Tomato Growing 2026

Three of my winter-sown micro dwarves are putting out flower buds.

 

Good grief @eatenbyweasels - you are so far ahead of me! My plants are pathetic by comparison.

 

From 20 started on the 14th of March, 18 germinated during 1 week (I had them heated this time). 2 varieties needed to be repeated and germhnated by now.

But my tomatillos sown in February are jokers: verde germinated quickly and already in flower now, pinepple were so slow, the first appeared in a month and a half, I already emptied entire pack of seeds in the pot, they slowly show up now.

 

These are mine. I turned the heating off in the sun room so it gets quite cool over night

 

When do you all typically take plants to your greenhouse if you have one? Mine is unheated and down at the allotment so I usually wait until late April if the weather's good. We had air frosts last year on May 5th and it protected them then, not sure if I'd risk it much earlier in april

 

I think the problem is that a cold unheated greenhouse is not much protection from an air frost.

I suppose you could maybe build a frame on the bench and cover the plants over night but that would mean being able to uncover during the day.

 

Mine have been in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks, under agricultural fleece until earlier this week and they will be recovered tomorrow night when temperatures are supposed to drop below 5°C

 

At the moment I carry mine down to the greenhouse every morning once I've checked the temperature there is above 10ºC. I'm only growing 5 plants so they all fit easily in one tray. They go on a top shelf just under the glass so they're getting maximum light. In the evening they come in the house again.

 

I went down with COVID earlier in the week, so I'm blaming a high temperature for that last little bout of seed sowing I might've done.

 

My tomatoes have been in my cold GH for several weeks now. They have been potted on a couple of times and each pot goes in it's planned container which I prepared at the beginning of the year. The top of the pot is level with the surrounding compost and I put sheep wool or grass trimmings around the surface. All are fleeced overnight and checked regularly to see if they need larger pots until next month when I can hopefully plant in the containers.
Hope the Covid clears up soon and no lasting effects @eatenbyweasels

 

Thanks. I'm feeling much better but still testing positive, so I'm effectively grounded, bored and likely to get up to mischief.

 

Behave yourself..........your Tomatoes need you

 

I have sown a couple of tomatoes and chillies in a heated propagator - San Marzano is hard to find here and most chillies except Apache, Espellet and Granny's Bonnet which I don't like. Some are coming thru now but no true leaves yet.

However, it was the plant fair at Angles today and there is a couple who are nuts about tomatoes and sell over 50 varieties of heritage tomatoes as well as unusual herbs and spices. I was very restrained this year and only bought 11 tomatoes:

Ananas and Ananas Noire
Brandywine Noire
Cerise Indigo and Noire
Cherokee Chocolate
Montmauron
Orange Bourgoin
Pamplemousse Grand-Père
Poire Noire
Pêche Blanche

I've grown yellow and red pear before but not black. I've also grown Ananas and Black Cherry before and liked them but the rest are experiments.

They've all been potted into 10cm pots to grow a good strong root system and are now on a high shelf on the south side of the polytunnel so should be fine as i've closed the door early today to keep in the heat. Once they're big enough and it's warm enough at night they'll be grown outside this year with a seep hose for watering as needed.

Nobody near me is growing potatoes or tomatoes so blight shouldn't be a problem but they'll be sprayed with a "purin de prêle" (horsetail tea) which is a natural fungicide used here for both prevention and cure. Works on blackspot, peach leaf curl and rusts too.

 

Dib-dib!