Tomatoes - should I pot these on now?

[chappy]

Hi all,

All my tomatoes have got a good true leaf and I can see roots coming through the bottom of the tray.

Should I pot them on into 4" pots now?  Or wait?

Quite pleased with them this year.  Not half as leggy as usual.  I've certainly seen worse in some shops/garden centres.

[chappy]

[tim]

Those look great!

I would move them on, planting as deeply as possible. Make sure they're moist so that the soil doesn't fall off.

[chappy]

Thanks Tim.

Will do them ASAP.

[goodlife]

Those look great!

I would move them on, planting as deeply as possible. Make sure they're moist so that the soil doesn't fall off.

Yep..but do not bury the leaves.. :) ..leave the soil level just bellow the seed leaves.. ;)

[chappy]

will do. Thanks.

[chappy]

Gonna try and get these done tonight.

Should I feed them with anything when transplainting?  balanced fertiliser?  Seaweed extract?

Or should I just let them get the most out of the nutrients in the fresh compost first?

[Debs]

Hi chappy,

You shouldn't need to give them anything additional at this early stage as they are still quite small, and the compost will contain

enough nutrients for now.

Debs

[janafolly]

Hi everyone,
Unless you really need to, from the picture, you can leave these another week or more at least.
Still plenty of nutrients in the existing compost if they are this size, and they will produce roots outside the container as they will very quickly in the slightly larger pots, so I would hang on a bit.

The larger pots will be that much harder to place on a window sill, I assume that these are an indoor variety, as compared to a bush variety.

So unless you like buying lots of compost - hang on a bit until they are a bit easier to handle, and the weather is a bit warmer.
Best wishes

JW

[meggzee]

Gordon B! I wish mine looked as good as them. Mine were all leggy and droopy.. How deep should you plant them to start off with?

[bupster]

Don't think it's a case of how deep they're sown, but of the light levels and the warmth. Luckily you can rescue leggy tomatoes as they produce more roots on their stems if you bury them a bit deeper when potting on - which I always do even though I've very limited  space. I don't always have the time to look after them when they need it so they have to  manage!

[manicscousers]

welcome to the site, janafolly and meggzee.. ;D

[chappy]

Thanks for the reply janafolly.

lol.  This photo is now over a week ago and some of the plants now have two true leaves.  At this rate I'll have a truss in a few weeks. ;)

This is actually my 3rd year at growing Toms, last year was pretty much a right off due to weather and being late sowing.

But these are looking fab.  I'm really chuffed and treating them like royalty.

They are all outdoor varieties from what I remember and all cordon varities. Thoughthe plums will probably go in poly greenhouse.

Gardeners delight (love em, made me realise why I'd had a go in teh first place)
Roma (I will have my own tomatoe sauce this year :D )
Ailsa Craig (25p reduced in wilkos last year)
Moneymaker (25p reduced in wilkos last year)
Alicante (25p reduced in wilkos last year)

I'll maybe leave them another week but don't want them to become pot bound and want to get the stems producing roots.

I'd actually not realised that my front window probably gets more light hours per day and I'd always stuck them in the back bedroom where they only get sunlight till midday.

I'm learning! :)

[chappy]

Gordon B! I wish mine looked as good as them. Mine were all leggy and droopy.. How deep should you plant them to start off with?

Thanks for the compliments.  Yours will be fine once you can plant them into bigger pots up to the seed leaves.  very resiliant tomatoes even though they look like they will snap at any minute. I keep telling all my friends there's no need to buy tomatoes in England during the summer.  Everyone should grow them.

They were sown with about 1/4" of compost on top.

The trick which I picked up was to turn the tray *every* day.  So they don't lean and look for light.

Also take the propgator lid off as soon as they come through as the lid/condensation blocks the light.

Also I reduced the heat in my heated propgator by using an electric timer to turn it off and on at 15 minutes and then later half hour intervals bringing the heat slowly down before removing the heat altogether.

Also sand in the propgator tray helped spread the heat better, even still you can see the outside plants are behind those in the middle which got most heat and germinated quicker.

Ha, well I talk a good game anyway. :D

[Barnowl]

Silver foil under the sand also helps spread the heat.

[caroline7758]

This may be a silly question, but is the size of the plant relative to the size of the fruit? I've always grown small ones before and my Romanesco are getting huge while my Gardener's Delight are still small. How big will the Romanesco get? i'm worried my greenhouse won't be tall enough!

[tim]

You'll win, whichever, Chappy - but, if the roots are showing, I still say move them now. Storage space is a different matter that only you can decide.

And, of course, I didn't mean plant over the leaves!

[chappy]

Don't worry Tim I wasn't going to. ;)

I think I will pot them on as I've got plenty of room in my bay window before outside time comes.

[chappy]

This may be a silly question, but is the size of the plant relative to the size of the fruit? I've always grown small ones before and my Romanesco are getting huge while my Gardener's Delight are still small. How big will the Romanesco get? i'm worried my greenhouse won't be tall enough!

Lol.  the tallest plants I had last year were gardener's delight.  I could have grown them up bean poles.

Not sure on the answer to that but a strong (sotcky rather than tall and thin) plant would grow better fruit I would imagine.

[jennym]

.... How big will the Romanesco get? i'm worried my greenhouse won't be tall enough!

About 4 or 5 ft.

[tim]

On re-reading,  may I qualify my last remark? Even the Government can do a U-turn!

I am happy to transplant a seedling with only 2 leaves & a tap root, but when the roots are better formed, I think it preferable to wait until they are a coherent mass. And since yours only have 2 leaves, I go with the other advice given.