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Tomatoes - time to sow!
Simon Knott
Posts: 115
in Fruit & veg
Tomatoes it's time to sow seeds see how to do this through to harvesting tomatoes In my video series. Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkorDVWgdQwNtbeGpQ1jKXZkr468GT0iP
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I sowed my seeds mid march last year and ended up throwing the whole lot out because of the cold spring, i sowed in the first week in May the plants grew away perfectly and i got a good crop.
This year I will do the same.the seasons are later now
Sowed mine 1st Feb as I always do, in fact I was a bit late this year, they are now potted on into 3" pots.
I need to catch the best of the weather here, which is May and June. I need flowers on them by then or else I will get left with green ones which I don't like.
I have a very well tested recipe for green tomato chutney I could send you
Started mine last weekend for the indoor ones. I won't start outdoor ones until late April and always more in hope than expectation. I did get some ripe fruit outside last year, growing them in pots standing against a west facing wall
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I always sow my outdoor ones in April too - absolutely no point in starting earlier - they just get pale and lanky and floppy with having to be on the dining room windowsill for too long. I've always had good crops from plants sown in April so I'm not going to change now
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Yes, always sow when you know it's right for your area and the environment that your growing in. Mine are for greenhouse tomatoes and anytime from mid Feb to early April will suffice.
Mine have to be undercover up here, but starting too early is still a waste of time as it's too cold for them to do much growing in spring, even with some protection. I don't have a proper greenhouse, otherwise I migtht do them a little earlier. Sown in April, they catch up reasonably quickly anyway.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Mine are all grown in the GH, couldn't grow then outside here. They won't go out into the GH until beginning of May, they will get potted on and kept in the conservatory, they never go lanky.
no thanks for the offer of recipe raisingirl? I don't get any green ones left.
Do yours do ok outside then.
No not really but I keep trying. I lost the whole greenhouse to blight a couple of years ago and thought maybe if I'd had some outside they'd have had some chance. Last year I got maybe a dozen or so decent sized and a couple of dozen cherry toms that ripened in the most sheltered spot against the west facing wall of the house, tucked in the sunniest corner.
I'm not very good at tomatoes generally but I keep going in the hope something will 'click' and I'll get a bumper crop. This is generally true of most veg.
I've been gardening for years but I'm a relative novice at veg (only 7 years).
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Ups, wrong thread.
Last edited: 02 March 2017 20:13:25
I do well with cherry tomatos outside (I'm in northern Denmark) they have to be up against a wall though, I'm lucky enough to have a long southfacing wall and I grew sungold, some striped "normal" tomatos whose name I forgot and roma VF all in growbags, all produced fruit, and since I'm a stats-aholic I can even tell you how much I got per plant.
I planted the seeds on the 3rd of march, and planted them outside on the 3rd June.(last frost is 1st June normaly) I got 1.2kg per plant from the roma's 1.1kg form the sungold and 2.2kg from the stripy thing. They were all planted three plants to a 80L growbag, watered constantly and fed two or three times with a general fertiliser.
Not great yealds but not bad for outside in my opinion My greenhouse tomatos last year did nothing, but I think that's becasue my greenhouse has glass walls but a plastic roof, and it needs changing.
But I see for me it is time to sow, my house however runs about 10C at night and not much over 13C during the day so they are very slow to grow, this year I've made a lit cabinate so it will be warmer and I hope to have larger starts.