Tomato Growing Thread 2022

Are his in pots?
Hate to keep banging on about grow bags, but I've never been impressed with the things.

 

But how could growbags cause 'wilting' (if it exists?)

 

I just think grow bags are too shallow, people often put more plants into a bag than is ideal and they heat up fast.
You need drainage holes in grow bags and two plants per bag is pushing it when you really look how much compost a modern grow bag contains, they have shrunk, like most things these days

They are basically reliant on how much liquid fertiliser you apply and its very easy to think they are wet when they are not.

The compost quality used in them are not as good as it used to be either.

 

@pete I gave up on grow bags and plastic pots a couple of years ago for any greenhouse or plant not in the main raised bed. I bought some of those large felt grow bags, seems to do quite nicely. Not too much chance of overwatering but if I can get the plants in soil it's much better, if the weather is kind of course.

 

@JWK nice idea, I thought about doing it one year but tried something else instead (the felt pots), wouldn't know how effective it would be but seems to get round the shrinkage problem of grow bags these days.

 

This year is very, very different......

 

More harvest today

First try of Sevryuga. Couldn't find a single seed in it, very tasty pink oxheart.

Picked another ripening gordost sibiri, biggest yet at just over 320g.

And the rest in a bowl, sungold, honeymoon, bloody butcher

 

Growbags eh?! Yes a way to plant things AND sell compost!!!seem to remember they were considered 'easier to handle' than having compost/ soil in large pots. Regarding growing Tom's I seem to remember Ring Culture was a system we tried to emulate particularly in greenhouses. I mention this purely because many of us used growbags on top of soil, the bag replacing the 'ring'. Thus we made sure that really good drainage was achieved by cutting large holes in the bottom of the bag! These days I use those containers with a watering trough and a central 'pot' in the centre. To begin with I used them in the greenhouse but now in sheltered spots outside! I now grow most outside for a very good reason, very scientific, bloody Whitefly!!!
Regarding pot/container size for tomatoes I'm amazed how small a space they need to produce SOME trusses! In my opinion plant them in whatever you've got and control the crop by removing the main growing tip after a few trusses, which we ultimately do anyway, don't we??
Regarding quality of compost in grow bags? In my experience its entirely cost controlled! Generally there's less volume in some makes (again cost controlled) Thus the recommendation of numbers of plants to be planted in them (2 or 3)
I can remember buying some really cheap bags one year and simply emptying them into a wheel barrow of 'best' garden compost and good supply of grit and slow release fertiliser. Àlso the odd hand full of lime I seem to remember! Actually can't remember when I last tested for pH!! Bad!!!
You'll gather I prefere to use pots/containers BUT with good drainage! I've noticed some TV programs this year when they've recommended cutting grow bags and placing the two halves on end??!! Well remember the Gardener saying, " might as well use a big pot!" So perhaps the use of growbags is entirely based on how 'keen' the gardener is. Less fuss, no complicated systems, no pots. Fine but make sure you've got good drainage holes even onto concrete! Oh, and buy a bottle of Tomorite (other brands are available!)

 

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The plants obviously started out the same till they had several pairs of true leaves when I gave him 2 of them. My son's plants are in fairly small pots - I myself would have put them in much bigger pots. He doesn't bother about removing the side shoots which I religiously remove. I've been growing tomatoes for well over 20 years whereas he has done so for about 5. He often asks me for advice on what to do with his plants, not just his tomatoes, & often does what I tell him but when it comes to tomatoes any advice I give him seems to go in one ear & immediately out of the other! (Perhaps I should put an ear plug in one of them! )

I wish I knew what caused the "wilt" but it is something that has never happened to me before. It wasn't caused by lack of water as I tested the compost & it was just damp. Nor was it caused by waterlogging because, as I said, the compost was just damp. Nevertheless I did water the growbags a little as we were expecting more heat the following day. If it had been from lack of water they would have recovered overnight after I gave them a little water but they didn't.

 

Here are some pictures of my plants I took just yesterday. They should be half as high again as they are now at this time of the year. I have only 1 or 2 toms on a few trusses but there are more flowers coming so perhaps I will get a few trusses to set before the growing season comes to an end.
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All my Toms were sown in the same compost/feed/seed, in the same position in the garden, some have wilted, the rest like you Balc are half the size they should be at this time of the year.

I've stopped feeding mine now, not much point in wasting the feed.

We all try again next season

 

Ripening apace in the greenhouse. Piglet Willie's French Black, Dwarf Velvet Night, Der Kleine Doctor, Tonnelet, Pink Boar.

Pink Boar looks very different to last year. DKD and Piglet are quite a bit bigger than their "large cherry" description.

Need to round up some more people with functioning taste buds for their opinions.