Little could he or I have forseen that the day I’d get round to this extract would be one when matters temperature would be so very forefront! There was a great photo today, on a newspaper website, of the course manager at Kempton lifting up the frost covers to check the turf underneath, to see how all was faring ahead of Boxing Day racing. He lifted up only a small portion of the cover – but the shock of that sliver of green. It was a flash of a verdant, tropical paradise. I had forgotten about green and grass…
Temperatures
There is no such thing as a precise date on which to sow tomatoes. It is however, essential to safeguard the seeds once they have germinated and to ensure this, a minimum night temperature of 55F (or better still, 60F) is necessary. Given these conditions, I would recommend a first sowing at the end of January, followed by a further sowing in February. If you have no such facilities, then it will be wiser to defer sowing until as late as mid-April.
Seedlings of all plants are more satisfactory when they can grow on from the time of germination without a check, and tomatoes are more affected by checks than many other plants. As a general rule, the greenhouse temperature can be allowed to rise in bright sunny weather, when plenty of ventilation with crisp, dry air can be given to encourage robust, healthy growth. On the other hand, high temperatures, when the weather is dull and wet and when free ventilation is impossible, encourage soft, weakly growth and, in these conditions, the house temperature must be lowered accordingly.
Right now, consider the house temperatures lowered !!
