Where to order Tomato plug plants.

I don't have heat in my greenhouse and want to grow Tomaotes which might actually start to fruit before the end of summer! I am thinking of ordering some Sungold plugs and then will grow other varieties from seed to crop later.

Any suggestions as to where I can get decent plug plants or at worst where to avoid! Will want around 10 plugs.Thanks.

 

Thanks JWK, probably right, better than buying over the net and receiving something the cat dragged in! With us currently having snow I think I might be jumping the gun atm even thinking about matos.

 

Why not invest the money you would spend on tomato plants in a small grow light setup, sow seeds and raise your own healthy plants that will be ready exactly when you want them?

15 Watt LED panels like @mowgley purchased some time ago cost about £20 and are 300 x 300mm (£222/m2), so 16 x 60mm square pots could fit under one, twice that many if they're swopped over with another 16 each day.

I've just been looking at this 60 Watt LED light costing that £31.95 that will "cover an effective area of about 1/2 a square metre" [1], so will cover an area 700 x 700mm (£63.90/m2) and take 100 x 70mm pots or 49mm pots. See bottom of this page http://www.jungleseeds.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d108.html#p1818

Mail order plug tomatoes are tiny/expensive, those in pots are still small and can cost £3 each, both attract a further £5 for delivery, the supplier fixes the delivery date (then varies it!) and if they turn up sub-standard it can take so long to get replacements that it's a waste of time.

Although garden centre plants can be cheaper, but they can also be of variable quality, they can get them in too early and then neglect them. You can spend a lot of time and money driving from one garden centre to another trying to find healthy plants of the right variety and size.

[1] Assuming they actually mean 0.50m2 and not 0.50 x 0.50m (half metre square). If 15 Watts is sufficient for 300 x 300mm, then pro-rata 60 Watts should cover 0.09m2 x 4 = 0.36m2, but still only £88.75/m2.

 

There's an offer of 'free' plug plants with February's Gardener's World magazine. 6 plants for £3 p & p if I recall correctly. The varieties include Sungold, Green Zebra and Gardener's Delight.

Some of the salad sized varieties are reliable outdoors...just avoid the big ones. Sungold is too sweet, too pale and insufficiently tomato-ey for me, but others love it. Think about how you want to use them, as cherry tomatoes are good for salad but not for cooking of slicing into sandwiches.

To be honest, you might be as well asking a friend for their surplus or buying plants from a local charity stall. There tends to be a lot of spares going in May!

 

Well you've got me thinking Scrungee! Perhaps I should get a glow light setup. Can just see other half's face as our bedroom would be the best place having a wide south facing window sill. Doubt he'll be impressed but what the, he doesn't like me storing Dahlia corms on top of the wardrobe either. Only been doing that for ummm about 25 years!It's just so annoying that my new greenhouse is about 100 ft away from the nearest power supply and I really cannot justify digging up the tarmac and laying armoured cable so I can grow a few plants! Ok it would have been better to build the greenhouse nearer the house but there wasn't enough space and I wanted a decent sized 1 (20ftx8ft) as hadn't had 1 for years and this will have to "see me out".

Thanks Cinnamon but I live in Scotland and I don't know of anybody who has had much success with growing Tomatoes outside up here. The reason I was thinking of Sungold is that they tend to crop earlier or that's what I've been told anyway.Last year I grew 10 Gardeners Delight, 10 Shirley and 10 Sweet Aperatif from seed. The yeild was huge BUT they didn't start to ripen until August and I would like to have something to eat before then this season.

I'll go and do some homework Scrungee and no doubt will be asking all sorts of questions about glow light set ups!

 

To me the cost of a small growlight setup appeared to be a 'ha'porth of tar' compared to the cost and effort of installing a 28 x 10 foot greenhouse (although I understand you actually get more hours of daylight early in Scotland early in the season, but you'd be able to get stuff growing before the heating's on, or weather's warm enough).

35m Temporary extension lead, but would it be too cold located in the greenhouse?

A small box could be made compact and demountable, and the top can be used for holding a second batch of plants swopped over twice a day to reduce the size by half. (One year I drove around with the back of the car full of chitting potatoes in stacked plastic mushroom boxes because there wasn't enough room indoors(

 

Oh been so tempted to run a temporary cable but, funny how there is a but! unless I rig up some kind of ramp type thing you would have to drive over the cable and the cable would run more or less straight across a big herbaceous border where plenty of digging takes place... I always fancied curly hair. Oh boy can you imagine the health and safety folk, they'd have a field day. I'm wondering Scrungee if having a large window sill with very big window that's South facing and get the light from now on for a good portion of the day would I be better with a heat pad and make a light box (have silver backed chunks of insultation). We have quite a big house and would cost a fortune to heat it a al modern houses so go round in plenty of jumpers, so not exactly cosy in the house for Toms to germinate/grow, maybe the lights give off enough heat?
Like your story re chitting potatoes. I had a fair few green Tomatoes on the dash board of my car last season which ripened nicely eventually.

 

Well Scrungee I've taken the plunge and am now the proud? owner of some grow lights and a heated propagater. Sungold, Shirley & Tumbling Tom seeds sown along with a variety of other things (been busy). No Tomato plug plants ordered If I am Tomatoless this season I will blame you. I really will use the heated propagater a lot as already try many cuttings with varying success. Pretty sure bottom heat will increase my success rate considerably. Spare room now out of bounds to all except plants.

 

I've got 400 plants and a second growbox set up in my daughter's bedroom and she's back from uni in only 24 days! (another 400 and 1st growbox in spare bedroom)

What lights did you get?

P.S. Don't sow everything too early, I always hold back seed for a 2nd, later sowing in case the first lot is too early to go out.

 

I got a Taotronic Led GL05. Friend has similar and got it for me from a "source"! It only cost me £40 which didn't seem too bad but you'll know a lot more about these things than I do. I also got a Garland big 3 which seems ok. I would love to build a proper big heated propagator but with it being less than easy to get power to my greenhouse, I'll make do with what I have for the time being.
Absolutely agree re delaying sowing everything. Always have done even when I had no special equipment. I sow veg in batches and with most it seems to work quite well. Living in Scotland it's Tomatoes and Peppers which do really need a bit of a head start. Other veg which I grow are fine to be left to sow until approx the middle of April.

Will your daughter ever speak to you again?!

 

Probably being over-simplistic, but what has worked for me for past 8 years. I have a small greenhouse, and after the first 2 years couldn't be bothered to do the polywrapping, heaters etc.
I have (over the past years) always managed to squeeze 20 tom plants in the greenhouse. So (here comes the simplistic idea) start off seeds in 3inch pot - 3 to 4 seeds per pot. Place pots in a bog-standard seed tray, with a plastic cover. Shove them on whatever windowsill you have which gets light. If you happen to have a radiator under the windowsill, then better still. I'm fortunate that my bedroom window is south-facing. Once they germinate, take off the plastic covers, and when they get get to about an inch, they obviously lean towards the window. So turn the seed trays round, daily. Pot on to a larger pot - 1 per pot - when they are about 2 to 3 inches.

Yes, the less light they get, the more straggly they are, but they soon improve as the light improves. As for transferring to greenhouse, and repotting - it's trial and error. BUT I have a min/max thermometer in greenhouse. When the min generally stays over 5degs, I put a couple out as the "Canaries in the coalmine". If too cold and they keel over, bring them back in again as they normally recover. Trial and error but has worked for me for the past 8 years. I do the same with cucumbers.

If you don't have windowsills, disregard all of the above and shoot me

 

. Thank you very much Chesterfieldgardener. I really like the "Canaries in the coalmine" comparison. WELL my Canaries (about 30 of them) are happily germinated enjoying my new heated propagator and lamp. Living in Scotland is the slight snag with growing Toms from seed as it will be a few weeks yet before I can transfer them to the coalmine (unheated greeenhouse), by which time they may be somewhat spindly. At least with |Toms you can transplant them deep.
Just booked a B&B in your area as friend and I are wanting to visit Chatsworth and see the Peak District. Looks like you have loads of lovely pubs in the area so looking forward to our visit already...hic hic!