Care for tomatoes in greenhouse
NewGrow
Posts: 17
Hello all. Growing for first time. I've 3 beefmaster and 3 bush tomato plants in small greenhouse, being grown in growbags.
As you can see the beefmaster have grown about 6 foot high and there are about 4 to 5 trusses with flowers in each plant. But they are mostly at 4 to 5 feet of height. What should I do to control their height please? Bending them to trail longer along the greenhouse might not be an option as I don't think there is enough space. Are they looking alright? I didn't know till late that suckers should be removed so each plant bas grown a couple of strong secondary stem that way. None of the flower has turned into small fruit yet and I'm in the UK. Is it all normal? Anything I should do to help them.
I'm just a little clueless, sorry. Happy to send more pictures if that helps. Thank you
Last edited: 22 June 2017 09:03:12
Posts
Where have all the leaves gone?
Leaves are the engines for a plant and it's the leaves that drive growth/flowers etc and you've removed them.
It's fine to remove s few lower leaves - I remove any that touch the ground, but don't remove lots of leaves until late in the season once all the fruit has set. Only then do the leaves become redundant.
To stop the plants getting any taller, just pinch out the top 1" of the plant - that stops upward growht
Last edited: 22 June 2017 09:06:24
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
why have you removed the leaves?
I can understand removing them to the first truss so it makes watering easier but you just removed their food source. it would explain why they're growing taller, to try and grow more leaves.
anyway I take the top out of my tomatoes once they reach the roof of my greenhouse, they usually have 4 to 5 trusses per plant at that point.
at my allotment I have a polytunnel and the back row of tomatoes i'm trying to grow like an apple cordon this year, attached to a cane at 45 degrees, i'm hoping I can get more trusses per plant
yes you need to leave the leaves on, pinch out the tops when have have 4 trusses.
As mentioned already only remove some leaves when the (last) fruits are ripening or the bottom few in order to assist watering.
I think you might have a problem with hydration in a greenhouse using only a grow bag. If it helps, I use a drip feeder, any glass bottle with a couple of small holes punched through the lid this drips out over (approximately) 24 hours and should do a lot to prevent wilting and issues with inconsistent and insufficient watering.
Personally, I think you can get a lot more than 4 or 5 trusses from a tomato plant in a greenhouse without affecting the flavour. There's also a risk with such a small number as a few often drop off or don't develop, all that effort for 15 tomatoes? No thanks!
Height is usually your biggest enemy when it comes to creating your own tomato-plant jungle, pinch out the top shoots earlier than you think you should to and keep an eye on side shoots that you may have missed (I allow some of these to grow but they do rather exacerbate the 'jungling').
To answer your question, you should start to see flowers on them from around this time. I don't have fruit on many of my plants yet and around half are now flowering.
I think you might have a problem having removed so many leaves, but you can't put them back on so perservere and learn by your mistakes for next year.
I see you are using ring culture in your grow bags I have used this method in my greenhouse for more years than I like to remember, it works for me but I just put two plants in each bag not three as they suggest. More room for roots so better plants.
good luck.
Another tip - when you put the plants in the rings, fill the rings with compost up to the first set of true leaves. This gives the plants more root space.
I always plant the toms low down in the rings so when the tomatoes start to grow bit by bit you can put more soil in the rings, tomatoes will root from the stem into the compost so making better plants.
NewGrow, I don't know who told you to remove so many leaves. Whoever it was, ignore them in the future.
Hello all. Thanks for your responses. Previous picture might have been a bit misleading so here is one showing top of the plants. As you can see I have opened the top glass of greenhouse. Would rain be bad for them? Should I now cut the top shoots and close the top? The plants have developed flowers near the top 20% part of them making the total flower bearing branches around 3-4 per plant. What time do the tomatoes harvest in greenhouses in south of England? I've now added bit more compost in the rings by the way.
Can you see the latest picture I uploaded with my post before this one?