Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: tiny50 on August 26, 2009, 15:27
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Set seeds today to see if I can grow toms through the winter in my conservatory. trying Ailsa Craig, and money maker. just to see what happens realy, be a nice bonus if I get some fruit though.
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Let us know how you get on!
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I hope it works, but there might just not be enough daylight for them.
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It would be easier to try rooting a side shoot from something you are already growing, they get away very quickly.
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SEEDS HAVE GERMINATED, TOOK EM OUT OF THE PROPERGATER THIS MORNIN AND ARE NOW IN A PLASTIC MINI HOUSE IN THE MAIN GREENHOUSE. I AM GOIN TO PUT ONE PLANT UNDER A GROW LIGHT AND THE OTHER TWO STRAIT IN THE HOUSE CONSERVATORY WITH RADIATORS TO KEEP EM WARM.
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Woah! Easy on the shouting there hun!
I have considered trying to do winter toms myself, but was only met with lots of doubt and scepticism... now I feel inclined to try again!
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On a similar note, has anyone tried keeping a tomato plant over winter? I read somewhere that in S America they are perennial. I suppose you'd have to keep them at 15 - 20° ?
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I think that tomatoes are day neutral plants ie they do not require specific lengths of darkness compared to light to induce flowering and that they also self pollinate. However i am not so sure what their demands are regards to temperature.
I suspect that you will have a very hard ( and expensive) job in trying to ensure that they have sufficient light and temperature to get a plant that is strong enough to bear fruit - best of luck though.
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I tried this a few years back with a hanging basket type - think it was Tumbler F1 from T&M.
Planted in late October - the plants grew fine but there were no flowers until early June, which turned out to be just a few weeks before the normal plants.
Let us know how you get on.
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LIKE THE TITLE SAYS ITS JUST AN EXPERIMENT, IF IT WORKS AND I GET FRUIT THEN GREAT, IF IT DONT THEN IT WILL AT LEAST GIVE ME SOMETHIN TO INTEREST ME IN THE SEASON OF THE LONG SHADOWS. I APPOLIGISE FOR THE CAPITAL LETTERS, I AINT SHOUTIN, I HAVE NERVE PROBS IN MY HANDS, IT TAKES ME A LONG TIME TO TYPE OUT THIS RUBBISH, AND IF I TRY TO DO A MIX OF CAPS AND SMALL LETTERS IT WOULD TAKE ALL DAY TO TYPE THIS OUT. SO IF YOU WANT TO READ MY POSTS THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO READ IN CAPS. SORRY ONCE AGAIN TO THOSE WHOME MIGHT GET UPSET, :)
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Sorry to hear you have nerve problems in your hands tiny50. Maybe the answer would be to type in lower case as many members seem to not bother with capital letters. ::)
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i was just going to suggest that!
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I tried this a few years back with a hanging basket type - think it was Tumbler F1 from T&M.
Planted in late October - the plants grew fine but there were no flowers until early June, which turned out to be just a few weeks before the normal plants.
Let us know how you get on.
In the past i have tried to get my tomatoes away earlier in the spring with the aid of a little bit of parafin heating. I don't think it made much difference at all (except to my pocket paying for the fuel) as the later planted ones seemed to catch up pretty quickly to the ones that had been started earlier. I suspect that flowering may well be significantly influenced by temperatures and unless you can really control the temp (and light) that you are going to struggle changing their flowering habits.
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sorry but you need co2 i think it is to get them to flower they normally get this from the sun in guernsey growers have severall things some sort of burners that produce this throughout the greenhouse when they want to grow early toms
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I only thought it might work because it works in them super expensive Aerogarden things.
Indoors, just with special lights and nutrients.
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"Them" Aeorgardens have very intense light in a small space.
As has been alluded to before, to grow a full size tomato plant, you'd have to up scale that - along with your electricity bill.
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you,ve started so may as well carry on,, if you get some fruit then we will all be green with envy.
i used to work at a university and although it may have been research or similar there were tomatoes growing in the greenhouses through out the year! even in a small roof top greenhouse.
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sorry but you need co2 i think it is to get them to flower they normally get this from the sun in guernsey growers have severall things some sort of burners that produce this throughout the greenhouse when they want to grow early toms
Carbon dioxide is just for photosynthesis and is present in the air. If conditions were optimal then CO2 could be a limiting factor and then extra can be supplied just by parafin burners. It is not going to be a problem in this case.
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SEEDS HAVE GERMINATED, TOOK EM OUT OF THE PROPERGATER THIS MORNIN AND ARE NOW IN A PLASTIC MINI HOUSE IN THE MAIN GREENHOUSE. I AM GOIN TO PUT ONE PLANT UNDER A GROW LIGHT AND THE OTHER TWO STRAIT IN THE HOUSE CONSERVATORY WITH RADIATORS TO KEEP EM WARM.
Sorry to hear about your nerve problems Tiny50. I hope it's not too disabling...
Now then, you mention putting them under a grow light, I assume you are going to use it to increase it's 'daylight' hours?
Personally, although I have no direct experience of growing tomato plants under lights, I reckon (guess) that day length is the secret here.
Are you using a timer on the light to keep regular hours for the plant? If so, how many hours will you give it? A lot of plants do well under a regime of either 16 hours daylight and 6 darkness, or even 20 hours daylight with only 4 hours rest.
Forget the Co2 that was suggested as well, there's enough in fresh air for the plant to get on with unless you have it in a box or something.
Keep us posted Tiny, I imagine there's more than a few of us like a good experiment.
Good luck.
Nigel.
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sorry but you need co2 i think it is to get them to flower they normally get this from the sun in guernsey growers have severall things some sort of burners that produce this throughout the greenhouse when they want to grow early toms
ive got an old air cylinder and regulator in the garage, i might take it to the local aquarium shop, they do co2 there for the tropical plants. get them to fill it and make a slow release tent Mmmm, got me thinking now.
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Cylinders are colour coded according to the gas they contain, (black for oxygen, maroon for acetylene etc.). Don't think that would be legal.
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If you want carbon dioxide, try a lot of heavy breathing......
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If you want carbon dioxide, try a lot of heavy breathing......
CANT YOU GET ARRESTED FOR DOIN THAT
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"Them" Aeorgardens have very intense light in a small space.
As has been alluded to before, to grow a full size tomato plant, you'd have to up scale that - along with your electricity bill.
Artificial light might work with a dwarf variety like tiny tom?
It might be worth trying with grolux lights for growing plants in aquarium tanks as these are v.intense to penetrate the water. Even with a starter unit they are also cheaper than a lot of specialist lights for growing plants. The only downside would be the initial startup costs and cost of electricity would make the toms super-expensive.
sorry but you need co2 i think it is to get them to flower they normally get this from the sun in guernsey growers have severall things some sort of burners that produce this throughout the greenhouse when they want to grow early toms
ive got an old air cylinder and regulator in the garage, i might take it to the local aquarium shop, they do co2 there for the tropical plants. get them to fill it and make a slow release tent Mmmm, got me thinking now.
Photosynthesis requires light and CO2 and as most of this thread have covered growth will be limited on the amount of light. CO2 is only limiting if light is very intense. I have read that dutch ornamental growers are pumping CO2 from power stations into their glasshouses but this is for systems with very powerful lighting rigs where light is no longer restricting so CO2 becomes the limiting factor. So might only be worth trying CO2 if you have a really strong lighting system.
Got to admit that your idea of using aquarium CO2 sounds a lot better than burning paraffin as the former will be very clean (I keep fish and know how susceptible to pollutants they are) while the latter will release all sorts of contaminants to be taken up by the plant :tongue2:.
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The "industrial" tomato growers use the flue gases from the gas heating to increase the
CO2 inside the GHs: increases production by another XX %
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One of the tom plants in the conservatory has got a couple of flowers appearing. might get something might not, fun havin a play though.
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One of the tom plants in the conservatory has got a couple of flowers appearing. might get something might not, fun havin a play though.
I'm right behind you Tiny, can't resist experimenting myself (adding clay to my sandy soil, storing runner bean tubers for next year to name but two).
(Wouldn't go as far as Heston Blumenthal does with his cooking, though; think he's a bit of a pirrock!) :nowink:
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just chuck some water, sugar and yeast inh a demi-john, this will give off CO2 for your plants, add more sugar daily to maintain the bubbling!! ;)
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It must be frustrating having the problem with your hands :( It might be worth trying the side shoots another time. They root really quickly. Bob Flowerdew is a fan. He grows his early then uses the side shoots to get shorter jointed plants. It works really well. Take care
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In another post on chillies Ive mentioned that I've kept a chilli plant outside - gave it a 'fright' with the recent cold weather and took it inside a week or so ago. This seems to have prompted some quite rapid growth, including quite a few flower buds. I know its not a tomato, but you'd think if a chilli can keep flowering then so could a tom? :blink:
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nice to know other folk are playin with there plants to see wot happens, after vall the worlds most prolific inventions come from people tryin the unconventional.
I got chilli plants still flowerin and producin tiny fruits in the greenhouse too.
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I'v just made up two dem's of wine from kits and put one in a mini grow house with two tom plants for the extra co2, ive also put the demi sittin in a propagator tray for warmth.
done simaler in the heated greenhouse with my chilli plants, and a tom plant, interestin to see wot happens.