[Floody]

I'm trying to sort out my 'Plan Of Action' for next year and I wondered, what time of the year should I be out shopping for tomato plants?  When they do start to appear on the shelves?

I don't want to turn up and find they're all gone! 

[mumofstig]

They probably start selling them in March - before the weather, even in a greenhouse, is warm enough for them - unless of course it's a heated one.

I wouldn't want to buy them before the end of April.

[Eblana]

They were in my local garden centre on the 17th March this year.

[New shoot]

You have a huge shopping window Floody   

In the garden centre I work in, we had them from mid march, right through until May/June, although the small 9cm pots were gone well before then and it was 1L or larger pots availble at the end. 

If the garden centre does the tiny plug plants for summer bedding, there are often packs of peppers, chillies and toms in the mix somewhere if you want them even earlier, but bear in mind your growing conditions.  If you have a heated greenhouse, early can be great, but if you don't, you are much better waiting like MoS says 

[Kristen]

I'm trying to sort out my 'Plan Of Action' for next year and I wondered, what time of the year should I be out shopping for tomato plants?  When they do start to appear on the shelves?

I haven't done it myself, but my local garden centre lets folks pre-order - that way they can be sure of a particular variety / grafted plant / whatever - might be worth checking if your local does that too?

[Floody]

Brilliant advice, thanks everyone. 

[Headgardener22]

You could try ordering them online. Most of the big players do it and its quite common on ebay. Some of the ebay players offer different varieties than the standard things.

I've done it and (most times) the plug plants arrived in good condition.

[boddy]

..........or you could grow your own indoors from seed. You'll end up giving the excess plants away to the neighbours too!

[cadalot]

Tomato plant are so easy to grow why on earth would you want to buy them from a garden centre?

[New shoot]

Tomato plant are so easy to grow why on earth would you want to buy them from a garden centre?

There are quite a few reasons people buy them 

Some have no room inside to propagate them, or don't want\are not allowed compost and pots in the house.  Some just don't get on with seeds or can't be bothered.  Some want all different types and it works out cheaper than buying half a dozen packet of seeds.

I don't have any problems buying plants from work if I need them - if a have gap or something fails totally.  I'm currently enjoying working my way through autumn cabbage I bought as a pack of seedlings on a whim and they are some of the best cabbage I have ever produced   

[fatbelly]

I've bought Toms plants in the past because where I live I have not much space at home.

I have bought mine from our G/Centre around mid April last season and put them in a cold greeenhouse straight away and they were okay. Luckily we didn't have any late frosts etc so it was a gamble. By mid April there weren't as many variates available as there were in March when they 1st started selling them

[Kristen]

Tomato plant are so easy to grow why on earth would you want to buy them from a garden centre?

Gains 6 weeks over growing them from seed yourself.  Even if you have enough warmth to start them off light is a problem early in the season (I use a grow-light, but that's £100 and up to buy), so for an early start it is easier to get someone else to grow them for you who has those facilities

Personally I'm fussy about which varieties I grow, so I prefer to grow from seed ... but I'm probably being way more fussy than necessary and just buying plants when I am ready to plant them would give me a crop that I was happy with and without the faff of raising the plants early in the season

[Headgardener22]

I grow my tomatoes from seed because until last year, the choice of plants in the garden centres was limited to a few varieties. I noticed last year that there were lots more varieties available.

I've also noticed that Marshalls, T&M and others are doing a wider range of tomato plants online and you can specify when you want them delivered (April or May) so that may also help you plan.

[Totty]

Tomato plant are so easy to grow why on earth would you want to buy them from a garden centre?

Gains 6 weeks over growing them from seed yourself.  Even if you have enough warmth to start them off light is a problem early in the season (I use a grow-light, but that's £100 and up to buy), so for an early start it is easier to get someone else to grow them for you who has those facilities

Personally I'm fussy about which varieties I grow, so I prefer to grow from seed ... but I'm probably being way more fussy than necessary and just buying plants when I am ready to plant them would give me a crop that I was happy with and without the faff of raising the plants early in the season

Buying plants in will not give you a six week head start. Last season I grew 100 plants all from seed. 50 sown in late jan with heat and light, and 50 sown mid March. There may have been a fortnight difference with the very earliest ones but nothing to make very early sowing worthwhile.
If growing in an unheated greenhouse, you may as well sow seed in late March/April, in good compost and pot them on when needed. Results in the long run will be better than buying plants that have usually been sat around a while, and won't of been cared for as you would at home.

TOTTY

[Kristen]

Buying plants in will not give you a six week head start. Last season I grew 100 plants all from seed. 50 sown in late jan with heat and light, and 50 sown mid March. There may have been a fortnight difference with the very earliest ones but nothing to make very early sowing worthwhile.

I would expect a commercial grower to give you a 6 week old plant, whether they sown it in January or March - i.e. a 6 week old plant would be identical whenever sown - as they have growing rooms which it is hard for us amateurs to reproduce.

I use Metal Halide for lighting plants raised over winter, and the Tomatoes I sow in January are 4' tall by the time they are planted into the cold greenhouse in May - latterly they will have been in my conservatory, which during March and April will be comfortably over a minimum of 10C (below which Tomatoes will "stall"), but they will still have additional light at night to supplement the daytime light.

Whether that makes a significant difference to the date the first tomato is harvested is another debate - I'm sure it isn't the same as the 2 months earlier start of the seed.