Tomato Growing 2024

Time to get flower-flicking! Bloody Butcher, sown in January.

 

That's the big drawback with growbags when it comes to tomatoes. I like this idea, from a website called Instructables, for edge-on growbag holders.

 

JWK, do you do crop rotation? Or plant the tomatoes in the same place each year?
I'm getting a bigger polytunnel this year, and want to use it to grow tomatoes in the ground.
Maybe I need to alternate the sides that I plant the tomatoes yearly?

 

That looks pretty much like a cut down pallet.

 

@THFC I grow tomatoes and chillies in the PT every year in the same beds. We clear it all out in autumn then use the bed to stash pots of citrus, fuchsia, canna and so on.

Once it's warm enough for all of those to go back outside OH empties the compost bins behind the PT onto the beds and then I spread horse muck. That gets hoed in a little, raked level and then planted up when the toms are big enough.

I use a seep hose to water them - better for the foliage than using a spray gun or sprinkler.

 

Yes - I agree @pete - quite 'pallet-y'.
I think I'd want it a bit wider and lower if I was doing it that way round.
It's all about experimenting though, and the amount of space you have will also be a factor.

 

I add a couple of inches of homemade compost or very well rotted manure to the greenhouse beds each spring, they seem to be fine so far. I put salads into them when the tomatoes come out

 

I think if you actually emptied out a grow bag and pot it into a pot, you would only grow one plant, there is much less in them than it looks.

 

I think you might be right @pete - they always seem to be fairly small in volume. Not something I ever use, but if I'm looking at bags to compare sizes/prices, they seem to be about 40 litres.

I don't know if that's always been the case, or - like the general compost bags, they were 50 or 60 L. Everything seems to be in the 40 - 50L size now, but much dearer!

 

Thanks. I'm hoping to have a fair bit of compost by Autumn, so this sounds like an option.

 

Thanks JWK. I started using Mychorizal Fungi last year - and didn't know it had this particular advantage. Very good to know!

 

I have just ordered some Pink Grapefruit and Surender's Indian Curry tomato seeds. Apparently the Indian varieties are more sour in flavour for use in curries. We shall see.
My first sowing of Big Mama, beef steak, beautiful shape, sweet, excellent for passata, also Ozark Sunrise, ugly shapes, difficult to see when they are ripe, very sweet, woody centres and Green Tiger, wasn't impressed the first time I grew them, low crop and flavour, gave them a miss last year, giving them a second chance this year, are through. Despite my advanced years and many years of growing veg. I always worry when I sow any seeds until they finally appear.
I still find it amazing that tiny specks of "soil" can be put onto compost and plants grow.
Mother Nature is wonderful.

 

I'm soon to be raking out the 'cold frame / raised bed' and filling it with compost for the toms, I'll be sure to add some Mycorrhiza Fungi to the compost mix. Thank you for the tip.



Edited to say: Perhaps I should be adding the product to water and watering it into the compost.

"Our product for Tomatoes – Mycorrhiza Soluble
Use a 30g pack for up to 25 m² of soil surface. Mix the Mycorrhiza well with water and water it to the plants.


The most natural way to fertilize your tomatoes."