jb2030
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Growing Tomatoes from Seed - advice needed

Hi

I have started growing tomato plant from seeds, and water them twice a day (morning and evening).

The tall plant has been growing since beginning of March 2021, and was moved from a small pot to the large green pot.

And the smaller plants have been growing since mid March 2021.

I live in the UK and its recommended to start putting them outside third week of May to avoid frost.

Are they growing well?

Is there anything I should be doing?

Thanks in advance.

JB
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pepperhead212
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Welcome to the forum!

You shouldn't have to be watering twice a day, once the seeds come up. And those plants appear to not have enough light, as they are very tall and leggy, for the number of leaves on them. Do you just have them by a window? Seedlings do not do well in that small amount of light. And for putting outside in later May, right about now is when I would plant the seeds, unless I was going to transplant to a much larger pot, like I did with my early peppers, and it looks like you did that with the larger plant, in the green pot, though that still looks like is searching for light.

Vanisle_BC
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jb; I'm not expert but here's my tuppence worth (?)

Those are rather tall plants, to not be planted out for another month. My guess is they've been in a warm place, so grew fast; and got tall quickly too, by not getting strong light. What varieties are they? Depending on that they may need very high staking when they really get going outdoors. They could also get hard to handle meantime because of their height.

I have a climate & setting-out date similar to yours. So long as there's no danger of frost, or close to it, I'm now putting my tomatoes outside in the daylight hours & bringing them indoors at night. That should help them get sturdy rather than lanky. You could likely do the same (being careful to harden them off by acclimatizing gradually.)

I started my tomato seed under lights March 24. They're still very small. I'm probably a bit behind what many would call ideal. They'll go out into raised beds at the May holiday weekend. (My mother called it The Queen's Birthday but that was an earlier queen!) They'll grow up strings that hang down from a top frame. That's just the way I do it of course. Most of my varieties get about 6 ft high.

For now maybe you could get these plants into deeper pots with the stems well buried. They should make extra roots if you do that. I use pint & quart milk cartons; functional but not so pretty as your pots :). At planting time I slit the cartons up the corners to release the plants. If yours get too tall to handle before planting time, I imagine it would not hurt much to prune them back. New shoots would grow from lower down; and they will anyway.

Well I've gabbled on at some length so I'll repeat that I'm no expert. Others here have more knowledge and will hopefully weigh in. I hope you get a good harvest from your first tomato-seed venture. Do keep us posted.

jb2030
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Hi

Thank you for your advice.

I have moved the plants in the smaller pots to larger pots.

And, put a stick in the tall plant pot.

I have also started to water them once a day, but use more water.

Thanks again, will let you know how it goes.
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applestar
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If you have the time and energy, start putting them outside in the sun when temperature is above 50°F. At first only for about 30 minutes in direct sun, and gradually increasing, protected from wind. Put on raised surface like a table at first until you are sure there are nothing at ground level that can jeopardize your plants.

I’ve variously used patio table, picnic table, pickup truck bed, top of bbq grill, ...at one time when we had a boat on the driveway, I put them on the boat ....

Learn where the direct sun hits throughout the day — on colder mornings, it gets warmest in morning sun. You can even move the seedlings/plants through out the day .... or if you don’t have the time, you can put them in dappled sun/shade under a tree (I tend to use this method). If you can’t be there to tend to them, put them where structural shadow will limit direct sun exposure as the sun moves at first. People who have to go to work tend to use this method — close to the house at first, slowly move out further, etc. On a deck underneath chair/bench is another good method.

Tomatoes ultimately need at least 6-8 hrs of direct sun.

Always water at start of day — sun and wind can dry out the plant and roots (Pot-bound and tiny cell trays are particularly vulnerable). No rain (Not even a drizzle) or breezy days at first, but slowly acclimate and add stakes to each plant before putting them outside. (Bamboo skewers for small seedlings) Don’t forget to bring them back inside if overnight forecast puts temp in the 40’s°F. 55+ is optimal.

imafan26
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It looks like you could have started the tomatoes a little later and under more light so they would not be so lanky. Keep records of your planting dates and plant out dates for future reference. When you do plant out the tomatoes you can lie most of the stem down laterally so the plant will not be so tall and it will encourage adventitious rooting.
Right now you don't have that much root for such a tall plant.

jb2030
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Thank you for your advice.

I'm starting to log it.

Not much growing since the pot move. Watering it once a day.

Will see how it progress over the next week.

jb2030
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Hi

Is the tomato plant growing as it should?

Thanks for your advice in advance.
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Vanisle_BC
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jb2030 wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 11:28 am
Hi

Is the tomato plant growing as it should
My opinion: The one on the right looks OK, but may need more light, introduced gradually, so that it will develop strength as it grows. Even so it will likely need a bigger pot, with support as it gets taller. The one on the left is much too skinny for its height. I'm not sure what you could do for it, other than my previous suggestion of gradually giving it full outdoor light while burying it deeply and/or cutting back the main stem. I'm not sure about cutting back, but no one commented on it so I don't know if it's 'a winner'. Do you intend the plants to be in the ground or in containers/pots? I think you might not find a container deep enough to adequately bury the tall one. It would be better buried horizontally in the ground as someone suggested, with most of the leaves stripped off and only its top part showing above the surface.

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applestar
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Great suggestions.

One way to achieve the side-ways burial of the stem in a container is to plant the one plant in a large windowbox.

...remember that as a basic rule of thumb, plants grow roots that spread out *at least* as wide as the very tip of outstretched leaves.

jb2030
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Thank you for your advice. I plan to put the plants in larger pot something like this https://www.thegardensuperstore.co.uk/p ... dles-160lt

Putting more of the stem into the soil.

Vanisle_BC
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@jb2030 - I don't grow tomatoes in containers so I'm not sure what size you'd really need but I imagine the 15L one would be adequate(not cheap though.) I've never seen pots like those really big ones but if I needed that size the handles would be nice to have. I think they lack drain holes?

@applestar, what are your thoughts about cutting back the main stem of a too-tall tomato plant?

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applestar
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I worry that it might encourage too many side shoots to want to grow and you would have to manage those “suckers”. Also, if you cut back the rapidly growing top, the plant have to pause and regroup before resuming growth, so I think it would slow the momentum.

BUT, sometimes, once the side suckers start to form, first one or two can be MORE vigorous than the original main stem. And IF, I had failed to rub off the sucker and allowed it/them to grow AND I see that a secondary has taken over and is stronger, I sometimes DO pick that one to be the main one and cut off the original main.

REMEMBER though, that this only works well for indeterminate varieties.

pepperhead212
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@jb2030 I have grown a lot of tomatoes in containers through the years, and I can tell you from experience that 15 l is going to be somewhat small for them. It may be ok for a determinate type (I have grown few of those), but large indeterminate varieties would get rootbound well before the end of the season in 4 gallon buckets (slightly larger than 15 l), while they would last pretty much to the end of the seasons in 5 gallon buckets, though still somewhat rootbound. Cherry tomatoes did ok in the smaller buckets, even when growing much larger vines. Both, however, once they get large, needed watering 3 times a day ; I had drip emitters on all of the buckets, and twice a day wasn't enough - they would be totally dried out! Eggplants were the same - dried out very quickly in those buckets.

Now when I grow in containers, they are what are known as Sub-Irrigated Planters, often called SIPs. Earthbox is a brand of them, but there are others around in places like Home Depot and Lowe's - probably somewhere in your area carries them. These Earthbox containers have a reservoir of 3 gallons of water underneath the soil, and it keeps the soil moist, but not soaked. The old ones I have are 2 gal reservoirs, but they have improved them now, and to give you an idea of how much water they suck up every day, I have to refill these twice a day for 2 cherry tomato plants, which drink less than the larger ones (which I put in my larger, homemade SIPs). And to give you an idea of the pot size, these hold 2 cu ft of soil - approximately 56 liters - for just 2 tomato plants! In this size pot, with the reservoir holding those 2 gal of water, it would be dry, in less than a day, in hot weather, and with large plants. I keep timers on them, with drip emitters to almost fill them - I watch to see when they start overflowing, then set them 10 minutes less, and do this twice a day. The soil mix stays evenly moist this way.

One problem with pots drying out, like they often do in regular pots, is blossom end rot. This often occurs when there are major fluctuations in the soil moisture.

Vanisle_BC
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@jb2030 I think you're in the UK? If so Pepperhead's US gallons are smaller than yours. So far there's no sign of an American liter :P .

jb2030
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I would like to thank you for your help and assistance, the tomato plants grew well and grew big and there were and are plenty of tomatoes for my family and friends. Looking forward to doing it again next year :)



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