when will my toms flower?

you don't say where you are but at 2 ft tall, you should be getting flowers on that one any time really, unless your tomatoes are very very leggy. Regardless, though, of whether you have flowers or not, i would be careful about planting out into growbags until you've gone past the last frost date for your area. They also need to be hardened off properly before they go into growbags.

as for where they should be - the first one should appear as a cluster off the main stem, between branches or leaf shoots. it'll probably look like a normal branch at first, till it starts to look a bit different. If you look at this page (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...ys/TomKey.html), there's a drawing there of a tomato plant. Look at the top of the plant, on the right of the stem, and you'll see how a cluster of flowers look before they actually bloom. good luck!

Wow, two feet in a month - my non-grow-lamp ones are only a couple of inches tall

I would think that they will find the windowsill a bit dark after the growlamps, but unless you are going to put them in a heated greenhouse it's a bit early for them to go into their final growing place. Are they outdoor toms, or are you planning on putting them in a greenhouse of some kind?

I grow my tomatoes in a grow-bag, but for extra root support, I also use a large plant pot which I've cut the bottom from, and insert this into the grow-bag. I then repot the tomato plant into this. If your plants are looking spindly you can cover the stem with the compost up to the first two leaves, as the buried stem will start growing roots and will help with support of the plant, as cordon plants can grow very tall. They will also need the addition of a bamboo cane to tie the plant to as it grows (bush varieties will not need staking). The flowers will grow from the stem of the tomato plant and you will know as it looks completely different to the sideshoots (sideshoots should be pinched out in cordon toms but not bush). My cherry tomatoes germinated the end of February and are of a similiar size to yours and are happily growing in my polytunnel. None of them are flowering yet, but they will probably start in the next few weeks. I hope this has been of help and hasn't confused you even more! Good luck!

Thanks for the replies (and the link to the diagram). Cool that the first flowers may not be far off, and now I know where to look to find 'em!

I had kind of overlooked the whole hardening off thing - guess it's a bad idea to miss that step out... i will search the forums for some tips. Living in london at the moment, and just checked that the last frost date is the end of this month.

Alas we don't have a greenhouse so these toms will be outdoor types. we have a balcony, which is where these will go. I am getting a little worried that there will not be enough sun - the plants will only catch the afternoon sun.... Still, all very exciting.

Edit: Thanks for the advice on the bottom-less plant pot - think I will give this a go as it seems favoured by the forum generally. I was also wondering about covering the exposed stem below the seed leaves with compost when I re-pot. I didn't cover it when I potted into the current pots 'cos I was worried about rotting the stem, but if it's ok for toms, I will give it a go - further support is a Good Thing, especially after a couple of the taller unstaked plants kinda lolled over last week

How many leaves are there? The first flower truss will form after every 6th leaf branch

Capsid, from memory (or maybe it's just wishful thinking) the tallest plant does have six leaf branches, altho the top two are each no more than about an inch and a half long and quite close together. The other plants are not quite there yet.

Ifnfan,

Tomatoes - cordon type anyway - need support at almost every stage, so you need to plan for that now. I can tell you now, from experience, that a single cane stuck into the pot or growbag - on concrete - won't have enough support to hold itself up, never mind the tomato plant! My suggestion: use a series of canes and string/cable ties to jerryrig 2 A frames to go at either end of the growbag (if you've all your growbags in a row, you can do one a frame in the middle of 2 growbags), then stretch a cane across the top of the two A frames, and then more canes down into the growbag, which you can actually tie the tomato plant into (use soft string or cut up tights for this - tie in a figure of 8, the middle of the 8 going between the stem and cane, so that they don't rub against each other). This will make a much sturdier set up and less likely that a sudden gust of wind (you don't say how high up you are but the higher you are, the more wind there is likely to be, as you'll know!) is going to snap the stem and undo all your hard work. To make it even sturdier i would run a couple of canes from the feet of the A-Frames to the other aframes, so that the whole thing stands completely stable on its own, if that makes sense. (if it doesn't, let me know and i'll try to find some kind of picture).

You've plenty of time to think about and research this. If you're not confident with canes and string and stuff you can buy commercial set ups very similar to what i've described, but be warned, you will pay through the nose for them. The pots that someone else suggested is a good idea - another idea i've seen suggested is cutting the growbags in half and standing them on their ends. You'll only get 2 plants to a growbag instead of the usual three, but you will get deeper roots and as a result, perhaps more fruit.

There's so much information on tomato growing! I've been doing it now for three years and i still discover new stuff every year - i didn't know that about the every 6th leaf branch, for example!

Good luck!

keth
xx

Capsid, I checked the plants last night - despite being of varying height, they all do have six leaf shoots at this stage - the large one actually has seven. Then it all gets a little unclear as the green 'matter' sprouting out the top of the plants could be leaves or could be trusses - time will tell!

Keth, thanks for the heads-up on support (and the neat 'figure of eight' tip for securing the plant to the cane). Following your description, I should have no trouble putting together a sturdy A-Frame for the plants. I recon I've got about 3 weeks to figure it out, by which time I should hopefully also have some trusses, and some nicely hardened plants!

Thanks all

Ifnfan - you're welcome. Do let us know how you get on, won'tcha?

(btw. last tip: if you put them outside in a growbag and get warning of a frost - just cover them with an old sheet or something, that'll keep the frost off. just remember to take the sheet off in the morning).

xx

well, after a few weeks, we now have some truss action to report! See couple of pics attached. On one pic a second truss is also just about visible. The larger truss is prob no more than 1/2 cm high.

I've been hardening the plants off this past week also, putting out first thing and bringing back in in the evening, and it seems to be going ok (they haven't died).

Although the stems have gone kinda purple, and I have noticed some leaf ailments appearing on the lower leaves of the largest plant (pics attached). Any observations / advice as to what these may be and how to arrest it would be much appreciated, as I confess to being a little worried. Apols if this belongs in a new post.