Early Tomato Thread

[Bren In Pots]

5 out of the 6 Marmande toms I set last Tuesday have germinated they're now out of the propagator on the kitchen window sill with some foil behind them.

[Newbie]

Today i have sown 4-6 seeds each of San Marzano, Red Cherry & Red Robin Tomatoes. The Red Robin are self-saved & its the first time i've done this so i'm interested to see if they do actually germinate!

Yeah, today two of my Red Cherry Tomato seedling put in an appearence, super quick germination!

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

The Grushovka and Roma VF have their first true leaves. Have popped in PW's French Black, a couple of Black Sea Man, and a couple more of Black Krim.

[annacruachan]

All my tomatoes have germinated within a week on a sunny windowsill above a radiator and in polybags. Bags removed now, of course. Includes 100s and 1000s, Gardeners' Delight, a yellow Galina, Shirley and a variety called Brioso which was in my seed box! Can't remember where or who I got it from, I'm afraid, and have no clue as to its habit, size or whether to cook or eat it raw! Time will tell.

[LolaLou]

Shock Horror........ Got home last night to find that my lovely little San Marzano seedlings (been through for about 2/3 weeks) have all wilted and turned yellow..... (only have 4 left as the cats nibbled the tops off the rest of them!!)....I've topped up the soil and moved them to the window and watered them well in a mad attempt to revive them, but think I may be sowing more this weekend

[Flummery]

Shock Horror........ Got home last night to find that my lovely little San Marzano seedlings (been through for about 2/3 weeks) have all wilted and turned yellow..... (only have 4 left as the cats nibbled the tops off the rest of them!!)....I've topped up the soil and moved them to the window and watered them well in a mad attempt to revive them, but think I may be sowing more this weekend

You wouldn't be over-watering by any chance?

[tiachica]

All my tomatoes are up and the Mala's have their first true leaves. They look a little leggy, but I won't be potting them on just yet.

[Magiccat1978]

All the toms I sowed on the 27/1 are doing well, a few are a bit leggy but I'll pot the on deeper and hopefully they will be fine
I sowed 2 gartenperle, 2 marmande, 2 yellow Brandywine, 2 black krim, 3 sungold F1, 3 roma, 3 totom and 3 golden Beauty. I'm giving some to my mum when the time comes. I wanted to try the Cream Sausage tom but i have been banned from buying any more tomato seeds Nevermind, theres always next year

[BarleySugar]

I potted my Golden Sunrise, green tigers, costolu and Tigerellas into 10cm pots because their roots were coming out the bottoms (at least 5cm!). I tried not to break them, but some did get left behind. They should be fine though, there were still a lot left I didn't have to pot them deep like I usually do, so the lights are working for them as well as the chillies.

[gojiberry]

Haven't got to the potting on stage, but the tom plants are looking pretty good. Don't look to leggy, and I am trying to give them extra light by removing the propagator cover for a few hours each day.

Ian

[chris]

So far, I have Golden Sunrise, Money Maker, Green Sausage, Red Cherry, and Black Cherry (sowed today, as I can't tell if some i forgot to label are toms or chillies - I seem to remember the black cherry seedlings look very much like bolivian rainbow chillies).

Have seen a few more varieties I'd like to try - we make our own tomato sauces, so if we get a good crop it'll be great to use our own fresh toms + bang it in the freezer for later!

[BarleySugar]

Flower buds already!

Ok, so they are too small for me to take a pic of to prove it, but one of my Golden Sunrise tomatoes, sown on 9th Jan (yes that's right, I just looked it up) is showing very tiny flower buds. I had to get my reading glasses to check, as I truly did NOT believe my eyes. That is 5 weeks from being sown to now .
The problem I now have, is how to keep it going. The artificial light is full spectrum daylight, and I've had the bulbs on from around 6 in the morning, when I get up, to between 9 and 10pm, when I 'go to bed', read, chillax, etc.That's around 16 hours a day, with temps, as stated on other threads between 25 daytime to 16 night time.
My research so far says tomatoes are not daylight senesitive, which I suppose I proved last year anyway, with the plants still flowering in an unheated greenhouse in December. However, I did prove they do not like the cold, a night time chill causes to continue 'nightime activities' during the day, and vica versa (watch your minds ther peeps!), which is why they turned purple in the unheated greenhouse last year.
I also found out that tomatoes can be wind pollinated, with the optimum night temp for fertilization between 15 and 23C. Tapping the stems at midday should help then, or as I'm not there then, a gentle breeze from a fan might do?
What about the quality of the light though? Hopefully I will be able to keep it up for at least a couple of the plants, just to see what happens

psst - advance warning, I'm just going to post on the chilli growing thread too, as one of my purple japapenos also has flower buds coming!

[mariell]

woo hoo i got a few seedling through of cherry tomatoes.....so exciting

[Flummery]

Golden Sunrise, which I grew the year before last, were my first to set fruits, Barleysugar. I'm growing them again this year - they are a lovely tom.

[Two_Sheds]

Potted on my self-saved Sungold seedlings, up to their necks in fresh compost. Put on east windowsill (everywhere else is full)

Golden Gem tomatoes are up, still in prop