Tomatoes

This is my first year growing tomato from seeds and They really haven't grown much. I can only really compare with my daughters nursery examples which are coming along nicely yet were planted a few weeks after mine and I'm stuck with these tiny wee ungrowing yet still alive shoots.

I have tried in grow bags but I'm thinking of moving them to pots to see if they do better there. I have been using tomato feed once a week since shoots appeared.

I know it's early in the season but did think they would be larger than two inches in 9 weeks. Am I just being impatient?

Can anyone offer further tomato advice? Should I keep them in greenhouse or move them outside (it's rained non stop for three weeks here)? is there anything else i should know or be doing when (if) they get bigger

Thank you

 

Hello Moopants,
I have also started tomatoes from seeds and have had advice so have a look at "Started so i'll have to finish" in Propagation this month sorry don't know how to link yet on here lol

hope it helps

 

When did u sow them? they should be started in January (about the 6th.) and grown on in pots increasing in size until final planting in May. No feed should be given until the first flowers appear, then keep removing the side shoots (Pot them up as cuttings for a late summer crop.) and when you have three or four trusses nip out the tips. Feed with a high Potash feed every two weeks.

HTH

 

Moon pants, I'm only guessing but I think they might have caught a cold.

If you cant keep a night time temperature above 12C its best to sow later.
Late sown ones very often catch up the early sowings.

For outdoor planting I would not sow until early April, and thats down south, but for greenhouse its dependant on what temperatures you can maintain.

 

I agree pete, if they get cold (I would have said 10C minimum, but 12C even better of course ) they sulk and take ages to get going again.

Lad: I disagree with sowing them in January. The day light is so weak then they will grow leggy, and they will need heating. Its fine if they are on a windowsill, and you can provide them with extra artificial light (something a bit more special than just a fluorescent tube), but even then they will be 4' tall before you can plant them out around mid May, so that will be an issue for most people trying to grow them on windowsills.

For someone with no artificial light, but a greenhouse / conservatory that is more sheltered than just a normal "cold greenhouse", then I would recommend mid February as the earliest starting date and then should be able to be moved from windowsill to conservatory around mid March or start of April - and brought in on cold nights, or the heating turned on.

For anyone with less "heat" or windowsill space for a 2' - 3' plant, then mid March starting point is the earliest.

But Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Aubergines and Peppers all need to be kept above 10C, and given plenty of light to get them growing steadily without being checked, otherwise they will sulk Big Time :(.

 

Nothing wrong with that! But I think most people will struggle if they were to try to start Tomatoes off in January next year, hence my post suggesting I didn't think it was a good idea.

There was a thread on another forum encouraging people to start Tomato seeds in January. I think most of them came a cropper - well ... lots of people in that thread took up the challenge but there are very few who are saying that their plants are still doing well! and the ones who are boasting about the date theirs set fruit, and how large the plant and fruit are seem to be no different to mine, sown a month later.

I've only ever sown mine all-at-once, and it is not going to be feasible for me to cater for lots of large plants early on - on windowsills - nor popular!

But I did think it would be an idea to start off one of each varieties in January to see if I could get a noticeably earlier start to cropping. I have the benefit of growing lights, so might be in with a chance :thumb:

 

Moopants

I would take your two inch plants out of the grow bags and pot them up, they are just too small for that enviroment yet.

Use a pot size thats just a little bit bigger than the rootball of the plant, so if the root ball of your tom plant is 2 inches, then use a three inch pot.

When you start to see the roots trying to get out of the bottom of that pot, then its time to repot or pot on into a 4 or 5 inch pot.

Steve...

 

Well maybe Januray is early but never had problems, as I say we are all different and as long as the end result is on the vines I am happy.

 

Thank you all so much! I think I shall stick with pots, not liking grow bags. Just need to wait for these gale force winds to die down as I'm not going out in that in my rickety greenhouse...

 

I buy tomatoes and fruit juices in the turkish shops (abundant here in east London). That is what I call tomatoes. I don't eat those green hard tasteless plastic things that they sell in some supermarket.