Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Tigger,
All donations kindly received!
JB.

alan refail wrote:

The Mouse wrote:Hi there.

As this is a tomato-related question, I though I might as well slot it in here!

Can any of you tell me how early I can sow tomatoes that are going to be raised in an unheated greenhouse?

The greenhouse hasn't actually arrived yet, but hopefully it will be en route within the next few days. It's only a small one, but I'm so excited!

Morning Mouse (The)

Just so your post doesn't get lost...

I grow all my tomatoes in the polytunnel (unheated of course). All being well I will be sowing in three weeks - 8 March - as I usually do. They will be in the propagator and continue on some bottom heat after potting on until they are to big to fit. Then they have to take their chance, being covered with fleece whan it's too cold.

Hope this helps, and gets you some more replies.

Alan

Yes, that helps a lot, thanks.

I seem to remember as a rule of thumb that an unheated greenhouse should, with any luck, give you an extra month of frost-free conditions. So if your expected last frost date is end May, you can bring forward planting out to beginning of May. Tomatoes will be 6-8 weeks from sowing to planting out, so sow early/mid March. Which seems to agree with the advice you've had already.

Forgot to answer the question ! The best tomatoes are the ones you get in a salad on holiday on Turkey. Impossibly red all way through. The nearest alternative I've grown has been Brandywine, but only in a good year, and they tend not to yield that well, and they are not always pretty .. I quite like Franchi Red Pear at the moment as a well behaved all rounder.

I think a lot depends on your taste. Some seem to like an acidic tomato, I don't. I prefer them aromatic, fleshy, few seeds and with a skin that is neither so thin it splits, or so thick that it spoils the pleasure of eating.

Tony Hague wrote:I seem to remember as a rule of thumb that an unheated greenhouse should, with any luck, give you an extra month of frost-free conditions. So if your expected last frost date is end May, you can bring forward planting out to beginning of May. Tomatoes will be 6-8 weeks from sowing to planting out, so sow early/mid March. Which seems to agree with the advice you've had already.

Brilliant, thanks. Not too long to wait, then!