Another ignorant question...

I am only following instructions, which say to leave the tomato plants
in the 3" pots until they flower, and then to plant them out. These
are contrary to my mum's instructions which are to plant them out "when
they are big enough". I have two plants outside, which are about 3ft
tall, bushy, and have loads of (green) tomatoes but the rest are
inside, spindly, and have no flowers at all!

The ones outside are in growbags which I think accounts for the
bushiness (last year, I followed my mum's instructions and planted them
out when they were about 1ft tall, but they just got more and more
bushy in the growbags and took about a month to get flowers). But now
I'm worried I'm retarding the flower development of the inside ones by
keeping them in small pots.

Help!

Katie

wrote:
Another ignorant question...

I am only following instructions, which say to leave the tomato plants
in the 3" pots until they flower, and then to plant them out. These
are contrary to my mum's instructions which are to plant them out "when
they are big enough". I have two plants outside, which are about 3ft
tall, bushy, and have loads of (green) tomatoes but the rest are
inside, spindly, and have no flowers at all!

The ones outside are in growbags which I think accounts for the
bushiness (last year, I followed my mum's instructions and planted them
out when they were about 1ft tall, but they just got more and more
bushy in the growbags and took about a month to get flowers). But now
I'm worried I'm retarding the flower development of the inside ones by
keeping them in small pots.

Help!

More evidence, if it were needed, that you should always listen to your
Mammy :-)

Cat(h)

" wrote in message

I am only following instructions, which say to leave the tomato
plants
in the 3" pots until they flower, and then to plant them out. These
are contrary to my mum's instructions which are to plant them out
"when
they are big enough".

The idea of keeping tomatoes in small pots and treated tough (slightly
pot bound and not watered a lot) is so they "think" they are dying and
thus they begin to flower. (ie fruit fast so that the seeds for the
next generation are created before dying). This usually works well
but they do need to be watched closely. If you can get it right they
power on once planted outside.

I can't comment on whehter they should be outside now as I'm not in
the UK.

On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 23:20:23 +1000, "Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow
wrote:

" wrote in message

I am only following instructions, which say to leave the tomato
plants
in the 3" pots until they flower, and then to plant them out. These
are contrary to my mum's instructions which are to plant them out
"when they are big enough".

Do you have a greenhouse or conservatory?
If not you stand little chance of getting a crop outdoors even if you
plant them today, especially if they have not flowered yet.
Next year start them earlier and get them outdoors by mid to late
June, whether they have flowered or not.
They should have about 3 trusses of fruit/flowers now.
Sometimes Mum is right!


Pam in Bristol

Pam Moore wrote:

Do you have a greenhouse or conservatory?
If not you stand little chance of getting a crop outdoors even if you
plant them today, especially if they have not flowered yet.
Next year start them earlier and get them outdoors by mid to late
June, whether they have flowered or not.
They should have about 3 trusses of fruit/flowers now.
Sometimes Mum is right!


Unfortunately not! Which is especially annoying as I was hoping to keep
some seeds for next year.

The ones that are outside have loads of green tomatoes, which are
getting very big, though, so there's hope for that variety.

Last year I planted them quite a bit later and was harvesting green
tomatoes (and a few red ones) at the end of October (we live near the
sea and have quite a sheltered small walled yard so rarely get frost,
especially not that early).

I'll plant them in the ultra-grow-fast-grow bags this weekend and hope
for the best...

Katie