Growing some early tomatoes 2020

[quanglewangle]

Wow Quanglewangle, the geek in me is rejoicing at your heat charts! What are you using to monitor?

Kind of you to say so.
I use mrtg https://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/for the graphs. It is free software meant for graphing network traffic, errors and so on. But it only really graphs *numbers* and as I have said before I use a little computer to control heating cables and lights so that computer knows the temperature numbers. It's just a case of stitching to two together.

If you are interested in the details (hardware, programming language etc) I plan to write it all up for an article at some stage. Let me know and I will send you a draft when it's ready.

[annie8]

Have weakened and popped a seed of black icicle, sungold, gardeners delight and shirley in the propogator with my chillies. Well I had a little space. Think I can handle keeping a small number of plants indoors for a few months. As long as I dont end up like last year when it was about 90. That was quite ridiculous.

[londonvegpatch]

Newbie and first post alert!

Hello all!

New to the forum and this is my first season of growing!

I'm only growing 2 types of toms this year as my garden is borrowed and we can only use a small it of it, thankfully, it's the bit that gets the most sun.

I sowed 4 seeds each of Stupice and Millefleur about 4 days ago, put them in my boiler and hot water tank cupboard. The Stupice have now germinated and are living on my window sill which gets a lot of light all day! Very excited!

[quanglewangle]

Hello all!

New to the forum and this is my first season of growing!

I'm only growing 2 types of toms this year as my garden is borrowed and we can only use a small it of it, thankfully, it's the bit that gets the most sun.

I sowed 4 seeds each of Stupice and Millefleur about 4 days ago, put them in my boiler and hot water tank cupboard. The Stupice have now germinated and are living on my window sill which gets a lot of light all day! Very excited!

Two types is fine. Welcome.

[londonvegpatch]

Seems you have the bug you'll be checking several times a day to check for any changes

Every time I come back in the house...

[veggiechicken]

Every time I come back in the house...

Welcome - don't forget to talk to them too. They need to know you care.

[londonvegpatch]

Welcome - don't forget to talk to them too. They need to know you care.

Dang, I've been rumbled. They like a song or two too :

[SarrissUK]

Kind of you to say so.
I use mrtg https://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/for the graphs. It is free software meant for graphing network traffic, errors and so on. But it only really graphs *numbers* and as I have said before I use a little computer to control heating cables and lights so that computer knows the temperature numbers. It's just a case of stitching to two together.

If you are interested in the details (hardware, programming language etc) I plan to write it all up for an article at some stage. Let me know and I will send you a draft when it's ready.

I love the idea of doing that myself, as I love to see how things changes, but if I'm honest with myself, I don't think it would go any further than planning. Having said that though, you sound keen to write it down and I welcome that!

[Urban]

I love the idea of doing that myself, as I love to see how things changes, but if I'm honest with myself, I don't think it would go any further than planning. Having said that though, you sound keen to write it down and I welcome that!

as cool as that project sounds, I think it would be pretty easy to achieve the same kind of thing, with for example a netatmo weather station, and some smart plugs if you wanted something a bit easier

[quanglewangle]

as cool as that project sounds, I think it would be pretty easy to achieve the same kind of thing, with for example a netatmo weather station, and some smart plugs if you wanted something a bit easier

Maybe, but my background makes the approach I have taken quite easy for me. Also it is very inexpensive: the sensors (temperature, light intensity, soil moisture and so on) are around �5 a piece or less; and I am awash with Raspberry Pi computers, left over from a professional consultancy assignment. And this way I can do *exactly* what I want.

[Urban]

Maybe, but my background makes the approach I have taken quite easy for me. Also it is very inexpensive: the sensors (temperature, light intensity, soil moisture and so on) are around �5 a piece or less; and I am awash with Raspberry Pi computers, left over from a professional consultancy assignment. And this way I can do *exactly* what I want.

Not knocking what you are doing, love my tech myself, my greenhouse is pretty much fully automated, and my house is overloaded with smart tech, I'm just trying to explain to sarriss that similar can be achieved very easily using off the shelf items

for example I used to have plug in timers for my grow lights, now I just plug them into a smart plug, and set them up on my phone, its loads easier

[veggiechicken]

I thought I was high-tech with a Lidl indoor/outdoor "weather station".

[annie8]

So the tomatoes I sowed last tuesday are starting to come through. Have moved the sungokd and shirley from the propogator and into wee pots on the windowsill. Looks like the black icicle is just coming through too. Resisting the temptation to sow any more.

[Jungle Jane]

I just sowed my early tomato seeds Balconi Red,Tiny Tim & Halm Gelbe,only a few of each,the main lot of tomatoes will wait till March. Cordon varieties grow too tall if you start them now,these are miniature varieties.

[muckdiva]

Before Christmas VC started a seedy advent calendar which inspired me to sow some ancient (at least 10yo) tomato seeds I found whilst having a clear out. Only one single seed germinated initially but I sowed the remainder of the seeds in the packs and yay, quite a few have now popped up.
Welcome to the world survivors (interestihg that most of them are European varieties :
Ozarowski
Malinowy Warzawski
Balcony Red
Tropical Ruby
Burstyn
Purple Russian
Krakus
Chemomour Black
and thanks for the idea VC
Now how do I stop them getting too leggy?