Have 2 hanging baskets of 2 plants each and although the baskets are not currently hanging (they are sat on top of a couple of pots at the moment) the plants are getting on for a couple of feet high now and are actually taller than the chain they will be hanging from. Is this normal ? Any adivce? I assumed they would droop over the sides but they are aiming for the sky at the moment! lol
thanks for any tips ...
can't help i'm afraid, mine are doing exactly the same ;D
::)
Ditto with the Tumblers, thought it was just me! Have put mine out in a moment of madness, been and looked today and they have survived torrential rain and huge wind! Not grown any toms before so have no idea! I am just going to leave them to their own devices because they are just a bit of fun for me, not part of my main tom crop.
same here!
i thought that they were wrongl labelled as last year my tumblers did that almost immediately-it seems they are a bit tall really.......
o well-gravity defying toms!
kitty
This sounds strange. I don`t like `tumbler` much but I grow them because some around here do and the odd shilling never goes amiss. Mine for sale are about five inches now and starting to tip over and go `stragly`-that`s what tumblers do ;)
My tumblers are also tall and straight with no sign of tumbling.
I haven't got any tumbler but have grown Green Sausage which was so laid back it was almost horizontal. Have got hold of some Whippersnapper tom seeds, which has pink cherry toms and supposedly goes well in baskets so we will see!
;D
My 'Gartenperle' are about 2 foot high and showing no sign of tumbling.
They're from the free packet that came with Grow Your Own a few months ago. Now wouldn't it be funny if everyone whose toms aren't tumbling used the same seeds and it turned out that they weren't actually Gartenperle at all...
Robsa
nice idea but my gartenperle were T&M ;D
but i do have a rogue Totem that bears no resemblence to it's bruvvas and sisters :o
I got my tomatoes muddled up but I either way some of them are the free Gartenperle and they aren't keen on tumbling yet!!
;D
My Gartenperle are still sulking in a pot, about 2 ins high and doing nothing! In the spirit of always hoping for the best i am leaving them to see what happens, can't bear to ditch them!!
???
Even the thinnings hang around for ages, can't bear to throw them out, excess at Yogurt pot stage for over a month..... if you have spare ground and plant them out they soon recover, but usually have to be picked green as soon as the dreaded blight is seen or you loose about 2/3rds
:'(
Quote from: MrsKP on May 20, 2006, 19:34:19
nice idea but my gartenperle were T&M ;D
but i do have a rogue Totem that bears no resemblence to it's bruvvas and sisters :o
I am pretty sure that GYO's seeds are supplied by T&M.
I've still got the packet for my Gartenperle which I got free with GYO, and they were supplied by Thompson & Morgan. I sowed the seeds at the beginning of March and I've now got 9 plants about 12-18" high in 10 & 15cm pots, and 5 smaller plants of various sizes. None have bent very much apart from the two biggest one which have a pronounced lean. Perhaps they only tumble once they start producing fruit?
The leaves on some of the bigger plants are starting to look a bit wilted and I'm wondering if they're getting a bit weak and sappy from the warm conditions, so I've put 2 in an unheated greenhouse outside to see if they'll survive tonight! :o ;D
I think the germination rate was excellent as I got 16 germinated from 18, and 14 plants survived. 2 didn't survive my cat unfortunately! :( ;D ;D
Dave
Quote from: MutantHobbit on May 20, 2006, 23:37:15
I've still got the packet for my Gartenperle which I got free with GYO, and they were supplied by Thompson & Morgan. I sowed the seeds at the beginning of March and I've now got 9 plants about 12-18" high in 10 & 15cm pots, and 5 smaller plants of various sizes. None have bent very much apart from the two biggest one which have a pronounced lean. Perhaps they only tumble once they start producing fruit?
The leaves on some of the bigger plants are starting to look a bit wilted and I'm wondering if they're getting a bit weak and sappy from the warm conditions, so I've put 2 in an unheated greenhouse outside to see if they'll survive tonight! :o ;D
I think the germination rate was excellent as I got 16 germinated from 18, and 14 plants survived. 2 didn't survive my cat unfortunately! :( ;D ;D
Dave
Of the ones I sowed two are huge, one has even forked and they seem content on heading up and up like Jack's bean stalk. The other is about two inches tall and sulky, I have no idea why I haven't binned it. If they continue this upright stance, I'll have to give them cages rather than a basket.
My freebie Gartenperles are between 8" and 12" long and all 4 of them are 'tumbling' ;D Nothing to do with the gales blowing them horizontal! ;D
my 'Gartenperle' were also freebies with GYO mag.....after what I thought was a very slow start (altho they all germinated) I now have about a dozen strong looking plants between 8 & 10" tall but showing no sign of 'tumbling'
9 are still in the unheated greenhouse I share but 3 are now indoors (again)....this is because last Wednesday late morning, I brought 3 out of the greenhouse and placed them on my patio table - along with other stuff, to gradually try to 'harden them off' ready for putting into hanging baskets - then went out for rest of the day........while out, the rain just fell down & the wind blew hard!
when I got home mid evening, my 3 plants were very badly knocked about and had bent right over in their pots and altho they've straightened up more or less, two have permanent 'kinks' in them.....they're now back indoors (cos greenhouse is some distance away) waiting for weather to improve so they can go back outside!!
I wondered too whether they'd put the wrong seed in the packets, as mine are showing no sign at all of tumbling - the ones in the greenhouse are standing straight up at aboyt 9" tall, and the ones outside in hanging baskets are bearing flowers at 4" tall! Funny old game, gardening. Win some, lose some...
I have sown a number of "Garden Pearl" seeds and they are now about a foot tall and look more like cordons than tumbling plants. I have also sown a number of "Tumbling Tom" seeds and these are tumbling nicely as I was expecting. Will stick with these next year.
I've grown Tumblers for years in hanging baskets, and they do start off growing upwards even if you plant them sideways (I usually plant at an angle, so that as much stem as possible is buried in the basket to produce more roots). At some point they become top heavy and twist round, and then the top starts to grow upwards again leaving it in a sort-of Sherlock Holmes pipe shape! I tend to encourage mine to do this early on, when the stems are still bendy enough to twist without snapping.
Eventually gravity wins. When fruit starts to set, it will just head downwards.
moonbells
will wait and see then, thanks for the all the info :)
I agree with Moonbells.
I have grown Tumbler for about the last 10 years. My current plants are anout 12" to 16" tall at the moment and bushy and upright.
I grow single plants in a 5litre pot on staging. They do eventually tumble but will also have upright stems in the middle if the plant.
They should be the first to crop this year as I have small green toms present now.
Very proliffic variety!
Jerry
Just to show how they look:
These are in a cold house in large pots in a tray to make watering easier.
(http://www.crablakefarm.co.uk/Allotment/images/Tumbler1.jpg)
And a small tom full of promise!
(http://www.crablakefarm.co.uk/Allotment/images/Tumbler2.jpg)
Jerry
hmph. mine dont look nuffink like that. :-\
well mine have started to droop in their hanging baskets but seem to be growing horizontal now!
nope!
mine dont look like that either!
i have given in-taken them out of their hanging baskets and put them in tubs-as i watered them in they collectively sighed with relief!
tumbler toms my bottom!
i wonder what they really are?
kitty
My toms have sarted to bud and are developing a definite lean and some are 90 degrees to the vertical. these are the 10 - 12 inchers so seem to be as advertised. Not much spread to them yet though? :-\
Dave
Mine are like Jerry's, altho no fruitlets yet, but they are the first of my toms to have flowers. They bushed up almost as soon as they started growing and are really good chunky bushy little plants. Now, all I need is the other half to put me a bracket up so I can hang the basket or else they are going to tumble out onto the floor!
well - I transferred a couple of my 'tumbling' tom. plants last week, which were very upright at the time, but not as bushey as Gerry's look.... into their hanging baskets but did not hang them....however....when I watered them in - they collapsed and laid level with the compost!! :o.....which scared me somewhat....why did they do that?
waited several hours and no improvement so put a support stick in and tied them to it....have left it there and they look pretty healthy - still sitting out on top of buckets at the moment cos of the windy weather (all huddled together with other plants on the patio).....
wondering tho :-\........why did they do that when I watered them - did it gently with rose on watering can....hoping wind will drop soon & I can hang them up on their brackets (had to have a handyman come & do them for me ::) along with a few other jobs).....does this mean I'll have to leave the support cane in?....I know I want them to 'tumble' but not to lay prostrate in their baskets :(
H.P.
well i dunno, i am getting rather despondant. i didnt believe you all when you said that the gyo gartenperles might be duds, but i just aint getting any bush or tumble out of mine. they are still about 10" tall tiny side shoots small truss forming on top. i bought four hanging baskets especially which i potted them up into about a month ago - hung up on sunny balcony- took down from sunny balcony when weather turned. hung them up agian a few days ago. they aint happy. and neither am i :( ???
HP, The weight of the water on the lush soft baby growths was probably the cause. I wouldn't worry, really I wouldn't. I would take the support out and leave them to it. I have never thought them particularly pretty in baskets, always look scuffy and a real jumble to me...maybe that is just me tho. Once they toughen up they will do what they should do.
As for the tall spindly gartenperles, have you thought about pinching the tips out? When you think about it, you do this with annuals to make them bushier, so maybe the same would apply to the toms - it would certainly encourage the side shoots to grow fast.
If only we would have some constant sunshine (altho apparently it is glorious in North Devon), then I'm sure all the toms would cheer up no end!
funny you should say that E.J. about the toms. in baskets not looking very pretty....I thought I'd push a few trailing nasturtiums around the edge of the basket so that they hang down & look colourful....won't do any harm will it?
I know that the nasts. are prone to blackfly but is it likely to get onto the tomatoes?
Or....maybe some either not very tall little bedding plant - any suggestions anyone - or isn't it a good idea....maybe other things in the basket will prevent the tomato getting a good 'feed' and making good progress!
Thanks - H.P.
I would worry about the nasts. because of the blackfly. I love them, but they never get as good as they could because they get absolutely infested! I would go for something like trailing lobelia or one of the other trailers to go in it - I never know the names of those trailing bedding plants you can buy in the nurseries.
I can't see it doing any harm having some bedding in, just not to many. If you are feeding the basket then both will benefit, and if you can encourage more pollinators to your basket, then more tomatoes for you! ;D
I sowed some gardenperles during the middle of march and kept these inside. They have grown just like cordons - no tumbling at all.
Somewhat oddly I sowed some more from the same packet during the middle of April and put them outside in the greenhouse as soon as the seedlings appeared. These have bushed out nicely and look entirely different to the ones sown in March.