Tomato Growing Thread 2023

Some tom seeds are smooth and some are almost furry.

 

All Tom seeds germinating! Must be Spring despite the rain!!

 

I was wondering JWK, could you use Rootgrow when taking fuchsias cuttings?. I noticed this afternoon that my Doff rooting powder is two years out of date!

 

I found a self-sown tomato seedling in a pot inside the mini-greenhouse this afternoon! How it got there I've no idea! Anyway I took it out of the pot it was sharing with a Pelargonium cutting & put it in a pot of its own. It only has seed leaves at present but by next weekend it will probably have its first set of true leaves.
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Need repotting

 

I put my seedlings out on the balcony for the first time today. They are getting very lanky & are almost unable to hold themselves up! It's been too cold, or windy during the last couple of weeks so they have had to stay inside till today. I must bring them inside before I go to bed tonight, along with the standard Fuchsia I'm training. The night temps are still rather low to leave them outside.

@JWK The seedling I found is no doubt one of the 'Gardeners Delight' seeds. As it's already accustomed to the temps outside I shall leave it outside & pot it up as it grows. Time will tell what tomato it is!

I noticed on Sunday that the seeds of 'Gardeners Delight' that @JWK sent me look different to the seedlings from the seeds I bought online last year. My seedlings have two true leaves on each seedling but those from JWK only have one true leaf on each seedling!
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These are the ones with only one true leaf.
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These are the ones with two true leaves!

The Fuchsia cutting you can see help to make a separation between the seeds so that later I don't mix them up as I want to compare the taste & the overall characteristics of the two tomatoes side by side.
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I bought a Tomato called Rapunzel. Never heard of it before. It has cherry-size tomatoes in long trusses. I thought maybe I could grow it outside but I've found on the internet that it is best grown in a greenhouse. I hope I can find room for it somewhere.

I was looking for a Roma plant but couldn't find one anywhere. I'll have to try the garden centre behind the market in Carmarthen next week. I didn't want to sow the seeds because I only need one plant.

 

My tomato seedlings look so forlorn on the balcony! They are so thin & pale! I hope a few days outside will toughen them up a bit! I brought them in last night & will do the same tonight as well. They are getting a little afternoon sun but don't seem to be getting sunburnt. I know that after a week they will be all but unrecognizable but in the meantime ...

The worst is that we are forecast a cold snap for most of next week which means they can't stay outside even during the day. Then they will need another week hardening off!

 

Balc, its too blood cold out there for tomato plants, keep them on the wind ow sill until the air feels warm, it might feel warm in direct sunshine but the air is cold.

 

@pete Yes, I agree & that is what I said in my post above & which you've quoted. After two days outside they are not looking quite so bad. The balcony gives some protection, especially from any wind with a northern component to it. We face more or less SW so get the max amount of sunshine & although we live in a very windy street for the most part the interior of the balcony is protected from the worst of the weather - unless of course it comes from the SW! Just a couple of days ago the rain reached in as far as the windows & balcony door! That is something pretty exceptional! The balcony is about 1m (3ft) wide but it is covered on 3 sides so only the front is actually open. It's actually built inside the building so is almost like a conservatory!
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Balcony from outside (Centre) 15th April 2023
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Well I've tried one plant in my unheated back porch, close to the wall and facing south, and its gone purple.
Too many miserable cloudy days with no sun to warm thing up.

It was showing 14c in the shade a few hours ago with some sun, but the air feels really cold to me, as soon as the sun went in and the rain started it dropped to 9c which is probably a better idea of the actual air temperature.

 

It is not only low temperatures that will do for Tomatoes, large swings in temp to be avoided too, my greenhouse is mid 20's in the day time, but it was only 4.5 last night, tender plants still in the conservatory, it maybe a month before plants like tommies go in the greenhouse.