2017 Tomato Growing

Been given 2 seeds of each: "Black Russian", "Dancing with Smurfs", "Brown Sugar", "Black Icicle Fantastic", "Orange Banana", "German Lunchbox" and "Latah"
Anyone grown these?

 

Nope, but I'm fairly sure I've danced to a few!

 

Extract from an email Wyevale sent out yesterday:

Suggesting growing tomato plants indoors on a window sill for over 4 months from the middle of January until around the end of May when the danger of frosts has passed seems crazy to me.

 

Dunno, it seems to work for me. But I will start to harden mine off during the day in a couple of months to stop them growing leggy. I find they are surprisingly cold tolerant, so long as you harden them off gradually and keep them out of cold winds. Obviously they are not frost tolerant and I will keep the smaller ones indoors as a backup. Mine will be planted out at the start of May with a windshield around the bed.
This works for me personally in getting my tomatoes big before the annual root fly proliferation. I also tend to have several fancy varieties that take ages to mature (e.g. black trifele) and the longer growing season suits them. As others have said, the faster growing varieties don't need the early start.

 

Hi all, been listening to the BBC Radio Kent gardening show, the expert Steve has said that he will sow his Tomato seeds in single pots in the 3rd week of February on window cill. This sounds about right to me. Hope this helps......oh also you can listen on the BBC iplayer and visit their Facebook page.

 

The only people to benefit from this suggestion is the retailer! Of course it suits them down to the socks to get people to buy now before the rush. Also, when, not if the plants end up 6ft tall and the width of a pencil ie rubbish you'll then have to buy some more .....kerching kerching.
I used to live in The Clyde Valley which was inundated with garden centres all selling pretty much the same stock which mostly came from Holland. The biggest bonaza years for the garden centres was when Easter fell early. Hoards of folk would buy up bedding plants which had never seen outside, rush home and plant them. Within days the whole lot would have bought it, so back they came a couple of weeks later to repeat the process. Double the profits for the garden "supermarkets".

 

started my first sowing 13th Jan, second sowing will be end first week in Feb, third sowing first week in march this gives me toms from end of may until November.
They are kept in a warm conservatory with supplemented light for first few weeks

 

I'll start sowing at the end of Feb, but only a small amount that I'll be able to cope with bringing back indoors if it's too cold in my polytunnels during May (as it has been for the last 2 years). The vast majority will be sown late March, and if they have to be brought back into warmth overnight at least they'll be small enough to fit in my 1 foot deep stacking plastic crates, with the taller plants from late Feb sowing in top crates.

N.B. All my tomatoes are grown outdoors or in (unheated) polytunnels.

 

I plan on doing sowings through march but my itchy fingers will probably get the better of me Will keep those varieties I mentioned above for the end of march though for def, don't want to chance them as I've only got 2 seeds of each.. will be growing 2/3in a walk-in blowaway rest outside

 

I keep my cherry tomatos in my conservatory all year long and have loads of them so I will probably start sowing them next weekend after my holiday in the sun I have a heated pad and it worked pretty well last year, I might try and experiment this year though with different compost

My outdoor ones will not be sown for a few months yet.

 

I still have tomatoes in my polytunnel! (At least that's what Dog thinks)

He got so enthusiastic about being given a few straight from the plants every day in the summer, that since the plants came down we've been taking a couple with us every week and he still pulls to the tunnel for his tomatoes.

Feel obliged to keep up the pretence, otherwise it would be telling your child there's no such thing as the Tooth Fairy or Santa.