Tomato Growing Thread 2021

It was 7.5c in the night in my gh in Portsmouth.

 

Lowest outside temp last night here was 7C, and that was for about an hour around dawn.

I still think if its just a short dip in air temperature and the soil has held some warmth from the day before it wont hurt.
Sitting in wet cold compost is the killer earlier in the year along with the cold dips lasting longer.

 

Going out with a torch in my mouth, savaging for grass clipping, at 11PM when I saw the late weather forecast was the reason I bought a greenhouse big enough to cover the whole vegetable plot

 

This is what I meant about top fixing for tomatoes grown up wires/strings, wire through screw eye and secured with bit of drilled stick.

A Chinese plastic10p spring cord lock might be more elegant, but might fall to pieces. Wire from the coil is gradually fed through to provide the extra required for wrapping around the plant stem.



If I had a box of small rings, I could attach them to the wire away from the cover beneath that screwring and cord lock and run another wire to eyes in the batten at the apex of the tunnel, keeping the plants away from the sides.

 

And today it's the wind keeping my heart rate up... I put them all under pots and buckets with bricks on top to stop them flying. I'm hopeful that after today it's going to be (relatively) easy street

 

<fx: Pulls up armchair, and gets some pop-corn>

 

Frost forecast here for Sunday morning.

 

Lol

 

My tomatoes which were sown on 29th March are now being potted up into 2L deep. rose pots They've previously been placed in the bottom of larger cells and pots and had their stems buried deeper at every stage, plus when potting on I've turned them on their sides at the bottom of the pots and carefully eased the stems through 90 degrees to get as much as possible below soil level, so there must now be more stem in the pots than above them.

Hope this is the last time I have to pot them up.

I've got tomatoes on plants that still under lights indoors waiting to go out

 

I don't do that (but its "ask two gardeners, get three opinions")

FWIW I think that if I pot-on deep the roots are a long way down the compost, they get to the bottom quickly, the formation of roots off the stem (which Toms do do of course) "takes some time", and roots growing upwards from the ones at the bottom "happens", but the natural flow of things is gravitropism and "roots down, shoots up"

I most definitely bury the stems when planting out. I do that by planting adjacent pairs horizontally, so each plant is planted in the station of its neighbour, underground until its own planting station, and then "up". So 12"-18" underground. That means that the first truss is low enough for the mice to eat :( and the "reached the roof" conundrum later in the season is delayed.

Good idea, I've never thought to do that. I do something similar when pricking out though. I no longer make a "hole" for the vertical root to be placed into, I fill the pot almost to the top, "spread" the root across it, and then top up to hold the seedling in place. That provides maximum depth of compost for the root to enjoy, and longest time before it populates to the bottom. I water sparingly sprinkled over the surface compost for a few days, to make sure the top 1" or so is moist, then once they are under way and not going to drown! I resume bottom watering.

Never done a side-by-side test though, and this is partly for my own wellbeing ... allowing me to be disorganised and often late in potting on, and then persuading myself that my pricking-out style specifically facilitated that late-potting on disorganisation ... normal, well organised, people: as you were

 

I do that (and 'daisy chaining' where there's triple rows) in poly tunnel borders, but haven't worked out yet how to do it when planting through holes in Mypex covered outdoor beds.

 

My solution isn't great ...

I grow a double row. I have piece of Mypex width of the growing area (outside-edge-to-outside-edge). I just have a SLIT from Mypex edge to plant-centre at each planting station. It frays (I've heat-treated them, of sorts), and the two edges don't quite meet so it leaves a V-shaped gap at each plant. But 90+% of the bed is covered.

 

All this stem burying makes me wonder how far up the stem your first truss is forming?
I bury a bit deeper when potting up, and occasionally when planting out, but never to that extent.