Just finished watching Gardeners World and thay were telling me it's time to put out tomatoes.
Mine are about 9" high in pots in unheated conservatory, hot in the day cold at night.
So should I put them out tomorrow and would they need any protection.
We are in the South, anyone else got their plants in..........thank you.
At the moment they'd need protection from the wind or else they'd be takng flight. With frosts still being forcasted I think most people are waiting until June before planting tender plants outside.
No way would I put mine out yet! Since neither Wilko's not B&Q in Halesowen had three inch square pots today I haven't even got anyting to pot them up into yet.
I thought I'd try putting out a couple early this year.
I have Red Alert outside with Black Russian, they are doing fine and Red Alert has trusses already, I also have put a chili and a pepper outside too.
I had for Christmas an irrigation system just for growing these kind of plants, so that was another reason I wanted to put them out to see if this system would work. I do cover them over with fleece most nights because of the cold winds.
Will take their photo tomorrow and show you.
The irrigation system seems well worth the money and will come into it's own I hope if we get a hot summer.
Quote from: Sinbad7 on May 08, 2009, 23:26:22
I have Red Alert outside with Black Russian, they are doing fine and Red Alert has trusses already,
Are Red Alert any good? I looked at these an an outdoor tomato but may live too far north for outdoor tomatoes here in Teeside. You are the first person I have known to grow this outdoor variety? Yields any good? May try ourdoor tomatoes next year.
My first year of growing Red Alert kt but will let you know at the end of the season or before if the blight gets them, what they were like. I am pleased so far as it does look very healthy.
Surely coddled plants should be hardened off first?
2 of my Sungolds have been 'out' for weeks now. They are on the edge of my verandah so semi exposed (they are used to colder nights but probably protected from the frost as they are within 3ft of the wall of the house and partially under the cover of the verandah roof) and I have flowers on one of them now!
Most of my toms having been sitting on my patio for a few weeks now as have run out of room to keep them anywhere else!
But I am in Hastings, on the South coast, However, think it will be a few weeks yet before I put any out on the plot as it it far more exposed than my patio and I can always do a panic fleecing? bringing in session if the weather gets too bad.
Mine are all in the ground on the plot - I always go a bit early to try to get ahead of the enivitable blight. However I am in London and in a little microclimate and we virtually never get a late frost. The only problem is the cold drying wind have had recently which can cause some leaf damage but with luck Ill bepicking toms at the end of June..
Mine went into the ground last week, the soil is warm here. Any threat of frost and I'll fleece them, it was down to 4°C the other night, they weren't bothered. Tomatoes are so much tougher than they are often given credit for.
I've planted out 6 Black Cherry, 3 Fantasio and 2 Tumbling Tom Red this weekend. The Black Cherry and the Fantasio are in large pots, while the Tumbling Tom Reds are in a 14" hanging basket (I'd have put out more but I got the wrong size liner for my two 16" baskets). They're in my sheltered back garden, hard up against a South facing wall - and I live in Plymouth where the last frost in the garden was about 6-8 weeks ago. Even so, I wouldn't have considered putting them out before now because night temperatures were still too low. They're now forecast for 9-10C - which will be higher in the garden - so it's well worth the risk.
I've got 10 Inca F1 plum tomatoes on the allotment - but they're under a cloche and I don't see me removing that till June. That will also be the time I plant out the remaining 6 Fantasio.
Plot holders at the sunniest end of our allotment site planted theirs outside a few days ago. The rest of us have delayed but I for one will be planting mine out before the end of the week.
The first 20 have been outside for a week and of those I've now potted 10 into their final position (all in the garden, not up at the allotment). Must say I'm a bit worried out the winds we've been having but the temperatures have been ok. The Japanese Kiwi fruit has also been put outside in a new big pot with a bamboo framework to climb.
I need the GH space to pot on Aubergines, cucumbers, melons etc