This article on tomato growing was compiled by the RHS advisory team and published in the Daily Telegraph.
For me, articles like this are a way of double-checking my methodology and a good place to pick up new tips.
Timing: Suggested timing for sowing seeds for plants destined for the great outdoors: mid-March. And not to plant out before mid-May (earliest).
My timings this year ( apart from those seeds who’ve stolen my ‘living in the country’ dream; albeit perched on borrowed greenhouse staging whereas I’m holding out for the ’roses round the door’ accomodation) are to sow on March 22nd and plant out on May 15th.
Sowing could have been this weekend just past but various reasons made that bad timing, so now it’s got to be a bit later than hoped. Still it’s only at this stage when a day or two feels like a lot. ( And when waiting for that first ripe fruit to be just ripe enough.)
Sowing: a handy(!) tip from the article was a planting distance for seeds of one finger-width apart. Easier to remember than a specific measurement.
Cover: And then to cover with a layer of vermiculite or sieved compost. Last year I used vermiculite. This year, to streamline the number of items going through the garden centre checkout, I’m going for sieved compost .
Temperatures: Germination at 21c which I feel confident about because of using an electric propagator. And then to keep seedlings at 15-18C .
I never know what temperature the house is. I judge it in general terms, by number of fleece layers required ( for me!). Maybe I need an indoor themometer. And although its meant for outdoors, I guess there’d be no harm in getting the tomatoes their own indoor fleece layer in the event of things turning chilly.
So vermiculite crossed off the shopping list but fleece and themometer added on! Isn’t that just always the way ?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I fear I was over-excited and sowed mine too early. Now I’m the proud owner of 11 (one didn’t have the decency to germinate!) loopy, leggy tomato seedlings, whom I can’t bear to discard in the name of trying again. They may be funny-shaped, but they’re developing little hairs on their stems, and they have proper tomato leaves appearing at the top.
I’m going to transplant them, covering up all that leggy stem with lovely nutritious compost, and hope the extra length means extra roots.
Please do dissuade me with a sharp slap if I seem to need it.
I’m with you on that one. Once you’ve germinated them I also think they’ve earnt the right to stay! The advice is always to plant deep so extra stem length gives you the perfect starting point to follow that instruction to the letter ! So no dissuation here !