Grow Your Own Magazine

I have got 6 tomatoe plants with about 3 trusses on each[ about 2.5 foot high] in form of flowers do I need to polllinate or just leave them to do the work themselves. Also I keep getting my radish plant to bolt is it because they started in the greenhouse and got to hot?

Any advice will be appreciated

hi

everytime i go in the greenhouse, i tickle my tom flowers so that this helps with the pollination and also i keep the door open for all the lovely bees to get to, with regards to the radish some of mine is bolting now, but sow direct in the ground or in a pot as they are the easiest to grow direct, i sow every 3 weeks and i am inundated with radish, good job my family love them!!

good luck with tasting your first toms, i am so excited i cant wait, the egg & mayo butty is waiting for the toms to be enclosed and savoured!!

SS

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You don't need to do anything to your toms except maybe tap the plants occasionally. I don't even always remember to do that!

Yes, radishes don't need to be in the greenhouse - they are bolting because you are cooking them, poor things!

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

hi i have sprayed my flowers with water and they have all turned into tomatoes
i used a spray with a fine mist .
im only a novice myself but if i were you id try it '
john

You don't need to spray tomato flowers, they generally set themselves. I do tap the plants, though when I'm doing the watering rounds. BTW a greenhouse is not the place for radishes, far too warm.

Hello Petlor, my tomatoes are outside, flowering and Just getting on with it. When I did have them in the greenhouse I just gave the canes a liitle tap on the way past and misted them with water. I don't know if that really makes a diiference or is just garden lore. I'm sure an expert will tell us the facts about that.
You don't need to put radish in a greenhouse. Just plant them straight into the ground and they'll be fine.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

misting tomatoes does help , my tomatoes have all pollinated since i started to spray them .
thats my own humble opinion anyway;
would like a expert to comment whether it helps or not'
its all trial and error to me '

john

I'm an hour north of Alice (who has toms outside) and as my tomatoes will soon take over the greenhouse, would like to sneak a few outside if possible, hate to part with them or to have to feed them to Dave the Dalek. How viable is it to grow them outside in North East Scotland?

i'm growing my toms under glass but my mum is growing hers at her back door in a fairly sheltered place - she's on the A90 between Perth to Dundee (nearer Dundee I'd say so prob still about 45 mins from you Amanda) and the plants are looking way healthier than mine and she's got some fruit growing too - she's delighted! If you could put a couple outside I'd risk it!

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"A cat sees no good reason why it should obey another animal, even if it does stand on two legs."

ive had a tomato plant outside since mid april...slower than the greenhouse toms but coming on nicely..

Anyone planting toms outside just be aware of blight. I put most of mine outside last year and lost the lot to blight. All I ended up with was three baskets of tumbling tom which were under cover.

Ian

Thanks everbody toms plants are getting little babies. Will try radishes outside . Does this also apply to spring onions as i have tried three times to repot from trays and they have just gone limp. As this is my first year I am trying everthing and then next year i will have some idea of what is right and what is wrong [ I hope ?]

Where are you repotting your spring onions? They can go from trays striaght into the ground outdoors. If you sow several to a cell they will push each other apart as they grow. Really good method of growing them. If you are replanting them into the greenhouse they will frizzle, poor things! Good luck!

__________________
Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig