2015 Tomato Growing

Hiya Jack

As I said in an earlier post, I happen to have some Maskotka seed. I wasn't going to bother with them, but I've since had the idea of putting one or two in large pots, and standing them on up-turned pots

 

Just sown the first tomatoes for this year, three Shirleys and two Giant Delicious. That is all I have space for to grow on at the correct temperature. Another dozen will be sown in a months time destined for a cold greenhouse.

 

Tomorrow is the day for me to sow my tomato seeds.....I can't wait , I shall start them off on the boiler in the back porch! (In a propegator ) Then they move into the kitchen in pots! Then they are moved into the front porch! And finally the greenhouse!
Last year I had a few turn a bit leggy, I've wondered about buying an electric propegator would this help prevent them from getting leggy?

 

Thanks so much for your reply, that's really helpful. I shall have a look at heatlamps tomorrow.

 

Re-planting them in progressively deeper pots and burying as much stem as possible will somewhat mitigate leggyness, but more light and cooler conditions are required for stocky plants.

 

I think it's fair to say, much better to wait a while to sow if you're going to struggle to give ideal conditions. There's plenty of time yet

 

Beckie I agree with Freddy, it's better to start them later. I sow mine either the first or second week of March.

 

Ok, maybe a mixture of a bit too early & the wrong temperature/light is what's going wrong, I'm going to go with you & wait a couple of weeks to do my seed sowing. Thanks for all your help & advice

 

Same here. 2nd week of March for me (mid April for those destined for outdoors). You may remember that following my house move, I wasn't able to sow until June 1st. Of course, this wasn't ideal, and the plants suffered with botrytis later on, but I still got a worthwhile crop

 

And I thought they were bad 3 weeks ago, the same seedlings this morning:



What are they going to do, wait until they die before getting some new healthy stock in?

 

What's even more annoying Scrungee, is people that have next to no knowledge of gardening will pay good money for those thinking they are getting healthy plants.