Topic: Bush tomatoes

[northener]

Hello, never grew bush/cherry type toms before just after a few tips. Balconi and Tumbler from Alan Romans are the type i'm growing, currently about 10" on the windowsill. Where is the best spot for this type? it mentions 12" hanging baskets on Alan Romans website, what about removing sideshoots? Could i grow on the patio in growbags? Do they need supports? Any replys appreciated.

[derbex]

Hi, I grow Balconi (yellow) as an extra early on my windowsill. I do nothing but feed and water them and they don't generally get very big at all (< 1ft), they often have more toms than leaves  ;D

Generally with bush types you don't take out the side shoots, and my Balconi don't get big enough to need a support, don't think they need a growbag either, just a small-medium sized pot. I think with Tumbler the main thing will be to keep them off the gound -you could try cutting the growbags in 2 and planting into the open ends?

Jeremy

Jeremy

[northener]

Cheers Jeremy, do you mean like a saddle with the grobags?

[Merry Tiller]

The method is to just chop the growbag in half across the width, not length, so you end up with 2 halves, in effect you have 2 polythene pots full of compost, it works well and needs less watering than 3 plants in each bag

[northener]

I reckon i'm coming over a bit fick here. In two and stand on its end..But won't the bag just flop. I've seen somewhere that you cut the bag in the middle along its width but only cut through half. You then hang over a fence creating two sides[saddle]

[moonbells]

I've grown Tumbler for some years now, three plants per 12" hanging basket. Poor things dry out several times a season, get neglected, occasionally fed and give me loads of tiny sweet tomatoes. 

I should hopefully be getting this year's seed up any day now. I think there was one this morning, so I'm a bit behind you Northerner! But I usually plant later to stop them getting too leggy.

Oh, one hint - expect them to flop over very quickly - and when you plant, plant sideways so they are along the soil surface and leaning against the sides of the container/bag you plant them in.  This way stops the weight of the tomatoes from breaking the stems later in the season when they start to tumble! And also the tomatoes root from their stems, so get an extra link to the soil/compost if you do this.

Full sun is best, sheltered if you can and don't pinch anything out. They just keep on growing! If you haven't got hanging baskets, then either a large tall pot is good, or park a large normal proportion pot on top of a plant saucer on an identical, upturned pot and pop a plant or two (depending on size of pot) in those.  They'll trail over the edges and look lovely on a patio.  You must try and arrange the seedlings symmetrically though or eventually you get more weight on one side and over it goes... 

moonbells

[aquilegia]

I would avoid hanging baskets. Toms use up a lot of water on hot days and I don't think you'd be able to keep the compost in the basket moist enough. I do the grow bags cut in half as mentioned above, but use a mixture of 50:50 compost to topsoil. I find the topsoil is much better at holding onto nutrients and water than plain compost. When I've run out of growbags, I use 10in pots. One plant per pot.

[philcooper]

..... what about removing sideshoots? .....

NL,

You don't remove sideshoots from bush varieties, the shoots terminate all by themselves, that's why they are called "determinant" as opposed to the cordon type which are indeterminat - ie the main stem would carry on growing for ever if you didn't stop it (or frost did it for you)

Phil

[Merry Tiller]

I reckon i'm coming over a bit fick here. In two and stand on its end..But won't the bag just flop. I've seen somewhere that you cut the bag in the middle along its width but only cut through half. You then hang over a fence creating two sides[saddle]

No, they won't flop over so long as you give 'em a good whack on the ground to settle the compost and give them a flat bottom (har har). I've done this a few times and it works much more efficiently than the normal method of using a growbag ie. three toms planted on the flat

[philcooper]

MT,

The other way to give extra depth for rooting (Growbags being a bit shallow), is to lay them horizon (as the instructions on the bag) and make cuts large enough to take a large bottomless pot (like the black cut flower buckets that supermarkets throw) away, and fill the pots with the contents of a second bag

This supports 3 plants in very deep compost for the price of 2 bags

I water the growbag (through half bottles let into the bag) and fertilise the pots as I was told many years ago that toms produce differnt roots for feeding and absorbing water - it's the basis of ring culture

Phil

[Merry Tiller]

Yes Phil, and you can also stack the G/B's one on top of the other cutting a few holes between the two to allow the roots access to the bottom bag, I think the problem is that 3 plants in 1 G/B is a bit stressfull unless you have a drip watering system.
BTW, have you watched the "Grow With Joe" videos, Lot's of advice for growing Tom's and tips on various veg growing