There’s Companion Planting and then there’s ‘By Association Planting‘ . I unearthed this fine 2010 Sungold Vintage in the greenhouse of a National Gardens Scheme participant. The by association being glass of red, hunk of bread, chunk of cheese and on the vine, sun ripened tomatoes.

I like to think of it as growing with intention !

I am now certain the phrase  ‘green with envy‘  fell first from the lips of a  tomato grower. A grower who having only the blue skies to grow under could but dream of the personal climate created by the underglass grower,  in a greenhouse.

The plants in the top photo were, a mere a 2 months ago, the same as the promising but green youngsters in the bottom photo. Today not only were the Super Marmande and Sunbelle giddy with flowering trusses but the Gardeners Delight had fruit !

A clear cut case for growing under glass ?!

These first appeared last summer, mainly on blogs written from the US , where the trend began, swinging gently, intriguing their purchasers as to how it would all turn out. Mixed it would seem – some pictures captured productive plants, happy hanging out and shooting the breeze. Others looked a bit yellow about the gills as if to say ‘….put me down…please…now…enough…..’

So what do I think? I don’t buy the science (gravity pulling nutrients down, roots nearer the sun, the wonders of solar radiation etc). In fact I think you could topsilly, turvilly, mix up all the words which describe the planters’ benefits and come up with another set of claims which make the same sense (with the same scientific gravitas) as those written the right way round.

But ultimately the thing I can’t make stack up is how it works out better against existing alternatives. The promise is larger tomatoes and better yield but £9.98 buys 2 grow bags and 6 tomato plants which surely together would produce more than 1 plant in a TT planter?

So if it’s Icarus complex, airborne tomatoes you want, I’d say keep your feet firmly on the ground and try a hanging basket instead.

Do I have room for a greenhouse?

Probably not.

But greenhouses extend the growing season at either end and for tomatoes provide some protection from blight.

So you can see why I might want to think that just maybe, I could find room to squeeze one in.

In the meantime I thought I’d do some research. This week – greenhouse basics with more info to follow over the next couple of Saturdays.

Framework:  Wood (often red cedar) or aluminium or plastic coated metal

Glazing:  Glass (horticultural or toughened safety glass) or plastic (polycarbonate)

Shape:  Traditional Span (straight sides) or Lean-to or Octagonal or Dutch light (sloping sides)

Construction:  Sides of wood/brick and rest glazed or glazed to ground level.

Glazed to the ground is the option to choose for growing plants in beds/borders/pots at floor level so the better choice for tomato growers.

Ventilation: Openings on either side of the roof (air goes in one side and out the other) or ventilation in the roof and in the sides at ground level (warm air rises to the top and out through the roof, fresh air enters through the side vents at ground)

Ventilation is essential for maintaining temperature (cool down) and air circulation.

The photo of the greenhouse was from an exhibitor’s display at the Hampton Court Show. My first encounter with Lean-to Lust !

I associate soil pH values with miniature test tube kits, filled with garden soil, a mud monochrome of the model glass lighthouses you fill with multicoloured sand from Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight.  But whilst lighthouses keep you off the rocks, soil testing kits will tell you what their ground down ancestors are made of.  And once you know the pH of your soil you will know whether Rhododendrons planted in your garden will be a dead cert or dead shrub and if Hydrangeas will favour blue or pink.

As I don’t have enough soil to put in a test tube, let alone grow things in, my understanding beyond this, is vague.  So Saturday Swot Shop today is Tomato Lover’s PDQ guide to soil pH .

What does pH actually mean ?

• Potential Hydrogen Ions.

None the wiser… How does it relate to soil ?

• Soil is either acid, alkaline or neutral. pH is measured on a scale of 1 to 14. The middle of the scale at 7, is neutral. Below 7 and it’s acid , above 7 and it’s alkaline. What’s being measured is the amount of lime (calcium ) in the soil.

Does it matter ?

• At certain levels of acidity or alkalinity some minerals cannot dissolve in water and so get ‘locked up’; held in the soil, meaning they are not available for absorption by the plant and so the plant is deprived of essential nutrients. Certain plants will thrive in one type of soil but die in another. The expression ‘lime hating’ plants covers those which grow well in acidic soil.

Can the pH value of soil be changed ?

• To make acid soil more alkaline lime is added to the soil. Increasing the acid in  alkaline soil is more difficult but sulphur is used for this purpose.

What’s the normal pH  range for soil and what’s the right soil for tomatoes ?

• Most soil is 4-8.5. Tomatoes grow best at 6.0 to 6.8, so slightly acid.

And why in pH is the p lower case and the H upper case ?

• pASS !

More Grow Bags.

This time the extra large one designed for tomatoes.

For ‘Easy Watering, Better Root Growth, Extra Yield, Top Quality Full-Flavoured Tomtoes’.  Yes  please to all the above

56 litres of compost.  Just under 19 litres each for 3 plants .
I’ve planted one with 3 x Sungold and 3 x ‘No Label’; to be known as The Lucky Dip bag.

Method:

• Lie bags in position.
• Cut out the three panels as per dotted lines on the bag.
• Put cane in each opening and drive down into the ground beneath the bag.
• Dig out a space for the plant (have container handy to hold compost).
• Place plant and replace compost around it.
• Tie plant to cane.
• Repeat for each plant.
• Water.  6 litres of water per bag.  It helped to hold the plastic edge away from the bag and then water down inside the bag to prevent compost washing over the outside of the bag.

Instructions for these bags advised to avoid piercing the base so I have complied.
Other instructions were to wait to plant until the first flowers open.  Not possessing that kind of faith or patience, that got ignored !

The giant grow bags were easy to put in place and to plant up.  However unlike with the upended bags and pots I couldn’t plant deep and by having 3 plants per bag the distance between each is only 10” to 12”.  Less than the ideal, which depending on variety, is between 18” and 36”.

However it’s all part of the great Tomato Towers Trials! ( A fancy, smancy way of saying it’s all trial and error here; with an optimistic bent towards trial !)

Grow Bags divide tomato growers.

Do they:

Provide an all in one, convenient container for 2 or 3 tomato plants
OR
Result in uneven water distribution and unsatisfactory root space.

One way to overcome potential drawbacks with grow bags is to upend and halve them, resulting in narrower but deeper bags.

I gave it a try.

Materials:

• Standard Size Grow Bag
• Scissors
• Empty Plastic Drinks Bottle, bottom and lid removed
• Cane
• Twine

Method:

• Flip and fold the bag backwards and forwards where the divide will be to move the compost away from the middle.
• Stand folded bag on its ends.
• Cut across top of fold.
• Push compost back down into either side.
• Cut across bottom of fold.
• Bag is now in two halves.
• Compost compacts, so empty into holding container and break up.
• Snip/pierce holes in base of bag for drainage holes.
• Place bag in position.
• Return compost to bag to provide bottom layer.
• Add bottomless water bottle.
• Put in cane.
• Add tomato plant.
• Tie plant to cane.
• Return rest of compost to bag around tomato plant.
• Water through the bottle, checking it drains through.

I included the watering bottle to direct water down to the base as it’s now quite a deep container. However it looks crowded!

I’ve put 4 plants into upended grow bags but am not sure about them. The bag doesn’t sit right and the plant doesn’t look very at home.  I don’t have the option to secure the cane into the ground but that might’ve anchored it . The whole thing look a bit makeshift. 

So 1st impressions not great but I’ll stick with them and see how the tomatoes do .

Diameter : minimum of 9” and anything up to 14”.
Volume : minimum of 9 litres but greater is better.

So what have I used ?

My first plantings are in 30cm/12” diameter pots from Asda. Buy 2 for £3.  I’m not recommending them as they didn’t have drainage holes and I had to make them. Not pretty! ( Language or holes.)

The pots are 24cm/9” deep but taper.
Counting the number of tomato plants I have challenges my maths, so even with no taper I couldn’t work out the pot volume. But as 8 used 75 litres of compost they must be about 9 litres.  So the diameter is ok but greater volume would be preferable  for some of the taller cordons.

My second plantings are in 32cm diameter pots from Wilkinson. I prefer these. (I got the last 7 and felt very guilty when a lady asked where I’d got them and I had to point to the empty shelf.) £ 1.49 each. Ready made holes. The Grecian fluting may be a bit high falutin for tomatoes but otherwise fine.

No taper and 24cm deep. From the amount of compost used, I think they hold about 11 litres.

As you may have spotted from the photos I didn’t follow my own advice and stake the plants when putting them in their new pots as I couldn’t get bamboo canes. Shopping karma was clearly in operation as Wilkinson who when I was last in had lots, had sold out.  I’ll need to look elsewhere for plentiful cheap canes.

I used Multipurpose compost. Some from last year, bought from the farm shop but not opened and some bought this week from Asda. 2 x 70 litres for £6.

I remembered the advice re letting compost warm up in your garden before using it. Last years’ unopened bags were doing just that and the Asda compost sat in the car for a day (because I couldn’t park near enough to home to be within lugging distance) but I’m happy to pass this off as part of the plan.

Feeling bad about the lack of canes I also adhered to the tepid water advice (that I had previously been planning to ignore) and added 1 litre of boiling water to a 10 litre watering can of cold water to provide a tepid first watering .

I’m now excited to see the plants grow to fill their new pots.  They were ready for that extra wriggle room. This is a photo of the roots of one sown 16 March and transplanted 21 May.

This week is the big tomato plant out week.

I’m going to use a mix of pots and grow bags.

With the pots, what I want to know is what size I need.

These are the answers I could find:

Most recommendations refer to the diameter of the pot.

The minimum recommended size seems to be 9” (23cm).
A lot of recommendations are for 10” (25cm) or 12” (31cm) in diameter.  A couple were for 12”-14” (31cm-36cm).

Some recommendations refer to volume rather than diameter.
(Some of these were in gallons.  If this is the case and you want to work in litres then according to the back of my Nutri Tomato feed bottle: 1 gallon = 4.5 litres.)
One recommendation was for a 2 gallon pot so 9 litres. Some were for 10 or 15 litre pots.  For tall cordons one recommendation was for a minimum of 15 litres.

All of which meant I was confused by the Sankey Tomato Pots that I found on line that were 9” in diameter but only 5 litres in volume. Perhaps they were for smaller plants earlier in the growing season?

I will keep my eye out for more info!

I will also be posting on which pots I used and posting on growbags as well.

If you grow your tomatoes in pots what size would you recommend ? And do you think it’s more helpful to think in width or volume ?

How can we get a peaceful night’s sleep without worrying that as the temperature unexpectedly drops, so with it does the chance of our plants making it unscathed through till morning  ?

As tomatoes and fleece wearing for humans seem to be synonymous I thought it was time to investigate the Horticultural version !

Here are 18 things I found out about Horticultural Fleece:

1. Protects plants from wind and cold
2. Protects plants from frost
3. Penetrable by air and water
4. Translucent, allows 90% of light through
5. Buy in rolls, variable lengths available
6. Widths, variable. From 1m wide to 4 m wide with lots of choice in between
7. Secure with pegs driven into the ground
8. Drape over hoops or cages for extra height
9. Lightweight, will not crush plants
10. Protects plants from pests, insects and birds
11. Reusable
12. Styled into bags, jackets and covers for pots, plants and baskets
13. Made from polypropylene fibres
14. Weight, available in 17g or 30g
15. 17g protects to 32°F/0°C
16. 30g protects to 26°F/-3°C
17. Double up 17g for extra protection on cold nights
18. UV stabilized to prevent rotting through exposure to sunlight

When do you find Horticultual fleece comes in most handy ?