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Tomato planting error - too many plants in one bag...

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  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,697
    They do like to grow tall. I usually have to train mine over the greenhouse roof and down the other side in order to accommodate their growth.
    You could build a tomato trellis, which is basically like a runner bean support only for tomatoes, and fix your plants to strings suspended from the top.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Don't keep feeding them though. They should only be fed once the first truss of fruit sets. They have plenty of nutrition from the compost, and too much food tends to make them 'lazy' - producing lots of foliage, rather than trying to produce flowers, and therefore fruits. 
    As Jenny says, it's perfectly normal for them to keep growing to a good height. Nipping out the leader once you have about 6 to 8 trusses is the norm, and certainly keep nipping out those side shoots that appear in the leaf axils so that the energy is directed to the flowers/fruits.
    Well done for rescuing them though. Hope you get a good enough crop, and you'll be better prepped for next time   ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Agree with the others they are only half grown yet.🙂 Feed once a week, let them grow till you have 5/6 trusses then nip out the top. Outside is slower than a greenhouse and most plants will be at the pea to marble size fruit on the first or second truss stage, so you are doing fine.😁
  • Thank you everyone - will leave them to it until they get above 5/6 trusses and keep fingers crossed for some fruit. 

    On the plus side our courgettes seem to be doing well so some of the homegrowns should be ready soon. 
  • Womble54Womble54 Posts: 348
    Personally, as there are a lot of plants in a relatively small amount of soil,I’d nip them out earlier, at 3 or 4 trusses. You’d be more likely to get the tomatoes to ripen before the plants out grow the space.

    If you want more, let the side shoots get to 6-9 inches or so, pinch them out. Then put them in a pot of water for a few days till new roots start to form, then plant them in new pots or grow bags.
  • So update - the plants were looking even more drastically over crowded last weekend so my partner and I spent Saturday delicately separating their roots as best we could and planting each plant in a separate pot (as we should have to begin with).

    They seem to have survived well and are gaining height and flowers well.

    Still no fruits alas. 

    I have noticed today a number of flowers are looking very dried up and are losing their yellow colour. Should I be removing these ones?
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    They will drop off naturally.  Unless they are still hanging on the fruit  leave alone. Dead flowers on fruit can encourage blossom end rot so that's the time to gently brush them off.
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