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Tomato plant help

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  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    How about a teaspoon in a two litre pop bottle, then the top can go on to try to keep it till it's used.
    To be honest there should be enough compost to take a pint of water, or it's in a too small a pot.🤔
  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    @celcius_kkw that's a very good point, I never considered that. I generally make a couple of gallons per batch and use it all, any left over goes on some random plants. But if you only have a couple of toms and chillies, I'm not sure how you could efficiently make up a micro batch. 2 litres is probably the smallest. Not the kind of thing you want sitting around either, the smell is terrible after a few days (guess who forgot a watering can of it and only discovered it a week later  :# )
  • celcius_kkwcelcius_kkw Posts: 753
    @strelitzia32 Haha.. at least you didn’t leave some seaweed extract standing around.. that would probably be ten times worse. I grow a lot of roses so I think I will just use the excess on them especially when they are flowering.. they could do with the potassium too. :) 
  • Regarding feeding a single tomato plant - I have been trying to figure out the best way to do this, as it’s incredibly hard to just make up one mugful of Tomorite - it would probably only consist of 0.05mls of Tomorite, which is impossible to measure. I’ve previously tried making half the amount (2.5 litres) and use that ‘stock’ to fertilise my few plants. The downside is that stock just sits there for a long time and turns green very quickly.. not sure if that would affect the nutrient content of the fertiliser mixture..
    I live near a few keen gardeners, so maybe I'll ask if any of them will need to feed their tomatos at a similar time, and split it with them or something. Thanks for telling me, cos otherwise I would probably just give it way too much and end up killing him! 
  • I'm having a complete spatial awareness failure, I can't figure out how big that pot is! 

    It looks like there's a healthy space at the top of the pot, so if you have some spare compost, put a bit more on top. The more the better, you can fill it up almost to the rim of the pot - just leave enough space to water.

    Tomorite will help your plant set fruit and grow, so when you see the flowers die off, start feeding once per week.

    If you're actually using a drinking mug for watering, don't use that to mix it! You'll probably grow an extra arm or something, invest in a cheap watering can or use a dedicated jug. 

    Make sure that plastic string isn't too tight and doesn't rub into the plant - soft twine or string is better if you have it. If not, don't worry.

    The plant still has a bit of growing to do - get it in direct sunlight and post another picture of the top third in about a week. We can tell you where to pinch out the growing tip - if you don't do this, it'll grow forever (absolutely no exaggeration) and the fruit won't set. 
    Don't worry, it's probably the weird angle I took the photo at in order to get my phone to work! It's quite a deep pot, just not huge in terms of diameter.

    An extra arm could be helpful if I end up with more than one tomatoes... but yeah, I'll avoid using drinking mugs :D

    Strangely enough, it's actually soft embroidery thread, but because I usualyl use it for macrame, it has a metallic tint to it... possibly the fanciest gardening thread I could've chosen, but it adds a little sense of Je ne sais quoi. I'll make sure I retye/ loosen it, thanks!

    Will do!

    Thank you so much for all your help, off to find some compost now!
  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    @strelitzia32 Haha.. at least you didn’t leave some seaweed extract standing around.. that would probably be ten times worse. 
    @celcius_kkw "Why can I smell fish in my shed?"  :s
  • Hey! So, the plant is now 75cm tall, and I can just see the fourth truss developing! I forgot to water him once which I'm guessing is the reason for some of the leaves having black spots on (whoops  :'( ) But he's generally still looking quite healthy, and I've even got 3-4 little tomatos developing! The plan is to get some tomatorite tomorrow, but I was wondering what people thought in terms of growth? I've potentially got another 20-30cm of growth in the window, but I'm already having to stand on a chair in order to pollinate the top flowers with my paintbrush, so I wouldn't regret stopping his growth off sooner so that I don't have to source a ladder! Also, sorry about the quality of the photos - I can't move the plant anywhere else in order to take better photos anymore, so it was quite difficult to get my phone camera to focus!
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Even after you pinch out the top it will still grow a bit taller, so if pushed for space do it now.  It will just put the growing into the fruit.😁
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    P.S. It looks nice and healthy to me. The dark lower leaves were probably cold through the glass when it was small.
  • Even after you pinch out the top it will still grow a bit taller, so if pushed for space do it now.  It will just put the growing into the fruit.😁
    Thank you!
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