple of frosts. Some have started flowering already too. Is it possible that they could still run into problems due to getting too cold?

[marchogaeth]

Is it possible that they could still run into problems due to getting too cold?

I think that's what we are all concerned about, really. Firstly, cold causing the plants to stall from which they take a long time to recover and secondly whether cold affects the final production and taste of the plants.

[Alison]

I've had my micro toms in the blowaway greenhouse day and night for a couple of weeks now and there's no sign of any problems with them....and we've had a couple of frosts. Some have started flowering already too. Is it possible that they could still run into problems due to getting too cold?

How big are the ones which are flowering? If they're still immature plants (difficult to say with micro plants I guess) and are starting to flower earlier than they should then it is usually a sign of stress.

[TrysHard]

Well the greenhouse has been as low as 1.8 and nothing has died things slow down but seem to survive.

[GreaterMarrow]

How big are the ones which are flowering? If they're still immature plants (difficult to say with micro plants I guess) and are starting to flower earlier than they should then it is usually a sign of stress.

I started them off quite early...probably around mid-Feb...and they have good thick stems and are nice and bushy so I don't think they could still be immature plants. I guess only time will tell! I haven't grown this variety before so it will be interesting to see the end result

[Valleyman]

Well it's official... all my toms are now in the greenhouse as we're not due a night below 10C for the next week or so, and should be out of the danger zone by them. Plenty of spares just in case though.

If the temp does drop my head will roll as they are potted up to 15 litre pots now and will make a hell of a mess in the kitchen should a cold spell raise it's ugly head.

[skeggijon]

not risking putting any in the polytunnel yet, but having seen the forecasts for the week, have risked putting some of my more mature toms in the greenhouse. They already have 3 trusses of flowers and were starting to block out the light at home.

[Braceandy]

So a few weeks back I decided to go for it and plant my tomatoes in polytunnel. There have been a few mild frosts since but nothing major. The tomatoes seemed to be growing really strongly and look healthy and have started to flower but they seemed to have stopped growing at about 2 foot tall.

Any ideas why they would not grow taller? I checked the variety in case they were bush ones but it says it's a cordon and grows to 150cm

Could this be due to the persistent low nighttime temp? And will they recover or should I start some more off?