Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Eblana on February 07, 2018, 23:39

Title: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: Eblana on February 07, 2018, 23:39

I always seem to sow way too many seeds and end up with heaps of plants and nowhere to put them.  I have 15 varieties of Tomatoes that I want to grow this year and I have room for about 50 plants between the PT and the greenhouse.  Would sowing 4 or 5 seeds of each variety give me enough plants or should I sow all the seeds and just keep the best of them.

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: Plot 1 Problems on February 08, 2018, 01:33

Whilst not in the league with you in terms of numbers that I can reasonably grow on, I always sow lots of extras with the toms. If I get lots that germinate, I give away the extras to friends and family, no-one ever says no to tomato plants! (runner beans are an entirely different thing however)

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: ARPoet on February 08, 2018, 07:30

I too grow far too many, but end up with enough, plant the best and chuck the rest into the compost bin.

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: New shoot on February 08, 2018, 07:55

Tomato seeds keep for years and still almost always germinate.  You have room for 3 and a bit of each, so I would have thought 4-5 seeds of each kind is plenty.  They come up so fast you can easily re-sow fails.

Having loads of plants leads to overcrowding and lack of light.  Better to have what you need and look after them a bit better imo  :)

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: DD. on February 08, 2018, 08:51

New Shoot has nailed it. I hate waste and there's no need to sow too many.

If you end up a couple short, just root the first side shoots you take off. They soon catch up. The side shoot trick is good for making the most of expensive F1 seeds as well.

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: oldgrunge on February 08, 2018, 19:15

I plant side shoots every year as a matter of course. Especially Sungold, find they give more vigorous, heavier cropping plants, that produce fruit after the others have finished

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: Aidy on February 09, 2018, 11:10

Quote from: oldgrunge on February 08, 2018, 19:15

I plant side shoots every year as a matter of course. Especially Sungold, find they give more vigorous, heavier cropping plants, that produce fruit after the others have finished

I did this last year as I took the greenhouse from mums house when we were clearing it, finaly got it up in June and thought what could I do/ plant, took some side shoots off, rooted them and planted and they went MAD and produced like crazy! also put a gherkin plant in, that was a mistake  :lol: even chickens ran away when I came out of it.
Defo planting up some side shoots this year.

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: sunshineband on February 09, 2018, 12:08

I always end up with too many tomato plants... I'll just sow a couple of extras in case some don't come up.... and then I don't have enough space to keep them really healthy and they get all peely-wally.

So my advice would be sow 3 of each only, and use DD's advice about using side shoots as cuttings to fill the spaces

Title: Re: How many Tomato seeds to sow
Post by: theothermarg on February 13, 2018, 12:04

Oh dear too late have already sowed mine, not as many as 15 varieties though ! I am a member of a gardening group so can donate them esp the more unusual ones but it is the cost of the compost and losing the pots as well and it's surprising how many labels you get through.
This sounds tight but it does add up