They will be joined by some garden centre sourced ones soon but the GC may as well hang on to them until it warms up and judging by the plentiful supplies still in stock this the weekend, I am not the only one thinking along those lines. Lots of the Suttons grafted plants to choose from including the two varieties on one graft plant. I’m tempted.  (Just in the name of research you understand!)

Everyone who is growing outdoors keep talking about how everything is growing like crazy -and there was a beautiful online photo of an apple grower – walking the avenues of his orchard – blowsy with blossom – which has arrived three weeks early! And I feel – and I am entirely to blame – that my tomatoes are in the slow lane – and that spring is in danger of passataing (more terrible puning rather than spelling) them by. So I have moved them to more spacious accommodation (10cm pots) in the hope of getting them to spread their roots and get growing – to show them that it’s a big world out there – but a short summer!

But now some of them have the look of minnows thrown into a compost ocean with not a clue where land might lie.

So we will see – and if all fails and it turns out I’m a fraud when it comes to the skill of tomato growing – then I’ll uncork that bottle – and click to source the means to downgrade myself from tomato grower to tomato impressionist!

I have not done my best by these seedlings – and it shows! I think I might be letting them go gently and starting again!

All is still quiet above ground with the second sowing – but hopefully what lies beneath is stirring.

The Gardener’s World’s/Charles Atlas methodology for turning Tiny Toms into stocky beefcakes is to gently touch the tops of the plants, moving your fingers back and forth across them. This imitation breeze will encourage the development of a strong root system and stocky, short stems.

In transplanting mine, I planted deep, up to the seed leaves but when vertical growth is back, breezy bootcamp it is.

But meanwhile I wanted to post this photo of the Yellow Balconi. In terms of how they’ve come up, in such uniform size and appearance, they are species compliance personified and the nearest I’ve come to textbook perfect.

But another, small and easily overlooked though it is, is first true leaves.  For me they have a cartoon endearingness about them – like a child’s crayon drawing of a hand.

So before the moment passes I thought I take a photo, this of Lemon Tree, sown on the 25th March, to capture their arrival.

Here are the interlopers – only we want to make them feel welcome- so adding their pics to the family album seems only proper.

Basil and Marigold don’t quite come dressed in the gilt buttoned, navy blazer and canary yellow twin-set and pearls their names might suggest. In fact they look pretty much like all other seedlings but seeing them come up makes me realise I can now proudly say that I think I could identify tomato in a seedling ID parade.

I need to give a boost to girl power and swell Marigold’s ranks. I don’t know what I was thinking; 3 seeds = 3 plants. Which would make the world’s most pathetic bouquet, let alone pack the punch needed to make a go of Companion Planting !

No – not any Svengali like sway that I might have over my tomato seedlings.  But the influence of light.

These photos were taken a mere one and a half hours apart. The first when the seedlings had just been lifted out of the propagator where the window is to their right. The second when the seedlings had been moved to a light, bright room but where the window is to their left.

Quite a shift in direction !

For tomato seedlings it’s space and light to grow.  That’s when they need Pricking Out.

Pricking out is to remove seedlings from the seed tray or communal pot into individual pots in order to give them more space and light to grow.

The ideal time to do this is when the tomato seedlings are very small in order to minimize damage to their roots.  Recommendations for the timing of this vary.  The recommendation I have come across most frequently is to transplant the tomato seedlings as soon as the seed leaves have  grown sufficiently, to allow you to pick them up and handle them by their seed leaves.  This could be as soon as by the 5th or 6th day after germination.  However other recommendations are to wait until the seedlings have formed their 2nd pair of true leaves or have grown 3-4 true leaves.

Whilst advice on timing may differ, there is consistency how to handle seedlings. Never by their stems, always by their leaves.  Handling seedlings by their stems can lead to bruising and so disease.

Size of pot.

The seedlings will be having been sharing space in a seed tray or in a 7.5cm or 10cm flower pot.  The purpose of transplanting them is to put them in an individual pot. Recommendations on the size of pot the tomato seedlings should be transplanted to are all within the 7 to 9cm range.  But I have also seen recommendation for putting them into a much larger 13cm pot to reduce the number of times that they will need to be transplanted.

How

To get the seedling out of the tray or pot you will need to use something to ease it out with.  Recommended implements can include  dibbers, pencils, knitting needles, chopsticks or cutlery esp. dining forks!
I used a desert spoon which was fine.

Before you extract the seedling from its existing home fill the new pot with compost and make a hole in the compost to accommodate the seedling.  I planted the seeding deep in the hole so that most of the stem, to just below the seed leaves was buried. This was based on the advice I was given at the Wisley Grow Your Own Q&A session back in March.  I then gently added more compost around the seedling so that it was held in place and watered by placing in a tray of water and gently watering the top of the compost.  Most of the recommendations were for multi purpose compost.

Also if you now have more seedlings than you want plants this is the time to take a deep breath and ditch the less robust looking seedlings.  I have got better at this as I have seen that my seeds do actually germinate!  Seeing is most definitely believing!

So whilst they may not have Donny’s natty way with crushed velvet purple caps I also harbour great dreams for my tomato plants!

How do you decide when to Prick Out your tomato seedlings ?

Photo by uhusted

Space Age Seedlings

At the beginning of March Wisley ran a  Grow You Own weekend.
I went and was lucky enough to get a question answered at one of the open sessions.  My question :

What are the next steps in caring for tomato seeds once they’ve germinated in a propagator ?

Lots of information not all of which I was able to absorb! But three pieces of advice that I took away (correctly?) were:

• Take them out of the propagator

I have followed this advice during the day although as it still seems so cold   (as I write this the wind is whistling up and down the chimney and the rain is on a 45 degree angle of approach against the window!) I have been leaving the trays and pots sitting on the heated bottom tray and at night when I know I’m still cold under a winter quilt have been placing the lid back on. I don’t know if this is OK or if I’m falling into the ‘killing by kindness’ trap!

• If they are on a windowsill and the weather is still a bit on the grey side (sadly yes – a darker shade of battleship) then make a reflective screen using silver foil to put behind the seedlings to reflect back the light that is coming through.

So in a bit of lateral thinking I carved up the cardboard box the propagator came packaged in and covered that with foil. I’ve also stood a table lamp (no shade) next to them fitted with one of the low energy light bulbs that British Gas like to randomly mail out. So hopefully my seedlings now have the light they need. (Plus in another bit of lateral thinking combined with the prick of a guilty conscience I got round to washing my windows to boost it further!)

• If the seedlings are a bit leggy when you transplant them to their individual pots then bury them really deep – almost up to the leaves. This will make them stronger plants.

I’m not at this stage but my seedlings are leggy so useful to know

Any further advice especially re the in/out of the propagator in the day, lid on/off  overnight would be very welcome.