When do I transplant my tomatoe plants I have started germiating my seeds & have little plants already living under my pergola
I live in south west of sydney nsw & our winter is near (we had a long summer)
Do I plant them in a bigger pot as they are in a cut down soft drink bottle 1.5l with holes in the bottom at the moment
or do I wait til aug. to transplant outdoors into my above ground vegie planters?
Tomatoes are Alans early red & Cherokee purple would like to try more types any ideas?
Hi ,im out at West Wyalong and i thought it was to early to put in tomato seeds. We are still having warm weather so can you start early plants.
Going off the sowing chart it says not for a couple of months.
Not sure but advice most welcome
Tomatoes are frost sensitive. You can grow from seed trays indoors about 6 weeks before the end of winter and then plant out when the danger of frost has passed. They grow best under shade cloth as the hot summers are too testy for them and they get sunburned. Best to water well, in composted well drained soil.
Stagger planting times for long harvest but best to finish planting in December. My plants are still producing fruit but with frost coming, producing days are numbered.
Where I live is frost free so I grow crops from early March into the winter and then from early spring to late Nov. Summer is too hot - need a lot of watering. Can also have heavy down pours of rain and be very windy also. Summer is a time to replenish the soil with some mulch/compost.
Plant anytime from when the seedlings are 4-6" high. They will grow better/quicker when put into the ground - more soil for the roots to spread into. Keep as much soil as possible attached to the roots when planting out. In the future better to put seeds into a pot (150mm and 150mm deep) first up as then you don't disturb the soil and roots when planting out. You mention veggie planters - I hope these are quite large as tomatoes need something like an area for each plant of 750-900mm across and 4-500mm deep of soil.
Very, very good advice Mike and please don't forget that Tomatoes are very shallow rooters so keep a well rotted compost around them during the summer. Don't forget to use a fungicide and Neem Oil spray to keep the white fly at bay. I have grown Grosse Lisse for years which will fruit from early summer to late autumn.
I have only grown cherry tomatoes the last few years - first just letting them run on the ground from early spring to Xmas. Now I have wire netting between 2 x 7' posts (7-8' apart) and plant 4 plants. I use baling twine (12$ at Bunnings) to hold the bushes up. In March I planted out some self germinating seedlings and then put some half composted mulch around the plants. I didn't do a lot to the soil - a bit of trace elements, P, lime and worm tea. The plants are going to the moon. They are now 6' high and growing 2-3" a day. I might have to extend my posts to 8 or 9' high. Never had plants so big bushy and healthy.
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