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Problem tomato plants
sonjaday
Posts: 12
in Fruit & veg
Hello, I need help please. I've grown tomato plants from seed kept from last year's crop. The variety is Sweet Millions. They were sown about two months ago, but they're still only about 6 inches tall and they have two trusses of flowers each. They don't seem to be growing any taller and seem a bit puny. For the first time I've mixed the compost with used coffee grounds and I'm wondering whether this could be one of the problems. Does anyone have any helpful advice please? I'd be very grateful, thank you.
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Posts
Sweet Millions is an F1 variety, which means the seeds come from the crossing of two (or more) very specific varieties. Because you have collected and saved the seed from last year's crop, what you now have is an F2 variety, which is likely to be similar to one of the original parents and not necessarily much like 'Sweet Millions'.
I doubt your compost mix is the problem. It has been a bit of a cold start to the year though and a bit too cold overnight in an unheated greenhouse for tomatoes so they are probably just sulking and should start to romp away now the night temperatures aren't going down so much.
I would pot them on and bury them up to the first leaves which will allow them to produce more feeding roots from the stem.
I would pick those flowers off to give the plant more energy to grow a good root system, plenty of time for flowers, they are too small to bear fruit yet.
what will you do with them when they are grown, plant outside or in tubs in the greenhouse?
Thank you so much BobTheGardener and Lyn, for your advice and for your really quick replies.
The F1 hybrid makes sense, I bought them last year as little plants from a local nursery and I don't remember seeing anything about F1. I had such a good season with the Sweet Millions that I was keen to replicate it this year. I will need to buy fresh seeds next year, if I'm to grow this variety.
Lyn, I had intended potting them up into larger tubs in the greenhouse. I'm going to ring the original grower of last year's plants to speak to him on Monday and hope will have some plants for me to have this season. So I may have my Sweet Millions after all!!
Maybe I'll grow some of these 'experiments' on and it'll be interesting as BobTheGardener says to see what variety we end up with!!
Last edited: 20 May 2017 10:08:09
I agree about the temperatures so far this Spring. I've got tomato seedlings grown from seed that look very healthy but I'm worried that because the greenhouse is unheated it may damage them.
All we can all do is hope that Summer turns up soon. The forecast looks OK ish for the next 2 weeks so fingers crossed for all of us :-)
Thank you Chris the Gardener
I usually buy small plants in the spring and grow them on, but last year I had trouble finding any nice healthy looking plants. The garden centres tend to buy them in too early and they're too leggy and spindly by the time you need them. Hence, I decided to try to sow my own and as the plants were really good last year, I thought I could save some of my own seeds!!
Thanks to BobTheGardener I know now they were F1 hybrids and I shouldn't have done that. 
It'll be interesting to see what I end up growing. Good luck everyone with all your produce, yes hope we have a lovely summer.
Thank you everyone for your help.
Hi sonjaday
My tomatilloes have similarly started trying to produce fruit this week despite still being in their smaller pot inside. So similarly I'll be nipping off those buds to stop them.
I think it must have just been the right conditions in the conservatory this week for them to want to start producing fruit.
Plants tend to do a lot of things on their own terms. Even the same seeds will appear to grow differently given a different set of circumstances. So I don't think there are any problems with your tomatoes. I find they often seem to grow in spurts. Just when I think they're not happy about something I find the next day they're suddenly two inches bigger.
I don't think of myself so much as a gardener in control, but rather a facilitator of plants! As long as I give them the basics they'll work with it and decide whether they want to grow or not.
The temptation is always to sow early too sonjaday - and that can lead to a few issues with growing, but there are so many seeds of everything, including tomatoes, available, so you might want to have a look and do some research for the future regarding different types to grow.
We also have a seed swap thread here, so you could possibly swap with a couple of people who want to do the same. There might be two or three people whow would like to experiment - you could each buy a different seed and then swap the ones you don't need.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thank you for your help, I've learnt something by this anyway.