[herbiegrowsbananas]

hiya

I grew loads of tomatoes last year in our conservatory from teeny little plants I bought.

This year I've bought loads of different seeds, and to be honest, I am scared of doing it wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol.

So, is there a fool proof way of germinating them?  I have just been given a greenhouse but that wont be up for a couple of weeks.

I've got an unheated conservatory and I can keep some inside on my window sills.

Also, can I treat the tomatoes all the same way? Some say maintain a temp of 15 degrees, some say 18.

Cheers!!

[milkman]

Okay here's how I do mine -

I sow a single tomato seed to a Rootrainer cell, but if you have standard trays with individual cells that will do just as well.  

I start them off in a heated propagator and as soon as they are showing signs of germinating I move them to a sunny windowsill, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged and turning them 2 or 3 times a day so that the stems hopefully grow straightish.

When they're about 5 -7 inches tall I pot them on into bigger pots (forgotten what size they are, sorry), keeping them on the sunniest windowsills.

I plant them out into the unheated greenhouse soil (which I have hopefully managed to enrich with compost and manure) sometime in May.

This method does temporarily take up a lot of window space making the house dark for a time, but I always get a good crop of toms!

[Annie]

I plant straight into an unheatedgreen house 2nd week of april,awindow sill will do,put into 3-4 inch pots when about 6" tall and pop into grow bagsbeginning of june.They need plenty of light to stop thm getting leggy.When you get that far check on here again `cos there will be loads of stuff on feeding,cordon types and bush toms.

[black diamond]

Start mine of in heated propagater then into cells, when the roots have filled the cells i drop them into 3in pots with the seed leaves just on top of the compost.

[herbiegrowsbananas]

Hiya
Thanks for that, doesn't sound to scary, lol, maybe I'm just a big wimp!!

I'm going to be brave and give it a go - how long from planting to signs of growth (on a window sill)? (Just so I know I haven't killed them off before they have a change to get started, lol).

Cheers
Tina

[DD.]

My tried & trusted method, already luking at various places in the forum!

Start them inside on a window sill. I put mine in a seed tray, (24 seeds to a half size tray), cover with glass or polythene, then cover that with newspaper to keep out the light.

As soon as the first one shows, take off the covering, tuck a bit of cooking foil part way under the seed tray, on one long side, then bring up the back & sides vertically, leaving one long side exposed. (If this makes sense). The foil should be 3" to 4" longer than the seed tray on each side. What you should end up with is a vertical piece of foil behind the tray and for a certain length on each side.

This will increase the amount of light the plant gets & stop it becoming 'drawn'. Keep in the window sill, obviously with the exposed side of the seed tray facing the window.

After the second set of leaves is well formed, pot up into 3" pots, keep in window sill until it's consistantly reasonably warm at night, (unless the greenhouse is heated), not forgetting to come up with some cunning plan to keep the foil in position. I grow mine in a small upstairs window and 'blue tac' the foil across the ledge.

Hope this helps and is not too confusuing. The foil bit is easy to do, not so easy to write down!!!

[Trillium]

That's a lot of toms, BD.  You sell off young plants or just supply the whole town with toms?    

[muntjac]

we grow upto a hundred i sell the extras at the gate 80p each

[GrannieAnnie]

80p?? That's good Munty.  Last year I put all my little plants, brassicas, toms runners etc outside in the cheap 3" pots I got at the auction for 25p and in a month I sold 2 cabbage plants and a purple brussel!!!

[muntjac]

i sell loads of stuff i also get plants from the council here and sell them , i live near the community centre and have loads of folks come by every day ai also put a few cards in shop windoes .saying plant sale etc at a certain time on a sat and they que up ,i save the carrier bags from shopping etc .the pots i use are £20 a thousand from my mate at the council also lol    advertise .

[Annie]

Tina,toms germinate quite quickly so you won`t have long to wait.