Kitchen Garden Forum

There is an excellent article in the current Organic Gardening magazine by Terry Marshall on growing tomatoes detailing exactly when to plant, taking account of light, temperature, and when you want your first crop.

John Boy's tomato growing tips are very interesting,
Trident method never improved my crop. I will have a go his Dad's way.
? will I need to restrict leaf growth more,and plant
further apart,usually aprox 18'.


Berlioz, thanks for Minister of Agric site,it's good reading
Toadstool

Hi Toadstool,
I hope you mean 18" and not 18'!
You can see the merit in my fathers thinking and it actually works well.
My spacings are never under 24" and outside they are 36" in a double staggered row. The rows are never less than 24" apart so there is always plenty of clear air around them. Having said that I lost my outside Tomatoes last year to Blight for the first time in over 60 years growing.
JB.

This spacing of tomato plants is interesting because, having limited growing space I'm rather greedy and always grow mine very closely spaced, 12"- 14" apart in front of a south-facing fence but their root trenches are always well manuered. I did get a blight attack last summer, but sprayed at the first signs and lost two plants out of 24 with others slightly affected but subsequently not enough to lose many tomatoes. I must have been one of the lucky few.

Hi Primrose,
My attack of blight was on plants that had not been long planted out and almost before I could mix up the spray they were gone!
The trouble is with people who refuse to use sprays under any circumstances and then there is no point spraying 'cos the sprayed plants will be reinfected almost immediately.
I am not an allotmenteer but I can see why those who are suffered very badly last year.
Unlike you I have got too much room!
JB.

Hello Johnboy,
Guess how far my raspberries are apart
Thanks for spacing tips. I only grow bush toms outside, others in polytunnel, using a block system of planting, 18"x 18", removing a lot of leaves. Outside plants are sometimes a jungle
Planning to try your double rows with 2ft between each plant, it's simple and makes sense
Toadstool

I have already started my tomato seedlings off on a windowsill inside: http://margeland.co.uk/blog/2008/02/14/tomato-news/

Now the question is as they are growing so fast when and in what conditions do I plant them out?

Well down here in Warwickshire I won't be planting out until June at the earliest and there's no risk of frost.

Marge, I think you may have been a little premature sowing, but it depends where you are and what facilities you have. The seed packets are rather misleading when they say "sow Jan-March", because the "Jan" bit refers to people living near or on the South coast and/or with a heated greenhouse. Oop North, you'll get less warmth and light in an unheated greenhouse.

I made the mistake of sowing in Jan a couple of years ago and got very straggly plants which missed their first truss. Bedford's winter weather is more like the north than the south, though we catch up in the summer.

This doesn't mean doom and gloom, though, as long as you keep potting on and keeping them warm. However, you might do well to sow another lot in March; they'll soon catch up.

Good luck

mike

Hi Marge,
I know this sounds harsh but my advice to you is to scrap the plants that you have so lovingly germinated and wait a little longer even now before you sow again.
I don't quite know where Oop North is but I feel that it is above Chantal in Rugby and as she says she will not be planting out until at least June.
Just imagine what state your plants will be in by then!
It is far better to sow later rather than sooner because late plants always catch up eventually but sadly you cannot go backwards in time.
The art of growing is to germinate at the right time to be able to pot on and then eventually plant out without there being any check in the plants growth.
This goes for all plants.
Take Cabbages they will hang about for a considerable time but there comes a time when they will grow on to a degree but you never get the best results. The best is to sow then and soon as the plant has 4 true leaves plant them out in their final position and the will sprint away. Hold them up for a month and they will sulk all the season.
Many people have remarked that later sown seeds quite soon overtake the early sown ones and this is very true.
It is for this reason why I am against heated propagators because they falsify the seasons and bring great problems for those who use them.
When I was producing vegetable plants for the Commercial, Retail and Mail order markets I raised seeds in unheated tunnels and relied solely on normal daily temperatures and these were perfectly adequate.
By all means raise your young Tomato/Pepper plants in the house but you must realise that neither plants should experience a temperature of less than
10C throughout their growing lives. It is not day temperatures that you have to worry about but think of the cold nights you get right up until June.
JB.

I have to admit I have some tomato seedlings growing nicely in my greenhouse but they are to be planted out in my second greenhouse and both are heated.

My outdoor tomatoes won't be sown until April.

wondered when you were going to confess Chantal
Seedling

I have to admit I admire you for not ratting me out

Me too (under lights) for heated greenhouse. It's all very well waiting but what happens, first spell of good weather in the late Spring / early Summer and you are buying salad - no way, might be grotty plants but they are yours! I have lettuce, radish, cress and rocket coming too.

Hi Geoff,
I accept what you say but a very great percentage of the contributors to this forum are allotmenteers and do not have your obvious luxuries. There are sites that will not even allow greenhouses and certainly do not have electricity. Paraffin heaters are quite a chancy way of producing plants and from what I see very expensive at more than a pound a Litre.
There are several salad items that can be grown at this time of the year. Not every salad must have a Tomato. There are umpteen lettuces that will grow at this time of the year and a slice of a raw onion instead of a spring onion, Coleslaw, Potato Salad and Waldorf Salad, Hard Boiled Egg, Grated Carrot and Stored Beetroot.
By the way when Marge says that she is going to plant them out I simply took her at her word.
JB.