Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Jamie Butterworth on May 04, 2011, 21:20

Title: Tomatoes
Post by: Jamie Butterworth on May 04, 2011, 21:20
Is it bad that my tomatoes are flowering already :ohmy: :unsure:
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Lardman on May 04, 2011, 21:47
That depends on whether you like tomatoes  :D

Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: mclarkuk1 on May 04, 2011, 22:22
Not in a million years.  :D

Flowering tomatos is always a good sign!!
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Ice on May 04, 2011, 22:23
It also depends on the variety and the conditions they have been kept in. ;)
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Jamie Butterworth on May 04, 2011, 22:36
They were sown in january and have been kept in a cold greenhouse, they have kept getting potted on :)

Hopefully ill get some early toms then :D
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Paul Plots on May 05, 2011, 01:35
It sounds good to me.  ;)
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: mumofstig on May 05, 2011, 10:45
YAY! I've  just checked my toms, in small pots in the greenhouse, and they have flower buds, as do the aubergines and peppers :D

I've just had my compost/grow bag delivery so I can plant them up in their 'proper' places now!  Fleece at the ready though...just in case  :unsure:
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Nicki85 on May 05, 2011, 10:53
My toms are all flowering... think it is all this heat so early on.  They are still in small pots but I will have to wait till some people take the ones I don't need off my hands- I have so many!! Then i'll pot on the ones I am keeping to many to pot on all again and not enough space now the squash and courgettes are also in the green house :blush:
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Paul Plots on May 06, 2011, 01:07
As far as I can remember tomatoes kept in small pots often start flowering earlier than those potted on more speedily.

Perhaps they think "this is it... no more space to grow in so better get on with the seed production...flowering time!"

There again.... they might not think at all.  :wacko:  :lol:
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Growster... on May 06, 2011, 05:47
Great to get them flowering early!

I always train mine by twirling them round a string tied to the greenhouse roof, so 'twirling' with flowers getting in the way, or dropping off might become a bit risky...

Interesting you've done this in a cold greenhouse though - sounds very right to me!
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Springlands on May 06, 2011, 07:44
Great to get them flowering early!

Interesting you've done this in a cold greenhouse though - sounds very right to me!

I have always started my toms in a cold greenhouse - my old granddad and my dad always said that you got the strongest plants that way whether they were for outdoors or indoors plantings and they always had good toms. Noticed some small flowers on my 100s and 1000s today.
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Kristen on May 06, 2011, 19:49
Is it bad that my tomatoes are flowering already :ohmy: :unsure:

Yup, bad in the sense that you now have to start a feeding routine for them ... one more job to do :)

My Toms, sown mid Feb, already have "fruits" about 1.5cm diameter where the flowers were. Based on previous year's experience it will take a disappointingly long time from the first fruits being a "decent size" to being "red" and a certain amount of faffing around with Banana skins to try to get some Ethylene gas to help them ripen - but once the first ones are ripe they will produce the Ethylene that will hurry-up the others ... but I'm getting ahead of the game, sorry Jamie!
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Paul Plots on May 06, 2011, 23:20
Is it bad that my tomatoes are flowering already :ohmy: :unsure:

Yup, bad in the sense that you now have to start a feeding routine for them ... one more job to do :)

My Toms, sown mid Feb, already have "fruits" about 1.5cm diameter where the flowers were. Based on previous year's experience it will take a disappointingly long time from the first fruits being a "decent size" to being "red" and a certain amount of faffing around with Banana skins to try to get some Ethylene gas to help them ripen - but once the first ones are ripe they will produce the Ethylene that will hurry-up the others ... but I'm getting ahead of the game, sorry Jamie!

We had a little pile of cherry tomatoes sliced in half on the edge of the plates of sandwiches today... no bananas though  :blink:

We are so looking forward to not buying them from the supermarket and having ones with real flavour.  ;)  :lol:
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Lardman on May 06, 2011, 23:25
We are so looking forward to not buying them from the supermarket and having ones with real flavour.  ;)  :lol:

I can't bring myself to buy them any more - not even for cooking. 
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Paul Plots on May 06, 2011, 23:33
We are so looking forward to not buying them from the supermarket and having ones with real flavour.  ;)  :lol:

I can't bring myself to buy them any more - not even for cooking. 


Personally I agree with you whole-heartedly but my parents find it hard to wait round to the time when I have them growing again in their greenhouse. The small cherry tomatoes on the vine are not bad for flavour - I was surprised. But... no match for the ones you can grow yourself.  ;)
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: mike1987 on May 07, 2011, 07:58
b&q are selling tomatoes and peppers that already have ripe fruit on them the wife wanted to get some but at 6£ a plant i soon put a stop to it any idea how they are at the fruiting stage already?
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: mumofstig on May 07, 2011, 10:25
they are grown in heated glasshouses with growlights on for the first few week, I would imagine.

If you sow and grow a small tomato plant on the sunniest windowledge of a centrally heated house you may match their timing. I meant to try it this year but forgot to do the early sowing :wacko:
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Kristen on May 07, 2011, 10:57
There's an early-sown-Tomato thread on another forum. They sowed in early January. I haven't read of anyone who has Tomato fruits more advanced than mine - which are now getting close to 2cm diameter, and mine were sown mid February.

I reckon to get them with ripe fruit on them I think they would have had to be started a lot earlier and/or given a lot of extra light and heat.
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: rubenjohnson on May 07, 2011, 14:39
such early ripe is due to forced ripping and thats not natural.
 
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: chrissie B on May 07, 2011, 18:27
i planted some tomatoe seeds for hangigng baskets and although thet showed quite quickly they are dragging their heels and are jst not growing looks like i might have to buy some the same is happening to my peppers and chiliis any ideas
chrissie b
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: JayG on May 07, 2011, 18:33
Where are you growing them at the moment?

(Anything outdoors, even a greenhouse, will have experienced pretty extreme temperatures this past week.)
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Paul Plots on May 07, 2011, 19:20
I have first truss of flowers on a few tomatoes in an unheated tiddly greenhouse. It is no more than 6' tall, 6' long and 2.5' wide but the wall it's on soaks up heat like a radiator.
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: barbarella on May 07, 2011, 21:07
I planted my best tomatoes in growbags in my frost free greenhouse yesterday (and the cucumbers)  - they look really healthy and vigorous and all the tomatoes have flower trusses.  They were sown in early February.

Sadly the peppers and aubergines sown at the same time are still tiny.  I thought they all needed a long growing season so started them off early but next year will leave the peppers and aubergines until later.  I will probably buy some plants for this season that are further on.
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: mumofstig on May 07, 2011, 21:32
Sadly the peppers and aubergines sown at the same time are still tiny.  I thought they all needed a long growing season so started them off early but next year will leave the peppers and aubergines until later. 
I don't understand how sowing them later will give you bigger plants :unsure:

Aubergines and peppers will grow just as rapidly as the toms, but they do like a higher temperature than toms do for active growth.
I treat mine as houseplants in the dining room, which seems to suit them just fine  :lol:

They were all planted in the greenhouse yesterday :)
Title: Re: Tomatoes
Post by: Kristen on May 07, 2011, 22:41
I sowed two batches to Melons this year. The first, earlier, batch got a bit chilli at night, and they have never caught up, they are still small plants, and the second batch have overtaken them and shot up ...