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HomeBase Tomatoes
Just a note in passing to say that last weekend HomeBase in Ipswich had the
sickliest, weediest, nastiest tomato seedlings I have ever seen. If I had grown them, I would have thrown them. You have to wonder why they even bothered to put them out on display. I bought my small number of plants from a local farm shop / nursery. They were far superior. I was just looking in HB to see if they had any other interesting varieties. Should have complained to the manager but was distracted by other things. Still, I now have two chillis, one sungold tomato, and three courgettes out in pots and they seem to be happy so far. Cheers Dave R |
#2
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HomeBase Tomatoes
In message , David WE Roberts
writes Just a note in passing to say that last weekend HomeBase in Ipswich had the sickliest, weediest, nastiest tomato seedlings I have ever seen. If I had grown them, I would have thrown them. You have to wonder why they even bothered to put them out on display. I bought my small number of plants from a local farm shop / nursery. They were far superior. I was just looking in HB to see if they had any other interesting varieties. Should have complained to the manager but was distracted by other things. Still, I now have two chillis, one sungold tomato, and three courgettes out in pots and they seem to be happy so far. Cheers Dave R Need your full address please. I must send my grandchildren somewhere else for their Sungold fruit. They pillage my plants unmercifully believing I grow them purely for children. As if I would! -- Gopher .... I know my place! |
#3
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HomeBase Tomatoes
Gopher wrote:
Need your full address please. I must send my grandchildren somewhere else for their Sungold fruit. They pillage my plants unmercifully believing I grow them purely for children. As if I would! Have you tried growing a couple of ildi plants? My 4 year old loves them (the 6 year old and I prefer GD), and they crop /really/ heavily. |
#4
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HomeBase Tomatoes
David WE Roberts wrote:
Just a note in passing to say that last weekend HomeBase in Ipswich had the sickliest, weediest, nastiest tomato seedlings I have ever seen. If I had grown them, I would have thrown them. You have to wonder why they even bothered to put them out on display. Heh. They're waiting for me to come along and 'rescue' them. (last year I bought about 400 vegetable plants in trays at 10p, and we got quite a good crop from them, plus I potted some up for the school summer fayre) I bought my small number of plants from a local farm shop / nursery. They were far superior. Of all the things I grow, tomatoes are the ones I always grow from seed. I've never seen any reason to buy plants in. I was just looking in HB to see if they had any other interesting varieties. Interesting varieties come in seeds, not in plants! (I have terrible trouble every year, cos I grow too many different ones - I think I was limited to 14 different varieties this year, which is still too many to put in the greenhouses!) Still, I now have two chillis, one sungold tomato, and three courgettes out in pots and they seem to be happy so far. My yellows, which may or may not be sungold (Hmm, I think they're not, they're golden sunrise, or something similar) are looking extremely healthy. Some of the others are straggling. Fakel and Matina are also looking very happy. And the 5 I found on the boys' windowsill that I had totally forgotten about and haven't been watered for nearly 2 weeks are looking great! |
#5
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HomeBase Tomatoes
On 14 Apr 2010 14:01:08 GMT, wrote:
Interesting varieties come in seeds, not in plants! (I have terrible trouble every year, cos I grow too many different ones - I think I was limited to 14 different varieties this year, which is still too many to put in the greenhouses!) Still, I now have two chillis, one sungold tomato, and three courgettes out in pots and they seem to be happy so far. My yellows, which may or may not be sungold (Hmm, I think they're not, they're golden sunrise, or something similar) are looking extremely healthy. Some of the others are straggling. Fakel and Matina are also looking very happy. I got several healthy plants of each of these tomatoes (20 for the greenhouse, others for the neighbours who look after my greenhouse when I'm away) Ferline, Aviro, Old Brooks, Austin's Red Pear, Tommy Toe Rosada (cordon), Chiquito. Koralik, Orange Santa, Tasty German Orange Strawberry, Pineapple, Red Zebra, Sweet Olive, Black Krim, Tomatoberry, Ravello, Jakarta, Roncardo. Wish I had room to grow them all! -- (¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯) |
#6
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HomeBase Tomatoes
???? ? ???? wrote:
I got several healthy plants of each of these tomatoes (20 for the greenhouse, others for the neighbours who look after my greenhouse when I'm away) Ferline, Aviro, Old Brooks, Austin's Red Pear, Tommy Toe Rosada (cordon), Chiquito. Koralik, Orange Santa, Tasty German Orange Strawberry, Pineapple, Red Zebra, Sweet Olive, Black Krim, Tomatoberry, Ravello, Jakarta, Roncardo. We're doing well, we only overlap on 2, and I think of those two, all my Ferline died (planted too early, on poor soil) and I have 2 very scraggily pinapples left that I'm trying to rescue, but don't hold any hope for. |
#7
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HomeBase Tomatoes
"®óñ© © ²°¹°" wrote in message ... On 14 Apr 2010 14:01:08 GMT, wrote: Interesting varieties come in seeds, not in plants! (I have terrible trouble every year, cos I grow too many different ones - I think I was limited to 14 different varieties this year, which is still too many to put in the greenhouses!) Still, I now have two chillis, one sungold tomato, and three courgettes out in pots and they seem to be happy so far. My yellows, which may or may not be sungold (Hmm, I think they're not, they're golden sunrise, or something similar) are looking extremely healthy. Some of the others are straggling. Fakel and Matina are also looking very happy. I got several healthy plants of each of these tomatoes (20 for the greenhouse, others for the neighbours who look after my greenhouse when I'm away) Ferline, Aviro, Old Brooks, Austin's Red Pear, Tommy Toe Rosada (cordon), Chiquito. Koralik, Orange Santa, Tasty German Orange Strawberry, Pineapple, Red Zebra, Sweet Olive, Black Krim, Tomatoberry, Ravello, Jakarta, Roncardo. Wish I had room to grow them all! Space is my problem at the moment. I grew two tomato plants last year and they were a bit crowded. I will have to put my one plant in the same bed this year when I have had time to prepare the bed. Come the revolution there will be a lot more space and a lot more time but at the moment I can't bring myself to buy a packet of seed and grow a single plant. Easier to get one from a nursery and then perhaps clone a couple from the side shoots if I have the time. Cheers Dave R |
#8
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HomeBase Tomatoes
David WE Roberts wrote:
Easier to get one from a nursery and then perhaps clone a couple from the side shoots if I have the time. Does that work? I did break off a side shoot of one plant last year and stick it in the side of the grow bag, and was quite surprised it didn't die, but it didn't actually /do/ anything either. |
#9
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HomeBase Tomatoes
On 15 Apr 2010 16:18:46 GMT, wrote:
David WE Roberts wrote: Easier to get one from a nursery and then perhaps clone a couple from the side shoots if I have the time. Does that work? I did break off a side shoot of one plant last year and stick it in the side of the grow bag, and was quite surprised it didn't die, but it didn't actually /do/ anything either. Sideshoots can be ripped off and dibbled in, but in my experience the outcome is a weedy plant and a waste of time Now of course, in a Majorcan garden or plot, where this is the propagation of choice, they seem to do very well -- (¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯) |
#10
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HomeBase Tomatoes
wrote in message ... David WE Roberts wrote: Easier to get one from a nursery and then perhaps clone a couple from the side shoots if I have the time. Does that work? I did break off a side shoot of one plant last year and stick it in the side of the grow bag, and was quite surprised it didn't die, but it didn't actually /do/ anything either. Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to propogate via cuttings. If you let a side shoot grow to a sturdy size instead of pinching it out, then cut it out carefully with a knife and plant it in very moist compost then you will very quickly get another tomato plant. If you go away for a few weeks then come back you may even find side shoots which have set fruit. These still seem to propogate fine. The new plants are obviously behind the main plant in terms if size and maturity but if you take the cuttings early on in the season you can get a crop from the cloned plants. It does occur to me that if you start tomatoes off really early under glass then you can get an additional 'free' set of plants to plant outside later in the year. If you are growing from seed this is not so important (unless you have a germination failure) but if you buy one or two plants from a nursery then you can grow additional plants on. Last year I took a load of cuttings quite late (June, I think) and planted a group of them in a wide pot. The result was a number of small plants each of which set a couple of trusses. As a group the plants produced about as much as a single larger plant. If you want to grow a lot of tomatoes but don't have enough space (or prepared beds) at the start of the season then you can use this strategy to fill out your greenhouse/garden/allotment as space becomes available without having to go through multiple sowings of seeds. Cheers Dave R |
#11
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HomeBase Tomatoes
wrote in message ... David WE Roberts wrote: Just a note in passing to say that last weekend HomeBase in Ipswich had the sickliest, weediest, nastiest tomato seedlings I have ever seen. If I had grown them, I would have thrown them. You have to wonder why they even bothered to put them out on display. Heh. They're waiting for me to come along and 'rescue' them. (last year I bought about 400 vegetable plants in trays at 10p, and we got quite a good crop from them, plus I potted some up for the school summer fayre) I bought my small number of plants from a local farm shop / nursery. They were far superior. Of all the things I grow, tomatoes are the ones I always grow from seed. I've never seen any reason to buy plants in. Me too, I grow the heritage tomatoes from Garden Organic, then, if I remember, I keep the seeds and grow the same thing next year. Alan |
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