2015 Tomato Growing

I've been told to wait until mid March....
no greenhouse and fed up with them getting too tall and spindly indoors,

 

Mine aren't too bad, I couldn't help myself to be honest! I've still another 6 or so seeds so will start those off next week if these don't make it. Thank goodness for the greenhouse!

 

Not heard of this before. Is it normal 'form' to pinch out some varieties?

 

I haven't sown one Tommy yet,hows that for restraint...only because I've run out of space already...

 

I planted 5 different types of tomatoes and they've all germinated! Yay! Very tiny yet, but have popped their little heads through

 

Depending on space I hope to get mine going at the weekend.

 

I'm only on my second year of 'serious' tomato growing.

Last year I allowed the strongest of my vine types to have several shoots. I had most of them outdoors (under fleece) from late March but they were very vigorous and otherwise would have outgrown their canes e.g. I had an Indigo Rose with 3 stems each 6ft and I had to top my Zapotec Pleated at 8ft. Some were so heavily laden that the canes fell over and those big boys would definately have done so if I let them grow and grow til August. It'd be a different story in a poor year.

Commercial growers have them growing on strings suspended from the ceiling of the glasshouse and wind them down so the bare old stems lie in a coil on the floor. That way they do fine on just one stem.

I'm growing out 36 varieties this year. Just had them outside this afternoon for their first bit of hardening off.

 

And what about the tomatoes?

 

Behave yourself Mr. S!

 

i haven't sown mine yet either, i'm trying to be good and resist the urge as i have no greenhouse anymore and i would ideally like to be able to put them outside before the house gets that distinctive "jungle" feel.....again! lol

 

My first sowing of 'giant' tomatoes are all through (except for seeds from one tomato)



They'll need moving into their own individual cells soon. I use the 27x cell inserts (3 x 9 cells) from B&M, 5 per pack and 2 packs for £3, so 1p per cell and although more expensive than Wilkos/reduced 40x (seed tray size), they are deeper/sturdier, last for several uses and are more suitable for cutting into pieces consisting of 3, 4, 6, 9, etc. cells that can then all fitted together to fill propagators and seed/half seed trays.

If they're tallish I'll bury them as deep as possible, even putting a slight bend on the stem (both easier with deeper cells) as I've just done with these (and will do again every time they're potted up, plus when planted out):

 

Made my first sowings a week ago: marmande, moneymaker and gardeners delight. They were in one of those B&Q kit efforts and were given to me last year at work.
They are in an unheated propagator in the sunniest bay window at the moment. No signs of any life (yet!). Once they get to the next stage, I'll plant some more of the same varieties.
Eventually, they will be grown in a grow bag (but, reading earlier pages of this thread, I shall try the double baggy method).

 

I've sown my toms today. 'Manx Marvel' and I'm trying 'Gourmet' and 'Sungold' for the first time.