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Posted by poppy1980 (U14508471) on Sunday, 1st April 2012
Hi, just a quick bit of advice needed.
I planted tomato seeds about a week ago, indoors in windowsill germinators. They are all starting to come through now and I can't remember if you can pot them on when they are at seed leaf stage or if you have to wait until they have there first set of proper leaves?? Also I assume that I pot them each on into 3inch pots and they stay in those until I pot them on to where they will grow outside (against a wall in a South facing garden).
Thank you.
Lucy
Give them time to breath .....Wait until true leaves have formed.
Thank you, I'll have to try to be patient then! Also am I right in thinking that as soon as they have germinated I take the lid off of the propergator they are in?
Lucy
Lucy
Light is much more important than heat now once they have germinated give them as much light as possible- so out of the propagator onto a well lit windowsill to prevent legginess
When you do come to pot them on you can bury the stem up to the first pair of leaves-that encourages rooting from the stem and a much stronger plant.
Yeah, take them out in fact. They'll be fine at room temp on a sunny windowsill.
There are some pictres here as to how I do it;
Thank you for the replies! My seedlings are now happily on the sunny/warm bathroom windowsill, propergator lid off. Just need to wait a week or so, and turn them I guess until the proper leaves appear.
Lucy
It doesn't matter too much if they get a bit leggy because you just plant them deeper in the pot.
, in reply to message 1.
Posted by bogus the fungi man (U14705597) on Monday, 2nd April 2012
Lucy,
Once you've potted up your toms, if you want to hold them back a bit till the weather is right to plant them out, be sparing with the water. If you can keep an eye on them through the day you can keep them short by keeping them close to the wilting point. Once planted out they will then romp away.
Hi, thank you for all your useful replies.
I have potted them all on - fifty nine plants germinated so now they are potted on they are taking on a lot of space!! They are not all for me, I am growing on behalf of my mum, nan and aunt and will give them about 10-15 plants each when they get a bit bigger, assuming they all make it.
I am growing: Gardeners Delight, 100s and 1000s, Sweet Baby, and Sungold which is an F1 hybrid. At the moment they all have their first real leaves and are growing on fine.
Will they be ok staying in small 2-3inch pots until they go outside into raised beds / grow bags or will they need potting on again?? And how big do they need to be before they are planted out, or is it more about doing it at the right time weather/season-wise eg May? I have a small outdoor greenhouse (one of the plastic ones) that I could move them on into to get them used to slightly cooler weather.
Thank you
Lucy
You have to go with the weather, poppy. what a lot of people forget, is that tomatoes do not grow naturally in this climate. They are sub-tropical plants, so they have to be kept warm at all times. (Take care at night when it drops colder)
Whenever it is too cold for their liking they stop growing. If it`s frosty they die.
In the area where I live (Yorkshire) our last frost dates are the first week in June, although in good summers we don`t get a frost after mid-May.
Often people don`t like to hear this news, they want summer to come early, but the truth is you have to go with whatever the weather is doing in your area.
Your question about potting on - tomatoes are usually better potted on whenever they need it.
Lucy, they only need two transplants - the first from wherever they were germinated into whatever containers you use; the second into their ultimate growing spot.
I give mine their first transplant at cotyledon stage - about a week after germination - and use those small white plastic disposable coffee cups (with drainage holes drilled in the bottom) as their intermediate home. The cups are about two and a half inches across. The toms live in them very happily till planting out time. In fact it doesn't hurt them to have their roots a wee bit on the tight side at this stage.
My friend Linda and I actually did an experiment with potting on tomatoes, and we found that the ones that got potted on into bigger pots did produce bigger healthier plants than those which were held back in small pots.
They fruited better and earlier too.
That's interesting. I've found the opposite. Growing conditions obviously enter into the equation, too, but it just goes to show what quirky critters toms can be!
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