[Eblana]

I have about 60 tomato plants that are now about 2 foot tall in a heated greenhouse.  Half of them are destined for my Polytunnel.  They need potting on and I am just wondering should I pot them on or could I chance moving them to their final planting position in the PT.  If potting them on is best should I just use multi purpose or should I get a couple of grow bags and use the compost from these.

[DD.]

Having looked at the weather forecast for the next couple of weeks and given that we're going on hols on Saturday, I've bitten the bullet and planted up my unheated greenhouse this afternoon.

Compost wise, when it comes to tomatoes in pots, I generally look for the good deals on growbags and use that. It usually works out cheaper than multi-purp and I have to say the compost in them looks a lot better in those I've just bought than the same brand multi-purp that I'd just finished. (Yes I know - looks aren't everything!).

[Steveharford]

At 2' tall I would be, and am, looking to plant them into their final pots now. Nothing to be gained from another potting ,for what will be a very short time

[Eblana]

They are going into the beds in the PT which is unheated.  I have checked the forecast for the next three weeks and the lowest temps predicted are 5 degrees next Monday other than that one blip it is showing lows of 7 to 8 degrees. 

The rest are staying in the heated greenhouse so I will put them in their final pots with grow bag compost, it is just the ones for the unseated PT that I am unsure of.

[gremlin]

There is advice in the books that the best time to plant out is when the first truss flowers have opened. 
I have left my spare toms in their 3" pots for weeks, but they never flower before they gradually die.

The keepers that go into the ring-culture pots at 4" high and buried up to their necks just romp away.

[DD.]

You read the wrong books, gremlin! 

[gremlin]

One called   "Vegetables" by some crowd called the RHS, among others. 
The Commercial Greenhouse Handbook, but that was from the 1990s and fashions change.  But then I'm still using ring culture and JI No2 

[DD.]

There's nothing like practical experience and yours have proven them wrong. 

Me - I'll just plod on growing the same way I have for the last 50 years. Yes, I kid you not 50 years. Not sure how I managed without the internet and all the differing advice.

Mind you, all you could get in those days was Moneymaker, so some things have got better!

[Spana]

I'd plant them out in the PT and throw fleece over them if you thinks its going to get chilly. Prop it up on canes to make like a tent to hold it off the leaves.

[Eblana]

I'd plant them out in the PT and throw fleece over them if you thinks its going to get chilly. Prop it up on canes to make like a tent to hold it off the leaves.

That is probably the best thing to do.  The frame is up for them to grow up and I should be able to make a fleece tent using that.

Thanks for the help everyone will keep you posted.

[al78]

There's nothing like practical experience and yours have proven them wrong. 

Me - I'll just plod on growing the same way I have for the last 50 years. Yes, I kid you not 50 years. Not sure how I managed without the internet and all the differing advice.

Mind you, all you could get in those days was Moneymaker, so some things have got better!

Wow, that is an impressive amount of experience you have.

I wonder whether your growing techniques in the 1960's were any different to today, as that was a period of at least one bitterly cold winter and characterised by poor summers (by today's standards).

[DD.]

Hang on, we're talking tomatoes here, not the whole spectrum of gardening, that was left to my grandfather!

I started by growing cactus and when I couldn't get any more in the bedroom my parents bought me a tubular framed greenhouse with a plastic cover. That was sufficient to get a few tomatoes in. This would be when I was about 12 as I'd just started "big school". It wasn't heated, so I dare say things were started a bit later than I do now with a heated on, also we didn't benefit from central heating in those days.

However, the technique was pretty much the same, including the aluminium foil trick and as I said Moneymakers were the stock variety, until ones like Ailsa Craig came along. We're rather spoiled for choice these days and to be honest I find it's a bit surprising that MM are still on the market!

[Headgardener22]

There is advice in the books that the best time to plant out is when the first truss flowers have opened. 
I have left my spare toms in their 3" pots for weeks, but they never flower before they gradually die.

The keepers that go into the ring-culture pots at 4" high and buried up to their necks just romp away.

I think that advice applies to tomatoes in growbags (levingtons bags say the same) and I always assumed it was because you wanted the plants to be into their fruiting stage before you put them into the growbag.

If you're putting them into the soil, I assume its different.

[Growster...]

I think Moneymaker are a sort of 'base' plant for other varieties, but the ones we had a couple of years weren't that bad!

I recall that they were very popular in the early '70s, when we started gardening, and even remember people mentioning the 'F' word (F1), with hushed, solemn reverence...

This is the first time that I've ever grown four varieties, and am interested to see that some friends here go for five times that number!

[gremlin]

I think that advice applies to tomatoes in growbags (levingtons bags say the same) and I always assumed it was because you wanted the plants to be into their fruiting stage before you put them into the growbag.
If you're putting them into the soil, I assume its different.

The theory (Ha!) is that by stressing the young plants in their small pots you kick them into flowering early to get the first truss 12" above the ground.  With my method I do get lots of lovely leaves and the first truss at 4 foot above the ground.    I am experimenting with gradually slacking the string to get them to lay down as they grow.  Commercial Greenhouse Handbook says you should eventually get 20 foot long plants with the truss that is ready for picking always at 4 foot above the ground. Going to be a bit of a challenge in an 8x6 greenhouse