Tomatoes

[peacocks]

A freeby packet of tomatoes resulted in almost 100% germination. I thought I'd try a couple of plants restricted to one truss to see if they are ready quicker. Anyone tried this and does it work?

[PLUMPUDDING]

Not sure if they will be any earlier, but they should be bigger.

[richard p]

ive just planted some of my "spare" plants with the same idea.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Peacocks, i haven't ever stopped tomatoes at one truss before, but i have stopped outdoor ones at three trusses and late sown indoor ones at three trusses and it certainly does make the tomatoes swell quicker so ripening sooner.

So i would have thought one truss will make quite lot of difference.
You might find the plant trying to make sidshoots as quick as you are pinching them out though.

[Primrose]

I think if you want early tomatoes, I wonder if it's better to grow a few tumbling varieties. The first flowers have already appeared on one of mine whereas all my other varieties, mostly sown at the same time, are still only a few inches high.

[alan refail]

Peacocks

If the seeds were free and you have lots of spare plants, then experiment and you can tell us the answer

[Larkshall]

Why is it that the "Shirley" Tomato seeds are so expensive yet when I went to a local garden centre the plants were the same price as any other Tomato plants.

I bought one plant (99p) and am taking cuttings (sideshoots) off it, I expect to get about a dozen or more plants this way. I did it successfully last year and they were only about a week later than the original plant. I also bought two "Sungold" which I shall do in the same way.

[Primrose]

Larkshall, this is an interesting way to get free plants. I guess it probably works most effectively if you can buy the plants from a garden centre very early in the season and have a warmish greenhouse in which to raise them so that it doesn't matter if side shoots taken from the top of the plants crop quite late . If Shirley is an F1 variety, I presume there would be no difference in the size or flavour of the fruit raised from plants in this way whereas saved seed might produce a slightly different result ?