Tomato Growing Thread 2021

He said you can sow them now to put out when the last frost has gone that's at the end of may.

 

I wonder how tall they will be after 4 months growing.

 

And unless you've got multiple massive greenhouses, how leggy and unhealthy will they get growing on in cramped conditions competing for space with one another/all your other stuff?

MD Lives in Gardener's World, not the real world.






I might sow some seeds of a small, compact, bush variety suitable for planting in window boxes in early May, but they would be planted in plastic troughs that could be lifted out and brought into the house (and under lights) during cold weather.

 

There is no doubt it is far too early to be sowing tomato seed now whatever the 'experts' say.

Unless you have growlamps and heating and lots of space.

 

I have tried in the past to sow early, later sowings soon catch up and become healthier plants in the long run.

 

I can hardly walk down the path in my greenhouse, if I had that much spare space I'd consider I was under using it.

 

Would be nice if he created a more realistic, small unheated, greenhouse to work with. Show us how he copes with it!

 

Yours is a similar size I seem to remember, have you got the heating on at the moment.

 

Not enough glass to keep it in! Looking like it going to collapse to be honest!

 

I've sown my first tomato seeds!

Only ones saved last year from F1 Tumblers, so I don't know what they will turn out like, but if compact they wont take up much space and will fit under growlights for some time (Tumbler toms grow well under lights).

I've also ordered some 'non F1' Tumblers seed that'll be arriving tomorow Tomato Tumbler – Premier Seeds Direct and with 50 seeds in a packet can afford to risk sowing some early.

Plus I have 20 in date + 20 slightly out of date genuine Tumbler seeds.


So that's my project for this year, comparing the 3 different seeds, plus trialling early sowing.

 

I've sown some outdoor bush tomato seeds

Far too early, but I have a good reason. Many years ago I used to grow an outdoor bush variety called Brasero, but one year the seeds completely dissapeared, due to losing 'EU registration' I believe. Luckily a very helpful person at Mr Fothergills found a packet in a drawer and sent it to me, and also informed me that saved seeds would come true. At height of season we'd carry several carrier bags of them back home.

For many years after that I grew from saved seeds for a long time, but eventually stopped growing them in favour of Red Alert as nearly all of those would ripen before blight hit. Looking through my tomato seeds box today I noticed my saved seeds were getting rather old and needed growing out now if I was to ever grow them again. Sown 2005, 2006, 2008 and some undated seeds from two other years, possibly 2009 & 2010 from other stuff in the same packets.

The idea is to check if any are still viable, then grow some early and under cover to harvest the first ripe fruits for seed saving, plus some others to get a crop for old times sake. Googling today revealed somebody is selling them again (Brexit?) Breeders Seeds Ltd - Vegetables & Fruit - Tomatoes - Bush - Brasero F1 but I've never heard of them and they want £3.80 + £3.00 p&P so I'll persevere with my own.



N.B. I noticed the supplier linked to above is selling several tomato varieties that are normally F1, but are not described as F1.

 

Dont believe everything you read in newspapers, nor what you read in the DE.

When to plant tomatoes: How to plant tomato seeds | Express.co.uk

"Here's a step-by-step guide from an expert"

For a start their so-called tomato expert doesn't even know what tomato seedlings look like, this being the image they used:



And as for "Once they reach over 10cm in height, and with at least two sets of leaves, they are ready to be transplanted into bigger containers". That's transplanting from the seed tray/pot in which they were sown. If they only had 2 sets of leaves and were 10cm/100mm/4 inches high they should be binned, and if they had a healthy amount of leaves, at that size their roots would be a tangled mass and torn to pieces when trying to separate them.

 

ex a has been
spurt a drip under pressure

 

I don't know if it's "the lockdown effect" but I've definitely noticed people suggesting/sowing things much earlier than normal this year - not just the Gardener's World lot, but several other gardeners I follow on social media have all been at it the past couple of weeks. A couple have been putting in cucumebers as well as tomatoes, I was starting to get paranoid that I'd mis-remembered my usual timings!

 

Indeed @2nd_bassoon there are many newbies as well, going by seed company's running out of stock already. I couldn't get all my potato seed even though ordered in November. Many first timers will be disappointed with tomato failure due to starting too early and will give up.