Author Topic: Starting tomato plants (Read 8844 times)

tim · « **Reply #20 on:** March 02, 2004, 17:58:45 »

You'll love the grow-lamp, Ina. We grew lettuce in the kitchen - just for fun!! = Tim

tim · « **Reply #21 on:** March 02, 2004, 18:16:47 »

Now then, you lot - after starting them, you've got to grow them on till plant-out time. All the guides say wait till you get the first flower truss. With decades of trying, I have to put mine out at about 6-8" without. It's some time before they get their first flowers in their bags - like about 12".

I notice that our garden centre plants that are in flower appear to be 'starved'. We grow to p/o stage, on gentle bottom heat, like 60deg, in a south facing lean-to.

So - what am I doing wrong? Or am I? = Tim

ina · « **Reply #22 on:** March 03, 2004, 18:42:13 »

Well Tim, I've got news for you. I never wait for the first flower truss, I just plant them out when it's time.

tim · « **Reply #23 on:** March 03, 2004, 18:49:41 »

- so how, and why should you aim for flowers - someone??= Tim

philcooper · « **Reply #24 on:** March 04, 2004, 09:26:18 »

Do you get good yields early enough - if so stick with what you're doing or experiment with the "expert" advice, which is presumably built around their growing conditions and facilities, which may be different from yours.

Tomato seed is cheap enough to experiment with and for the none F1 varieties dead easy to save (to make it free!!!)

mysticmog · « **Reply #25 on:** March 05, 2004, 10:46:17 »

Showing off moment...

My toms (that you all told me to bin cos I'd started them to early) are very happy ickle plants in their second pots.

:D ;DTomatos are fab!! ;D :D

philcooper · « **Reply #26 on:** March 05, 2004, 12:49:00 »

.....that you all told me to bin....

I believe that you should withdraw this viscious accusation - I, and the vast majority of A4A members, have never suggested Solanaceaecide!!!!

Please see the picture of their cousins to the left and you can see that anyone suggesting such a thing must be heartless in the extreme!!!!

mysticmog · « **Reply #27 on:** March 05, 2004, 12:54:55 »

Soz PC, not all of you...some...I've been told a million times not to exaggerate...

;D

ina · « **Reply #28 on:** March 05, 2004, 13:14:11 »

Too bad you retracted that statement about 'you all', I was just getting ready to have a go at you.

Second pot already? Not ready for a deep, 1 liter yoghurt container yet? Remember they stop growing a while after replanting but under the soil, beautiful things are happening.

I'm so happy for you that they are doing well, let 'them all' eat their words, you'll eat tomatoes.

Tenuse · « **Reply #29 on:** March 05, 2004, 16:29:56 »

Yeah mystic, but all your cabbages died, now didn't they!!!!

Ten x

hehehe

mysticmog · « **Reply #30 on:** March 06, 2004, 00:22:08 »

Do not mock their passing , Ten, am sad at the loss of so many seedlings, brave and true, who were cut down in their prime - well, who were sown a tad early actually...

Case in point - tomatos are hardly little thingys, and tend to be ok when you start em early (this is not the only time I've started em early on, so I guess that I know) but never tried cabbage before, and it did say on the packet, Jan to March, so I gave it a go - all dead now ( :-[ :-[).

Consider me told on all fronts...so you reckon 9" pots not gonna be big enough for HUGE root structure then ina? Maybe go for bigger n better? (50 of them!! where am I gonna put em all?)

ina · « **Reply #31 on:** March 06, 2004, 07:14:57 »

Hi Mystic,
It's not so much the size of the container as it is the depth.
50 plants? Ehmmmmmmmmm, I think you better buy shares in a yoghurt factory.

If you do use the narrow and tall 1 liter yoghurt or milk containers (holes in the bottom!), they will take up a lot less room than the same amount of 9" pots. Why don't you just do a selection and do the rest as you are used to? This way you can test what works best and.........let us know!

Ceri · « **Reply #32 on:** March 06, 2004, 11:46:05 »

This year, I'm using 1lt fresh juice cartons with the tops cut off - as they are square they fit really well two deep on the kitchen windowsill. I read (I think in Gardening News) that its reckoned that colder days and warmer nights make sturdier, less leggy plants, so I'm trying this with my tomato and basil seedlings this year - cool unheated windowsill during the day and pop back in the propogator at night.

philcooper · « **Reply #33 on:** March 06, 2004, 11:57:17 »

Ceri,

According to a table I found in a US book, tomatoes do not germinate below 10 degrees C and at 10C 82% germinate, but take 42 days!!!!

At 15 - 25 C the percentage is ~98% and they take 14 days at 15C and 6 days at 20-25

I'm not sure what happens if they are 15-20C daytime but 4C (fridge temp in salad compartment) at night.

Perhaps you are on the verge of a scientific breakthrough, and in future years members of this list will be quoting "Ceri's method" as the way to produce healthy toms!!

We expect nothing less than a scientific paper in "Nature" recording the results of your work!!! ;)

Ceri · « **Reply #34 on:** March 06, 2004, 13:34:59 »

I'm not doing this with poor defenceless seeds - but happy strongly growing seedlings that I was worried about getting leggy - I will make full report of my progress with Ceri's method (methinks if it works I'll be getting credit for someone else's idea though!!) Perhaps they'll name a tomato after me - one with enthusiastic, if haphazard habits would be perfect!!

philcooper · « **Reply #35 on:** March 06, 2004, 20:18:45 »

I'm glad to see that Solanaceae are getting the support they deserve (except for one notable area earlier)

There's a potato called Cherie, but that Mrs Blair's fault!!!

john_miller · « **Reply #36 on:** March 06, 2004, 20:45:31 »

At 4C at night they are probably going to go quite purple, Phil. Definitely sturdy though. Given that plants do most of their active nutrient uptake in the two hours either side of dawn there could be some other consequences. Optimum temperatures for tomatoes are, as you quote, around 15C-20C.
As they do not produce adventitious roots like tomatoes I've been trying to envisage why you would want to deep plant chilis and aubergines and not had any success. Can you enlighten me, Phil?

philcooper · « **Reply #37 on:** March 06, 2004, 20:51:48 »

Sorry, I have had limited experience/success with chilis and aubergines - they seem to start off ok but I never get decent fruiting results. Maybe the temperatures haven't been high enough when I tried - I didn't grow them last year

john_miller · « **Reply #38 on:** March 06, 2004, 21:09:33 »

Sounds like bad timing, Phil. From what I have read, if temperatures have been your problem, last year would have been the time to try them? Isn't 20/20 hindsight wonderful? Peppers and aubergines certainly do do better than tomatoes in high heat.
Two tips I could add are that peppers do not like high soil salt concentrations (the first symptom is bud drop) while aubergines set better where soil moisture is adequate, should you ever want to try again.

tim · « **Reply #39 on:** March 07, 2004, 07:06:49 »

Welcome back, John!! Thanks for your 2 notes.

1. It wasn't this year at the GC.
2. If I were to leave my toms in the propagating 'house 'till they had a flower truss, they would, as I say. be over 1' high, and spindly, and getting a bit pot-bound. That has never seemed a good ploy?? Oh, and I was always taught to space them on the bench so that leaves never touched?? = Tim

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Author Topic: Starting tomato plants (Read 8844 times)