Tomatoes.

[zabado]

I've moved my new tomato plants into my greenhouse, they're only about 8 or 10 inches tall and they look green and healthy. But they've produced the first set of flowers six inches off the ground . Should I feed them or should I nip these first sets off.

[Togo]

I think I would leave them Zab, they are your early crop with luck. I have flowers on mine and have left them. I will pinch out later in the year to keep the plants efficient. You could do a weak feed, you don't want to make them bolt or go "leggy". Alava is our tomato whizz, he usually grows about 2 tons, perhaps he will show unless he is busy in his patch.

[Togo]

Just another small point Zab, some varieties are early croppers given the right conditions. If you are growing different varieties this could be one of them.

[zabado]

They're same variety as last year , so i'll leave them alone for now and see what happens. Thanks Togo.

[puzzled54]

Think you feed when the first truss sets ( flowers turn into baby tomatoes) not when they first flower

[alavahalf]

Personally I always take the first ones off as this will allow air to circulate. In fact I will be taking at least the first 2 lots of lower shoots off at the weekend, as I have planted the stems quite deep this year. You wont want the lack of circulation causing any rot.
The golden rule is dont over water them .. if they look healthy then they are happy.
This year I have not had a single failure so all my spare tomato plants will need to be put on the compost pile .. heartbreaking disposing of perfectly good plants..got at
least 50. Glad to see you are having more luck this year.

[Old_Geezer]

Give them to family/friends/neighbours ?

[zabado]

Thanks Al. I too have planted them deeper than I did last year. But because the plants are still slender and only about a foot tall I wasn't sure of the best action to take, but I knew I didn't want them all too tall and leggy. I can't have a problem with air circulation because I've only got about four or five sets of leaves growing and every morning I leave the greenhouse door and top vent wide open. As for watering, I learnt my mistakes in previous years . Cheers Al.

[alavahalf]

Dont worry they will fill out as they get taller ... did you try the Sungold and Sweet Apperitiff varieties I told you about ?

[Togo]

Haha told you Zab, Alva is the tomato, go to, man. I gave him the heads up on a different thread and he has, in true AB spirit responded for us. I am having a go with Cucumber for the first time, Courgettes are now easy peasy, and my spuds... well what can I say, looking good.

[alavahalf]

Cucumber are even worse than tomato's for failing from over watering. This year I have planted 6 and at this stage amazingly .. I still have 6.
The one change I have made is to bury a 5" plant pot in the ground, in front of each plant. The only water they get will be poured into the plant pot .. this will keep the stems dry, while allowing the roots to get a good soaking. They are only getting half a pot full a day at the moment .. even though I had 105 degrees in the poly tunnel today !

[zabado]

Yes I did get some of the sun gold variety and they are doing well, if fact they're the ones with the most flowers on. I like the idea of putting a 5" pot in front of the cucumbers, going to do that today as well as a whole load of other stuff as it's 8am here in Yorkshire and not a cloud in the sky. Bye for now guys.