Wednesday 23 April 2014

Tomatoes potted-on

Over the Easter weekend I moved my tomato plants from the little Elmlea pots in which they were germinated into much bigger 5-inch pots.




The weather in the middle of April was really good, with lots of sunshine, so the tomatoes grew very quickly. It would not have been a good idea to leave them in those Elmlea pots for more than a few more days, because they would have run out of nutrients - and space!


I will only keep the plants in these 5" pots for two or three weeks. I hope they will continue to grow rapidly, and will be ready for transplanting again (this time into their final homes) by about the middle of May.

The upheaval of moving into a new home can be quite stressful for a little plant, so immediately after re-potting I water them and keep them in the semi-darkness of the garage for about 24 hours. This allows them to settle in without having to cope with sunshine, temperature changes, wind, etc.


I have 24 tomato plants at present, but I think I will reduce this to 16 before long. I'm going to have 12 big ones (mostly Beefsteak varieties) grown as cordons, and 4 smaller cherry-type ones grown as bushes. It's always a wrench for me to discard healthy plants, so I'll not just put the spares in the compost bin. I'll give them to friends and garden helpers. 

For the time being, these plants will live outdoors in the mini-greenhouses during the daytime, and inside overnight. The night-time temperatures are still only about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius, so too cold for tomatoes to be outside without protection. 10C would be better for them.

7 comments:

  1. Your tomato seedling make me keep fighting on growing tomatoes this season. To many problem on growing tomato and chilli pepper this season. Hoping get better result.

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  2. Now I've seen these I wish I was growing tomatoes this year.

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  3. I think with 16 plants, you will have to make salsa, canned tomatoes and juice, etc to use so many! But well worth the effort, huh Mark?

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  4. I always grow way too many seedlings...and I give them away...if I dumped them on the compost heap I feel I've committed plant murder!

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  5. They look nice and healthy. A good start, I can almost taste those tomatoes.

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  6. Your tomatoes are growing rightly. That's alot of plants but suppose you will keep the strongest. Maybe you can give some away.

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  7. Things are really getting a wriggle on now aren't they?

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