i just came back from hols today, i had put my toms from gh to kitchen so neighbour could water them,they are now about 2 ft high and i have put them in garden tonight, is this ok??? its my 1st yr as a alottmenteer, thanks!!!
Have some fleece on hand just in case we get a late frost!
;D
Hi all,
i've had my toms out for a month all is well, just watch the weather like a hawk :P
2 grow bags planted out this last weekend. seem ok so far..
its just a trial as i have some little babies in the gh,anyone know when its ok to put chilles out in our new climaate!!
It was pretty chilly (no pun intended) even in the southern climes of Harrow last night, around 6C. So I think anything like chillies will certainly need a cloche or coldframe for protection for the next week or two.
We've used cloches (bought via Ebuygumbay :) :) ) quite a lot this spring, to very good effect.
we had a bit of frost lastnight (Stirling, Scotland) but everything seems ok. Marmande still alive!!
Despite no apparent frost risk in London, I'm hedging my bets - most chillies and toms still filling the GH, some in the CF and some out.
Tomatoes in 5" pots gradually being hardened off: I might start planting out later this week if the forecasts are true.
I wouldn't plant chillies out at all. Grow them under glass. Even in my fairly sheltered garden, aubergines & chillies don't do anything useful outdoors. (They look pretty - if I've got any over I sometimes use 1 or 2 as ornamental spot plants.)
I tried two plants (Espanola and Mirasol) up at the allotment last year (put out in July) and they did pretty well.
The poinsettias were in front of south facing wall in the garden
PS Didn't like the November frost ;D
How long do you take to harden off tomatoes? It's a real faff moving them in & out of the greenhouse every day and I haven't got a tall enough coldframe.
our definition of hardening off <runs and hides under desk for risk of getting told off> is to just bung stuff in their pots down the side of the greenhouse, where it is very sheltered and hope for the best! They get that for about a week and if they survive that they go in the ground.
Our survival of the fittest approach does work for us more than it doesn't, we have not got time to faff about too much either!
I'm close to that, BUT.........http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0504/hardening_off.asp
We just leave the GH door and vent open 24/7 to harden plants off.
"2 to 6 weeks!". Ok if going straight from a propagator, but not from a cold greenhouse, surely!
I think two to six weeks is spoiling them rotten ;D
Wow, beautiful chilli photos.
What should the temperature be (at night) before planting tomatoes out?
"Two to six weeks" - I think a lot of this advice (handed down & rarely tested) comes from The Victorian Kitchen Garden days, when you had staff & had to keep them busy. If you have the time & patience, then trundling stuff out every morning and back every evening does result in very sturdy plants.
In practice, as it's just the two of us and we also have to do all the washing, housework & shopping as well, it's usually give it a taste of the great outdoors and then let them get on with it.
But I still hover and am very nervous about putting things out too early....
I am still nervous about putting them out but am chucking 6 tomato plants out every morning & back at night - I thought 4 days should do it then onto the next six - all I can cope with every morning before work. At 2 to 6 weeks it would be September before I had them all out. ;D
Wonderful chilli plants.
Good idea to do them in batches, Marymary- think I might do that.
Wow Barnowl! love your chilis!! did you keep any and over winter them? if so are they springing back to life?? Got a lemon drop chili that only had a months rest!!
7 Days ago I put my first 7 tomato plants outside in the garden. For some protection I put up a plastic screen, 1 meter high. The rest of my tomato plants are still going inside every evening. One more week I guess, before planting them out.
Same with my peppers. Even though it is not very warm at the moment, about 14-17 degrees, and a good bit of rain, the plants are growing very fast.
My method of hardening off it to start them on the windowsill, then move them to the mini-greenhouse. Then they get planted under cloches with the ends left open. finally, these come off.
ok must be still too cold up here, i think i may have killed two of my Garden Pearls :(
ahh well still got 20 more plants to kill ;)
Quote from: Biscombe on May 15, 2007, 20:59:24
Wow Barnowl! love your chilis!! did you keep any and over winter them? if so are they springing back to life?? Got a lemon drop chili that only had a months rest!!
That's good work with the lemon drop.
Tried fleece over the ones on the allotment - they died :'(
Tried others in the garage (unheated) - only one survivor ???
Indoors had a Mirasol and Apache and both have survived. :)
Of course the real challenge is to over winter a tomato!
I cut them back in very hard at the beginningof the winter so they only begin to flower again round about now.