[colin120]

Hi
might be a silly question but does my tomatoes plant look like it should do ??

I planted it from seed at the beginning of May I added magnesium Salts and Fish, Blood & Bone to the soil, when I could see the seedlings true leaves I gave it some tomato pour & feed.

Its now July and all my tomato plants look this small I was informed that after the true leaves form tomatoes plants grow quite quick

any insight will be a great help 

[solway cropper]

It just looks like a small tomato plant, probably not big enough to give you much of a crop this year. I sow mine in February then put them out into the greenhouse early May.

You don't need to add magnesium unless they are showing definite signs of deficiency and you'd normally start feeding once the first truss has set fruit.

[colin120]

Hi again
            Are my vine tomatoes' that small as I don't have a green house and I put them out in the garden in the sun and bring them in around 6pm and put them near the heat of my computer

Thanks

[Springlands]

Colin - not having a greenhouse has probably not had an effect of the size of your tomato plant but the fact that you did not sow the seeds until May as Solway Cropper said. I started mine off in mid March and they are now a good size with plenty of fruits on - both the indoor and the outdoor plants. Some people start their's off much earlier. You could also start to leave the plant out overnight now as the night-time temperatures are quite reasonable.

If you want to develop your knowledge of gardening it might be useful to read some how-to books. The site owner John Harrison has published some which are good and also anything by Joy Larcombe. 

[jondav14]

You really need to sow tomatoes around March time, don't worry about not having a greenhouse, you can now leave the plants outside, make sure it is in a sunny spot and that it gets plenty of water. You should get some toms off it, but probably not till September

[3759allen]

not quite sure why it's not packing on the growth tbh.

what compost and size pot is it in? could possibly be over feeding, although i've never had experience of doing this (i don't feed mine at all until the first fruits start to set).

agreed about the earlier sowing but i put some in at the end of may (for a bit of an experiment). these are now a couple of foot tall or more (are in a poly tunnel).

i would try and leave them out in a sunny sheltered spot, leave the pot standing in something that will hold some water, make sure they always have water available that they can suck up.

[colin120]

not quite sure why it's not packing on the growth tbh.

what compost and size pot is it in? could possibly be over feeding, although i've never had experience of doing this (i don't feed mine at all until the first fruits start to set).

agreed about the earlier sowing but i put some in at the end of may (for a bit of an experiment). these are now a couple of foot tall or more (are in a poly tunnel).

i would try and leave them out in a sunny sheltered spot, leave the pot standing in something that will hold some water, make sure they always have water available that they can suck up.

Hi
The plants are in pots 200mil by 200 mill ( 8ins by 8ins ) the compost is Multi- Purpose from Wilkinson, the tomato pour & feed is from Wilkinson as well and it says  when 2 stems has set  pour 100ml of feed around base of plant feed twice a week.

Most people on here say the dilute their feed with water, but that don't say that on this tomato pour & feed Liquid

 

edit to clarify quote

[snowdrops]

I think from 2 stems they mean 2 trusses that is 2 lots of stems of flowers that have shrivelled up & you can see baby tomatoes. I would imagine pour & feed means just that, it is not concentrated so just pour it out & feed them. Re read it, but they don't need feeding until you see baby tomatoes. Some people would say you need the contents of grow bags for toms, various threads on here the pros & cons of what to grow them in if you do a search.put it all down to experience for next year.

[spuriousmonkey]

You don't really need to feed tomatoes until they are a lot bigger. There should be enough nutrients in that pot to reach a height of at least 30 cm easily.

Maybe it has too much feed even.

[Headgardener22]

Most people on here say the dilute their feed with water, but that don't say that on this tomato pour & feed Liquid

edit to clarify quote

Fertilizer suppliers have started creating Pour & Feed fertilisers which are just diluted versions of the traditional fertilisers (I can't say I understand why). So when you see people saying they dilute there fertiliser its because they're starting from a concentrate.


Like most people in response to your question, I think the problem you have is a combination of late sowing (I do mine in late January/early February) and the fact that you may be overfeeding them. Tomatoes don't need feeding with tomato fertiliser until one or two trusses have set and the plant is well into the fruiting stage of its lifecycle.

Unfortunately, I don't think you are going to get much in the way of fruit this year.

[Yorkie]

I started mine at the start of May, as I don't have a greenhouse, and they are far bigger than that I'm afraid.  (There's no point in starting them in March if you don't have access to a greenhouse as they just go leggy on the windowsill until you can plant them out early June - assuming you're not on the S Coast where it's a warmer climate).

I agree with the comments of the others about feeding.

[Snoop]

Now, I know everyone is going to look at my location and say, "yes but"... but I agree with Yorkie: it should be perfectly possible to sow seeds in May and I agree that your plants should be taller than that by now.

I'm not sure why you bring them in in the evening. They should be easily able to withstand the night-time temperatures in SE2. What's probably holding them back is lack of sunshine. You bring them in at 6 pm. What time do you take them out? From the daylight hours they're experiencing, they probably think it's March. I'd leave them outside if I were you.

[colin120]

Now, I know everyone is going to look at my location and say, "yes but"... but I agree with Yorkie: it should be perfectly possible to sow seeds in May and I agree that your plants should be taller than that by now.

I'm not sure why you bring them in in the evening. They should be easily able to withstand the night-time temperatures in SE2. What's probably holding them back is lack of sunshine. You bring them in at 6 pm. What time do you take them out? From the daylight hours they're experiencing, they probably think it's March. I'd leave them outside if I were you.

I take them out around 7.30 to 8.30 in the morning, but last night I left them out all night.

the reason I was bringing in the vine tomatoes at night was, I did some salad tomatoes before them and when they had their second leaves on I introduced then slowly to outside for a few weeks then planted them outside and they all died, I didn't want the same thing to happen to my vine tomatoes.

[Snoop]

Tomatoes will be alright out all night (and day) if the temperature is 10 șC or warmer. If you put the others out below that, no amount of hardening off will help, they'll just get cold and die.

Springlands is right, you know. I learnt just about everything I know from books and the Internet (especially this site). John Harrison's or Joy Larkham's books would be a great help for you. John also has lots of articles on growing vegetables available on this site that you might find useful.