outdoor tomato planting
artychris
Posts: 60
in Fruit & veg
Could any one tell me when is a good time to put out tomato plants in the garden and how big should they be.
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artychris
Posts: 60
artychris
Posts: 60
artychris
Posts: 60
Posts
Wait until temperatures at night are guaranteed to not fall below 10C, so probably the end of May or early June. Ideally you want them well developed before putting outside - say a foot (30cm) or so. They will benefit from some protection from wind and rain if you can manage it and definitely need to be placed somewhere which gets full sun in order to do well. Not that many varieties are really suitable for outdoors in the UK though - what type are you growing?
They are 'Super Marmande'.
Super Marmande are a medium-to-large beefsteak variety. In optimum conditions - full sun a minimum of 6 hours a day, temps in at least the mid-20s - they're going to take up to 80 days from planting out to maturity.
As Bob says, wait till you get decent overnight temps. If the overnight temps fall into single figures, the plant just won't develop. Ideally, you'd want at least 15C overnight for them to develop properly.
I've got about 30 plants (mix of Black Cherry, Gardeners Delight, Sungold, Moneymaker) grown from seed that were in modules, now in individual 3" pots, doing very well on various windowsills indoors. problem is that some of them are now about 30cm tall and clearly need repotting - but I had been hoping by the time that came they would be ready to put outside as I just do not have the room inside and only a small coldframe. Definitely not yet looking at the forecast! So, it seems to be a choice between keeping them in smaller pots for another few weeks, indoors. Or pot up but unleash the British summer on them...
Yeah, it's particularly tricky this year, Bf! I delayed sowing seeds until Good Friday this year but they're now ready to go into their final planting positions. I have a cold greenhouse but it's still getting too cold at night to put them in there really. It got down to 3.2C the other night, which is low enough to have checked their growth.
One good thing about keeping them in small pots for a while yet is that they will likely start to produce flowers - in fact I just looked and some of mine are showing the beginnings of flower clusters. They will soon romp away once finally planted.
thanks bob, yeah think I will just hold on a bit longer. there are signs (famous last words!) of warmer weather from next week i just want to make sure they're not 'held bck' by being in small pots but guess so long as watered enough should be ok? until mrs bf really has enough of plants taking over the house
I've got 40 toms in 4" pots - they spend their days in the mini greenhouse and a plastic growhouse - or even out on the lawn if the weather is good and OH is at home to tomato-sit - at bedtime we go out and bring them all indoors to spend the night in the studio - talk about being molly-coddled - but it is really much too cold to do anything else at the moment - and at the moment it's raining torrential cats and dogs
Cripes, Dove, they get better care than the OH.
Have just lit the heater in ther G/H as it is allready down to 12 and will go down much lower by 4a.m.
Oh well, just off to set the thermostat in the gh for a bit higher than frost free. Only got 6 toms in there, but I think the reat of it could do with a bit more night time heat.
The weather's getting a bit challenging, isn't it?