Tomato Growing Thread 2023

I have noticed in the last decade or so that Multi Purpose Compost is not what it used to be, recently it seems to be mostly soil improver from council waste bins I think, chunks of wood and quite a lot of rubbish in it, there was a time when it didn't need sieving before use. You could use John Innes soil based for potting on into or what I do is use the MPC but add either a slow release fertiliser like Blood, Fish and Bone or a chicken manure base manure like 6X.

 

I keep all the clods of grass that have been dug up through the year (we always seem to have loads). Then come planting time, i stick them in the bottom of pots and fill with a mixture of own compost, garden soil and a good quality compost (i use Dalefoot - expensive but its so good). Always get a good crop - so long as there’s not a puppy intent on garden warfare. Then the contents of the pot get distributed round the garden. The roots of the toms always grow right down to the clods at the bottom. They provide a good moist sump for them

 

Last year I sowed on the 20th of Feb. (living room windowsill). According to my notes plants were ready to be moved into greenhouse by the 4th of April. Way too early. This year will be sowing somewhat mid March. This year added loads of home made compost into greenhouse beds. Let's see how it works out. So far sowed radishes and lettuce to check if compost is good.

 

I use commercial tomato growbags which have always given me good results - until last year when the 3 bags I had were infected with wilt causing all my plants to wilt after a while. They still managed to struggle through it & produced a little fruit. I always buy new bags every year & I've never used them again for growing tomatoes. It was in the bags as I gave 2 of my plants to my son who had no problems with them & they produced lots of tomatoes.

 

This year, I have new neighbours on the smallholding next to my house. They keep alpacas and so now I have a source of alpaca poo!

 

Depending on how much you need and if you can distribute it "Escape from Stalag Luft" style round your garden afterwards, it might be worth ringing your local builders merchants; one round us does (or did last year) bulk bags for £44 delivered. It was good quality and saved lugging heavy bags about.

How much mychorizal powder would I need roughly? e.g. for a 15L/3 Gallon pot?

 

Thanks I'm gonna try that, I'll compact some topsoil in a 1" layer at the bottom, then mix 50/50 topsoil and compost with some Mychorizal powder in 5L fibre pots.

 

I've not tried the mycorrhizal other than with fruit bushes and Roses, does it work in a container?

 

I can actually see a benefit from the fungi in pots when using potting compost which tends to be sterile, I've always wondered about what good parts plants are missing out on as opposed to the bad things in sterilising a compost.

In the garden soil I believe this kind of stuff mostly occurs naturally anyway so I would have expected it to be less effective.

 

I've sown my tomato seeds this evening, now in propagator. 4 to 6 seeds of half a dozen varieties, if I need additional for, other people, then I'll root some side shoots.
As for growing on; it will be the now usual mix of cheapo peat free compost and garden soil spiked with mycorrhizal fungi.

 

I shall wait a week or two yet before I sow mine as we are forecast a very cold start to March & I will have difficulty keeping the seedlings indoors after a couple of weeks.

 

Gave in and sowed my tomatoes today - it’s the high spot of my year, how sad is that!!!
Usually sow them in toilet roll tubes but saw this on amazon and thought it might be worth a go. 40 cells to each tray. So now they’ll be under lights in the warmest room in the house and then transfer them to my go to toilet rolls once they’ve developed true leaves. Then into the greenhouse in a large heated propagator
Amazon.co.uk