Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello
I have a bit of a quandry. I sowed some tomato seeds a few weeks ago in a heated propagator and they shot up. So I potted them on and moved them out of the propagator and onto the windowsill. They are robust little things, if a little leggy, and look happy enough, but I'm not sure now what to do with them.

Do I leave them on the windowsill where they get some light but not enough really, or do I move them to my unheated greenhouse on the allotment where it obviously has fluctuations in temp but much more light? I don't have any in-betweens such as a conservatory etc.

Any suggestions?
Thanks, Jules

P.S. I'm a bit of a lurker on this fab forum, soaking up all the useful information, but usually don't feel qualified (or brave enough!) to comment myself!

Hi, you may have just been a bit too eager to sow them. Be prepared to have to start over. You could try popping them outdoors for a bit of extra light when the frost has gone for the day, but other than that I am not sure.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

i have done the same as you but i have left my toms in the propagator and moved it all to the greenhouse.

Hi Shirley and Hawthorns,

I am prepared for the need to resow them, but the packets said that I could sow them in Feb, and it was Feb (just ) I could just move them out into the back garden in the day. Hawthorns, did you mean you plugged it in in the greenhouse? I've no electricity at mine, though they're in an unheated propagator now so could move them in that.

Like you, I started mine early too with the intention of giving them as much light as they can possibly get in the daytime so I move them in the unheated greenhouse in the morning and when night falls, I bring them indoors. I swear no leggy problems as you still get with them on the window sill .

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Food for Free

should I b eplanting my tomatoes already? It's the first time I've ever had a greenhouse at this time of year - it's unheated but do you think now is a good time to get some seeds into soil?

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Hi
I moved mine indoors on the kitchen windowsill once they were potted on to 2 inch pots. I blow gently on them every day to toughen up the stems, and they will go out once the frosts have gone. I'll just keep putting them in larger pots as the roots show through the bottom. One is a bit leggy but when it gets repotted it will be sunk down deep and the stem earthed up.

All seem to be very healthy tho.

i sowed mine in january and potted them on about two weeks ago because they were so leggy. I potted them quite deeply and they have been in the unheated greenhouse ever since. last night about 3 or 28 died, I reckon due to the cold so I have put them in my new (from Aldi!) mini greenhouse inside my main greenhouse and draped it with fleece for the night.

probably the best would be as suggested above, to put out during the day and bring in in the evenings but due to working away often during the week I can't do that.

At this time of the year, to get your tomato seeds to germinate, you'd be better off using a heated propagator and this should take around 5 days onwards from sowing. If you start off this early, you then need to look after the seedlings to ensure that they don't go too leggy and some of us are putting them outside but in the unheated greenhouse in the daytime and taking them indoors at night. Then there are other people who will only sow them from March onwards over the argument that later sowings do catch up with early sowings anyway as the weather warms up. It's up to you really.

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Food for Free

yes i have power in my shed and just run a extension lead to my greenhouse. they seem to be doing fine. i sowed them in jan i only did 5 seeds but they all germinated ok and are now in 2 pots aboutv2" high with plenty of leafs forming. they are gartenpeale toms for hanging baskets.

I've been there and done this in the past. I now don't sow till March has got the shine off it. The seedlings grow well without a check and when they are about 3" high and in 3" pots I take them out into the cold greenhouse every morning but bring them indoors at dusk. I continue to do this until frosts are over - at least mid-May here.
I think you should do things when it's the appropriate time for the plant, in the conditions you have. If you sow too early you start having to grow reactively - you put out in the day because they're leggy, not because it will help them to grow stronger. You end up always chasing them and trying to undo the fact that they are really not happy.

If you let them get loads of sappy growth and they then get a check it's a poor look-out for them. It's different if you have a heated greenhouse of course.

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If a man is in the garden and speaks, and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated January 3rd - Birdwatching.

Thanks for all your comments, I have a mini plastic greenhouse too, so may try putting them in that inside my green house. Probably though I'll do the put out in the day, bring in at night thing - for now at least. Thanks again

most of my little tomato seedlings died last night, RIP. it was an experiment for me to see what is going to suit me, my lifestyle, growing conditions etc... I had only sown a few of each type anyway so I have plenty of seeds. the upshot is that i won't be sowing so early next year because I don't have much space inside to keep them and they have expired despite my best efforts in the greenhouse. oh well, you live and learn ey?

Some of you guys must not only have huge windowsills with about triple the amount of light that I have, but also live in a much warmer climate! I think I'm in some weird (and dark) personal frost pocket!

It's been down to -4 degrees centigrade a couple of times this week overnight and although I have a heater, the greenhouse can't manage more that around 3 degrees in these conditions. It stays very cold until about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning. Just to give you an indication, even my Aquadulce broad beans in the cold frame have gone black from the low temperatures.

If I were to put tomatoes in the greenhouse, even just before I went to work, well, they would be very unhappy.

Indoors (we have a standard central heating arrangement) they germinate easily and survive, but the temperatures are at the other extreme. Our windowsills are very limited in light terms, even on the south-facing side of the house and so when they get to planting out time, they are much, much too tall and that presents significant problems to me.

So, to the OP, you need to understand that seed merchants can't tell what conditions you are growing things in. When they say February they mean from February... i.e. you can grow tomatoes successfully from around February only if you have a heated greenhouse in which temperatures remain above about 10 degrees centigrade. Otherwise, it is much more normal to start in March, and they will even come to fruition from an April sowing.

I write this so as to make sure nobody feels rushed into sowing at this point in the year. You are not lagging behind, it is perfectly ok to wait until March for sowing tender crops. If you are lucky enough to have the right conditions (mild temperatures, excellent light levels, heated greenhouse) then go ahead.

I think I'm going to hold off until March.

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HI potter , I have sown my tom seeds in early january, I keep them on my dining table as all the rest of my windowsills are full with seedlings.

I have just started mine off in house on window sill, will keep indoors till frost over about mid- may. then re-plant in grow bags in greenhouse.

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Smile and the world smiles with you

My understanding of this is if your tom seedlings grow leggy through poor light, and you are able to keep them alive. Then you will lose the first truss of toms, they won't flower.
Also fluctuations of temperature during the day & night are critical to the survival of toms. More so than any other seedling Aparently. So i wouldn't want to set them outside during the day, even in full sun this time of year, then bring them back inside for the night. Don't quote me on this. This is what i have heard in the past. I'll sow mine in late march, they always catch up and grow stronger.

Tomatoes root from the stem so they can be planted up to the bottom leaves which will lose their legginess, although as vegnut says they may lose the lower truss. I sowed mine on December 29th but then I try to keep the greenhouse at around 50F. They are ready for final potting now.

You're new, welcome to the vine Vecten. I had a bit of legginess on few tomatoes or they were too young/tender seedlings straight from the heated propagator soon after they germinated so I either rebury them deeply or earth up in pots that wasn't filled high enough. I think the legginess was something you would have still got for later sowing and it's normal to rebury them deeply.

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Food for Free

Hi, thanks for the welcome

Yes, I don't have problems with legginess which indicates to me that there is enough light around in December for tomatoes, you just have to make the most of it.

I sow in December in a heated propogator in the greenhouse, take off the lid as soon as they germinate then grow on the seedlings with bottom heat. Mid January they go onto the bench in the greenhouse heated to 10 deg C. Mid February they are ready for their final pots. I should be eating tomatoes when most people are sowing theirs.

Seedlings sown on windowsills will not get enough light and they will be leggy, even if sown in March, it's unavoidable.

I think the fiver a week needed to heat a greenhouse for 3 months is great value. The pleasure I get from sowing early toms, peppers, cucumbers, greens, potatoes and salad crops at the bleakest time of the year more than compensates.