Tomato Growing 2024

Was just thinking the same, I've got a raised bed especially for them, how many can I squeeze in? I've thought about getting some grow bags, but where do I put them? I've got some tumbling toms for a large hanging basket, wondering how many the basket will take? Oh the stress of it all..... I don't want to leave one m̶a̶n̶ tom plant behind

 

I had to buy 2 different cherry plants from our organic farm shop as my experiment failed. They grow their own tomatoes in their own compost.
They are now about 30cm high and get first what looks like...

 

Mine are still quite small, but that's fairly normal for the time of year. It'll be a couple of weeks before they go into the gr'house.
What was your experiment @simone_in_wiltshire ? Those look nice plants you've got. I used to just buy a few little plants from the GC or similar, as I didn't always have the time or room to start them off from seed. It always worked well, but you don't always get much of a variety.

 

@fairygirl I squeezed out a tomato in January and that grew well, but because it was to early, I binned and used a later tomato in February. They didn’t turn well at all.
I bought in April the 2 plants from the Farmshop which were already strong and robust, about 20cm high?

 

I wondered if that's what it was @simone_in_wiltshire . Mine are around that height , or almost.
They should do well for you.
I've done the seed from a s'market tom, but I think I did the process of cleaning/drying them. I have plenty of Sungold seed that I saved, so I've been using those this year.

 

I sat and potted on most of my tomato seedlings. The chillies and aubergines have finally put in an appearance.

 

Having seen other members’ experiments with shop tomatoes I thought I’d have a go. Last week sowed some fresh seeds from supermarket Piccobella cherry tomatoes. All germinated, so curious to see if they will flourish, I aim to put them in the greenhouse

 

On a quick read I thought you said you sat on your seedlings. That wouldn't help!

 

I have planted some of my bigger and leggier specimens outside today. I still have plenty of spares in case they croak!

 

Nutcracker, there is hardly a tomato seed that doesn’t germinate. If I throw a tomato into the compost in October, frost has no impact, and I get as many mini plants as the tomato had seeds.
The problem with my February plants was that half of them died in March und the one that survived refused to grow and looked poorly. The January plants looked much better.
In Autumn, I will use the common way of drying the seeds from the ones in the picture (I get tomatoes).

 

We're very lucky we have quite a number of seedlings of 5 varieties of tomatoes growing very well, decision already made, keep only what we can grow, pass on to other local garden charities and allotments what they may want and finally sell off any remaining plants.

 

@Jenny_Aster - I had several extra plants last year, from s'market sown ones, and I stuck 3 in a large pot [about 15 inches diameter] and pinched them out quite early so that they wouldn't struggle too much. They gave me a very good crop. The s'market ones are generally more vigorous types I expect, so that helps.
I have to grow undercover, but I didn't have room for any more, so I stuck them in a corner right up against the wee gr'house, where they would be sheltered from rough weather. I'm sure the bags would work well if you want to try and keep them all, but cheap builderss buckets are ideal too. You can get them for a quid in B&Q etc

 

I’m late this year but I have true leaves at least! I’ll pot-on once the roots are poking out - hopefully this weekend.

 

Aaaand just as I'm going to chuck out the ungerminated leftovers in the propagator....

EDIT. A couple of hours later there are two of them!