Correct feeding of tomatoes

[Catherine]

I have got quite a few tomatoes plants in tubs. Can anyone tell me when Iam supposed to feed that because I am unsure. My OH says I should start now but quite a few have no flowers on them yet but the leaves are looking very slightly yellow.

The tomatoe feed I bought from B&Q says I should feed when the first flowers have set. Does this mean when you can see the little fruit bulb?

Also can I use it for my pumpkin and butternut squash if not what should I use.

Sorry for all the questions. Thought I might get them all over and done with together.

Oh I forgot If I have some tomatoe plants that say they are outside plants and I grow them in the polytunnel will if affect them are they better outside?

Right thats it for now.

[Mike Vogel]

Hi Catherine.
As far as I understand, you can start feeding with a high-potash fertiliser such as tomorite when you see those little fruitlets, as you say. And yes, anything that likes potassium will appreciate a serving of the stuff.

I use organic seaweed-based stuff, which is good for the plants at any time, and then my comfrey tea [yeuch!!] will be ready by the time the trusses begin to set.

Good luck.
mike

[Gracie]

Hi catherine, mike's right only feed tomatoes whent he fruits are set or you just get lots of leaf growth, and I'm sure the outside tomatoes will be absolutley fine in the polytunnel. I've got a different type of tomato food this year it's a tomato fetiliser that you put in when planting and then every four weeks after that, so we'll have to see how successful it is.
Best wishes Gracie

[Primrose]

I always understood that banana skins are quite high in potassium. This year, instead of putting them on the compost heap I'm chopping them up and forking them in around the soil of my tomato plants (but not too close to damage the roots). Don't know whether this is a good idea or not so will wait to see what happens when cropping time arrives. I did give my beans and tomato plants a dose of sequestered iron/seeweed a few days ago but at the moment only one ourtood tomato plant has small tomato fruits forming, so will wait until the rest have flowered and are producing fruit before I start with the Tomorite.

[Mike Vogel]

An interesting experiment, Primrose. I suppose the effect sould be no different from a comfrey mulch or feed. I myself use the banana skins to help the toms ripen in the g'house or outside, because they also give off ethelene, as do ripe tomatoes.

Myn outdoor plants look quite bedraggled at the moment, as I put them into the ground at the end of May and the first few days in June, just before some cold and wet weather. It's the same almost every year - I do wish I had the patience simply to wait for mid-month.

Hope your idea gives the plants the kick they need.
mike

[Johnboy]

Hi Mike,
The low night temperatures here are affecting my outdoor Tomatoes. At 5am today the temperature here was hovering between 3C and 4C. The Potato crop next to me had drooped but have since lifted. So very near a disaster.
JB.

[heyjude]

We are the same as JB - very cold first thing in the morning and very hot and sunny later which must be about as hard as it gets for young transplants.

I'm delaying planting anything else until it settles or gets (please) a bit wet.

[Catherine]

We are going on holiday next week and I have just taken m y mother in law up to our plot to show her what we had in as she is going to be watering whilst we are away. She has not seen it this year and is very shocked at how much produce we have in and out of the greenhouse. We have a lot of stuff in large tubs because we could not make another bed in time to plant these out. I have decided to move the tomatoe plants that are in the polytunnel out into the plot because at least if it does rain they will get watered. If i leave then in the polytunnel they might get missed. Do you think that the courgettes which I started in the polytunnel and moved outside then moved back into the polytunnel because it was cold and they were not growing will be okay with the move. Or should I leave them where they are.

The chap on the next plot has offered to keep an eye on the plot so I am just going to take plot luck and hope that it will be okay. I am sure I am worrying for nothing.

It is cold outside tonight with the breeze and we have still not had any rain since a fortnight today.

[Johnboy]

Hi Heyjude
Went to the Three Counties show on Friday and as I did the back doubles of Ledbury I was thinking of you and it rained. Made my windscreen all messy and then stopped raining. The duration of the shower was less than a minute and never saw another drop all day.
Had not been to the show for a few years and was very disappointed.
Bluetongue has prevented most of the stock from attending but the show is all superfluous trade stands and very little to do with agriculture.
A shadow of it's former self.
JB.

[heyjude]

Hi JB

I would have liked to go to the Three Counties but this year I've been to the Malvern Spring Show and Chelsea and last week some friends were going to the BBC Summer Festival at the NEC and I joined them so I think I've had my ration for this year!

Lots of veg growing at the NEC but all of it rather unrealistic. A tiny plot with 2 raspberry canes, 3 cabbages, a tiny wigwam of beans etc etc didn't look as though it would provide a meal of anything just a tasting. My daughter's neighbour (in London) has a tiny front garden which is completely full of mint and coriander so he always has plenty and, as the mint started life here, he's also happy for her to help herself. Seems a better solution to me than three peas and one carrot.

Meanwhile I am finding that my newly recovered pasture is very low on nutrients and harder to dig than to plough! But the young trees look fine.

We've had a couple of tiny showers but no proper rain for ages. Just enough to disrupt shearing but not enough to do the ground any good. But I'm hoping for some tomorrow and the sun is not so bright today so I hope to empty the greenhouse.
Jude

[Mike Vogel]

I was given a rain-gauge for my birthday last winter and have been keeping tabs on rainfall. This is what I have for the past few weeks:

May 15-16: 22 mm Gone cold again with 17 deg max.
May 22: 6 mm - a heavy burst fri 2 pm
May 25: 15 mm. Previous day fine + warm
May 26: 32 mm - windy, sunless, near-constant but
not heavy rain.
May 27: 10 mm - less windy and not cold.

A few dry days followed, then
June 2: 10 mm - pm + o'night pds of rain, not hard
June 7: 5.5mm. Quite cool.

Then 2 hot days June 9 + 10, then wind turned Northerly

June 11 6 mm - Overnight rain, then dry + cool
June 14-15: 1.5mm overnight.

On the whole it's been less windy with the rain than usual here. I've constructed windbreaks out of polythene packaging and bubblewrap, which is doing a decent job of sheltering my peppers. Time will tell, but a visit yesterday found the toms beginning to get going. The spuds look very fine and tall, but my new ones are not yielding many tubers per plant.

Hope this info is of some interest.
mike