I have ten plants/six inside the greenhouse/four outside..I have also got plenty of leaf growth but the trusses look healthy,so guilty of overfeeding early on..
I garden in Derbyshire and the weather is all over the place.I too will be cutting
the tops off this weekend.Like most of you i am praying for full sun to turn them.
Every year i plant two Tumbler variety in a hanging basket/starting off in greenhouse/then outside when warmer.so far six tomatoes eaten/ by the time we have eaten them the others should be ready to harvest.
in reply Sheila i would remove just bottom foliage for now also use feed twice weekly
Because I am growing in a conservatory, the growbags nearest the window end dry out quicker than the ones at the house end. They were ready to be watered last night at least the window end ones were getting very dry, so I fed them all.
I feed with 4.5l of diluted feed per growbag first, I then go round again watering until the water starts to pool and drain more slowly, so the house end ones got maybe another 3l per bag, whilst the window end ones probably took aother 6 or 7l per bag.
Is this a sensible approach or should I try to keep track of watering different bags at different times as each dry out?
There is no significant difference between the sizes of the plants but the window end ones have more flowers and tomatoes generally, a couple of early trusses on the house end plants failed to turn into tomatoes (they got left out of feeding first time around), but the later trusses are going well now.
I have learned a lot, I could probably write a short book on the mistakes I've made!
The rule of thumb is to water as required, erring on the side of less is better. It sounds like the bags get a serious soaking. Do you check for moisture beneath the surface? Stick a finger or hand down as far as you can into the mix?
Sounds like a lot of food too. How often are you feeding?
And, growing indoors, your flowers might need a helping hand to pollinate themselves. Outside, insects can help, their fossicking triggering the internal pollination mechanism. The breeze can do the same thing. Without those options available indoors, you can give the flowers a flick with your fingers.
Yeah I stick my finger in to check the moisture deep down and leave watering until they are dry right down, so I'm actually watering about once every 9 or 10 days at the moment, and only feeding on every second watering.
The well known brand feed says to mix 3 caps per 9l of water, and to apply 4.5l per growbag, which is what I have been doing. It does say to feed twice per week for growbags under glass but advice on here is usually once per fortnight hence my strategy of doing it every second watering.
I thought the idea was to let them dry out and then water deeply - by the time I finish watering, the water is still in the compost it hasn't leaked out into the trays (I usually spill a little in the trays) so I don't think I'm adding too much water, just wondering if I would be better off waiting until each bag is completely dry before watering. They wouldl soon be way out of sync and I'm likely to get muddled up!
I may have misrepresented the flowering situation - the 2 shirleys closest to the house have stuck out massive trusses that I didn't spot before (too many plants too close together and too much foilage in the way). I have been flicking the trusses almost every day since they first came out, and as I say the higher trusses are doing much better in most cases. There is actually quite a lot of fruit developing, and pollination seems to be more consistent in the higher trusses, I suspect conditions just weren't good early on (still aren't really, more rain and gales forecast for tonight).
I have been taking out sideshoots, except a couple where I have accidentally broken the growing stem and left a sideshoot to see if it will take over. Most plants have 5 trusses now, although the top one or 2 aren't open yet, so will soon be time to stop them.
Like I say, plenty of mistakes - too many plants in too little space, thinking I could train them out when they reached the ceiling because it worked with sweet millions last year, accidentally breaking bits tryng to reach through the dense foliage, or training. I'm starting to wonder if I let them get too leggy in the first place, the stems get much thicker the higher you go up.... All things considered they are doing pretty well, I'm just trying to work out how I could have done better!
Boater, your regime sounds great. Stick to it. The difference between the bags in terms of moisture, ultimately, will be minimal. It's the infrequent, deep watering that's important.
Feeding twice a week is too much regardless of grow bags, glass, whatever. The manufacturer is (a) furthering the myth that toms are big feeders; and (b) wanting to sell you more of their product.
the blight resistant trail seeds I got from T.M. have the biggest leaves iv'e ever seen on any tomato plants, but not much fruit ! (all coat - no nickers) but they may rally ?
derbyduck, cut back on watering (and also feeding if you're feeding them). Let them struggle a bit, aim for "controlled neglect". It should encourage flowering and fruiting. Toms are plants that, if they sense they're in jeopardy, are more likely to seek to reproduce themselves which is what flowering and fruiting is all about.
Posts
I garden in Derbyshire and the weather is all over the place.I too will be cutting
the tops off this weekend.Like most of you i am praying for full sun to turn them.
Every year i plant two Tumbler variety in a hanging basket/starting off in greenhouse/then outside when warmer.so far six tomatoes eaten/ by the time we have eaten them the others should be ready to harvest.
in reply Sheila i would remove just bottom foliage for now also use feed twice weekly
Because I am growing in a conservatory, the growbags nearest the window end dry out quicker than the ones at the house end. They were ready to be watered last night at least the window end ones were getting very dry, so I fed them all.
I feed with 4.5l of diluted feed per growbag first, I then go round again watering until the water starts to pool and drain more slowly, so the house end ones got maybe another 3l per bag, whilst the window end ones probably took aother 6 or 7l per bag.
Is this a sensible approach or should I try to keep track of watering different bags at different times as each dry out?
There is no significant difference between the sizes of the plants but the window end ones have more flowers and tomatoes generally, a couple of early trusses on the house end plants failed to turn into tomatoes (they got left out of feeding first time around), but the later trusses are going well now.
I have learned a lot, I could probably write a short book on the mistakes I've made!
The rule of thumb is to water as required, erring on the side of less is better. It sounds like the bags get a serious soaking. Do you check for moisture beneath the surface? Stick a finger or hand down as far as you can into the mix?
Sounds like a lot of food too. How often are you feeding?
And, growing indoors, your flowers might need a helping hand to pollinate themselves. Outside, insects can help, their fossicking triggering the internal pollination mechanism. The breeze can do the same thing. Without those options available indoors, you can give the flowers a flick with your fingers.
You have removed the side-shoots, haven't you....?
Yeah I stick my finger in to check the moisture deep down and leave watering until they are dry right down, so I'm actually watering about once every 9 or 10 days at the moment, and only feeding on every second watering.
The well known brand feed says to mix 3 caps per 9l of water, and to apply 4.5l per growbag, which is what I have been doing. It does say to feed twice per week for growbags under glass but advice on here is usually once per fortnight hence my strategy of doing it every second watering.
I thought the idea was to let them dry out and then water deeply - by the time I finish watering, the water is still in the compost it hasn't leaked out into the trays (I usually spill a little in the trays) so I don't think I'm adding too much water, just wondering if I would be better off waiting until each bag is completely dry before watering. They wouldl soon be way out of sync and I'm likely to get muddled up!
I may have misrepresented the flowering situation - the 2 shirleys closest to the house have stuck out massive trusses that I didn't spot before (too many plants too close together and too much foilage in the way). I have been flicking the trusses almost every day since they first came out, and as I say the higher trusses are doing much better in most cases. There is actually quite a lot of fruit developing, and pollination seems to be more consistent in the higher trusses, I suspect conditions just weren't good early on (still aren't really, more rain and gales forecast for tonight).
I have been taking out sideshoots, except a couple where I have accidentally broken the growing stem and left a sideshoot to see if it will take over. Most plants have 5 trusses now, although the top one or 2 aren't open yet, so will soon be time to stop them.
Like I say, plenty of mistakes - too many plants in too little space, thinking I could train them out when they reached the ceiling because it worked with sweet millions last year, accidentally breaking bits tryng to reach through the dense foliage, or training. I'm starting to wonder if I let them get too leggy in the first place, the stems get much thicker the higher you go up.... All things considered they are doing pretty well, I'm just trying to work out how I could have done better!
Boater, your regime sounds great. Stick to it. The difference between the bags in terms of moisture, ultimately, will be minimal. It's the infrequent, deep watering that's important.
Feeding twice a week is too much regardless of grow bags, glass, whatever. The manufacturer is (a) furthering the myth that toms are big feeders; and (b) wanting to sell you more of their product.
the blight resistant trail seeds I got from T.M. have the biggest leaves iv'e ever seen on any tomato plants, but not much fruit ! (all coat - no nickers) but they may rally ?
derbyduck, cut back on watering (and also feeding if you're feeding them). Let them struggle a bit, aim for "controlled neglect". It should encourage flowering and fruiting. Toms are plants that, if they sense they're in jeopardy, are more likely to seek to reproduce themselves which is what flowering and fruiting is all about.