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Tomato seeds and seedlings
tommo57
Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
Just wondering about the best compost for sowing and planting on tomato seedlings, always grow Shirley,s, but every year I have to soak seedlings in Epsom salts to prevent yellowing, they always come back but would like to plant out really green seedlings, thanks guys ????
0
Posts
It seems strange to get a magnesium deficiency if you're using a decent compost.
I've grown toms for many many years. I usually use Levingtons compost but have used others and never had yellow leaves on my toms. Are the seedlings spending too much time in small pots and using all available Mg possibly?
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks Pete, think you are spot on, I usually pot the seedlings on into 3" pots and then leave the until 1st flowers open, this year will do 3" and then 5 before into grow bags, cheers ?
Fingers crossed!
Good luck
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I like Levington Pro M3. You are more likely to get this from a nursery than a garden centre.
I have mentioned this in another thread but GW and Garden Which do regular trials of composts worth checking out. Unfortunately just because one brand is good for one thing it does not mean it is best for everything even different pack sizes of the same brand may not perform the same. I suspect this is because batches are mixed separately for each production run. I prefer large pots to grow bags as they give a better depth of soil & don't dry out so fast.
I'm fairly new to tomato growing, only 2 yes experience.
I sow into seed compost, then pot on using ordinary mpc. Finally the plants are put into black buckets containing "tomato growbag" compost in the greenhouse.
Like Iain, I use buckets for a better root depth.
I saw a gizmo on TV a while back that holds a grow bag on its side so you plant your toms on the side of the bag which is pointing upwards giving a lot more root depth.
No idea if they're any good though
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I tried "halos" in grow bags last year, makes watering a lot easier, will use them again this year for sure, about £20 for six on amazon......... Could avoid watering for 3 days no probs, even in height of summer.......
Yes I have used the halos as well they are an adaptation of the old ring culture method. For the benefit of newbies Toms have 2 main sets of roots: long water roots (which as the name suggests search out water) and shorter fibrous "feeding" roots. The idea of the halo is you water the outer ring which supplies a water reservoir, and apply feed to the inner ring. Plants do very well better than straight into grow bags. Beechgrove Garden have done a lot of trials worth checking out their results.
I planted out some tomato seeds last night into MPC.. they are in the propagator in the sunny kitchen right now. You think MPC will be ok?.. It's 7cm pot.