Kitchen Garden Forum

Sorry if this has come up before.

My growbags advise not putting tomato plants in them till the first flower has appeared.

My Toms are all 6-8 weeks old and many are almost 10 - 12" high. They're still in small'ish pots (3" max) so not able to handle some of the recent heat well without very careful watering.

What do the rest of you advise?
- Hang on till the first flowers appear, or
- Put them in now?

Last year, I grew gigantic plants with hardly any flowers/fruit and I wonder if part of the problem was the plants responding to the fertilizer in the bags with green growth, at the expense of fruit.

Again, would the same advice also apply to those being put in big pots?

at that size in small pots they must have used up all the nutrients in the compost. something needs doing both for feeding and to ease the watering problem, either plant into the growbags or repot into larger pots for a couple of weeks, personally i would put them straight in the growbags, mine have gone into soil in the tunnel.

Colin,
personally, although others may disagree with me, I don't happen to think it matters at what stage you pot them into their final place
AS LONG AS they've been potted on/ and/or fed appropriately until they go into their final pot.
My main priority is that the tomato plants don't suffer a check in their growth either way, so that it's a very steady growth and their roots don't get 'pot-bound'.
I'm way too naughty, and sow in January or February, but I get early tomatoes for my expense and trouble !
Mine were planted into their final pots (polythene lined terracottas about a fortnight ago and I've got Supermarmande tommies growing now).
I'd certainly agree that if the plant is in flower and you pot it into fresh compost it's going to spend most of its energy making extra roots, rather than concentrating its energy on fruit formation - so theoretically, the sooner it's in its growbag or pot, the very much better it'll be.
I'm growing Supermarmande, Romano, Ferline, Gardeners Delight and Sungold this year.
You?
LoL
Wellie

Hi Wellie...I have tom plants in situ (container ) already, but haven't used any fertiliser in compost. Can you or others advise on this.
In the past when growing toms have just fed, (liqid feed) but only when flowers appeared.
I need to do it properly this time!
Many thanks,
Glory B

If you've used a bagged brand of compost then it will have enough fertilizer in it for about 3 weeks,the usual advice is to start feeding one a week with a liquid feed of your choice once the first truss of fruit has set.
Some of the cheaper growbags use a lot of nitrogen fertilizer which can cause excessive leaf growth.

Luckily, my beefsteaks have their first tiny set of flowers, so I put them in grobags yesterday. I also potted some "small olive", though they show no flowers, as an experiment.

I'm just hanging on with the others, though your point about the rootsystems is well made.

Last year, I stupidly put some tomato feed on whilst they were still only a foot or so high, in the gowbags. I gots acres of lush growth but B**ger all fruit! That's why I'm a little wary of the early feeding (and of course the growbag will have some feed in it).

Thanks again,

Hi Colin,
The rule is: do not commence a designated concentrated feeding programme until the fruit of the first truss have set. This doesn't mean that they should not be fed with anything before this time as the plants prior to this point need enough for good health and hygeine. This is best done with a general balanced fertilizer. IMHO this is best done with a man made preparation as organic preparations are generally unbalanced and generally have a too high a reading of Nitrogen and that would have a tendency to give you that same result as last year.

Johnboy, What in your opinion is the best man made balanced fertiliser to use in this case.

I've been known to use Chempak No. 3 (fully balanced, NPK 20:20:20) until flowering, then switch to No. 4 (NPK 15:15:30) or any other specialist Liquid Tomato Feed.

Generally, I've found it better to use a quarter-strength feed at every watering (rather than full strength once a week or so). It's a bit like saying to someone "would you like something to eat every day, or wait for a complete pig-out at the end of the week?" I know which I'd choose !!!

Hope that's helpful in some way ?

Lol
Wellie

I appologize if this is a silly question but I am new to gardening and I have honestly never grown anything in the garden before!! Can I grow tomatoes in direct sunlight or do they need a bit of shade?

Welcome Beginner,

Tomatoes not only need sunlight they need LOADS of it!

They photowhatsisnamesynthesise it into sugar and it makes em taste great.

So plant em in the sunniest spot and have a mind to the height of the other things you plant near them so they dont shade them when they are fully grown.

Enjoy

David

Hi Arthur,
I appear to have missed you question to me back in
May and I do apologise.
I use mainly Vitax fertilizers and either use Q4 or Q4HN and some that you probably wouldn't think opf buying such as 10:42:10 but I must quickly add not on Tomatoes. With Tomatoes at the early stage I use Q4 which is just a normal fairly balanced fertilizer which is just enough for health and hygeine.
After the first truss has set I switch to Comfrey Concentrate at half strength using every other watering for the rest of the season.

David wrote:Welcome Beginner,

Tomatoes not only need sunlight they need LOADS of it!

They photowhatsisnamesynthesise it into sugar and it makes em taste great.

So plant em in the sunniest spot and have a mind to the height of the other things you plant near them so they dont shade them when they are fully grown.

Enjoy

David

Thanks David. I'm off to buy the grow bags!