Overenthusiastic Tomato starts!

Momma Pajama 4/9/2010, 9:08 am

My sis-in-law and I each started 2 types of tomatoes this year, and we swapped seedlings. The ones she gave me are ENORMOUS already (about 18") and I won't be ready to plant them out until May here Shocked

. They are Brandywine and a cherry tomato, both of them indeterminate. They are now potted up in 1/2 gallon pots.

How can I maintain them until planting time? They seem healthy, not "leggy" but well leafed out. I want to train them to a central stem and put them on a netting outside eventually.

martha 4/9/2010, 11:46 am

I have wanted to grow my tomato starts to look like the expensive ones one sees at nurseries. I have no real life experience, but my thought would be to gradually move them to a larger container, then a larger one, etc. Pick off the side shoots and perhaps put a bamboo stake in the container and attach it in whatever method you plan on using outside. The only other thought I have is to ask what type of cage or support you are planning on using outside. Getting a large plant into a cage could be tricky - although maybe not without side branches.

Would love to see photos! I hope you are successful and have super early tomatoes!

Lavender Debs 4/12/2010, 9:37 am

Have you come up with a solution MammaP? I wish I had one but all I do is keep my pots (yoghurt cups and recycled 4") in the window at night and take them to the deck on warmer days. I haven’t got a pot that big. Wish I had a better solution. This is my first year actually growing from seed. Always before I got mine from the Health Food store, the Farmers Market and TTS just because I didn't have any place to keep them happy. Happy Frog had me thinking it was possible in my new place, sooooo.

Deborah .....still thinking about your big tomato plant.

Momma Pajama 4/12/2010, 9:38 pm

Thanks for following up, Lavender Debs.

Well, they are all indeterminates, so I plan to train them on a central leader and put them on netting eventually. They are in 1/2 gallon pots now so I don't want to pot them up any bigger or they will be too much for my 6" of soil in the box. I guess I'll add a bamboo stake if they need support until May, and maybe start putting them outside on warmer days instead of in the 70+ degree corner window. So far so good, still healthy.

LittleGardener 7/21/2011, 5:03 pm

Hi there,
New here today, & wonder How well Overenthusiastic Tomato starts! 61949

you did with
your indeterminate Cherry tomatoes?
When we lived in Seattle, in the 80's, I grew 2 "Sweet 100's", no fertilizer or anything, just plopped into the ground, & they grew - up the 8ft. Smile

pole I erected,
next along the Electric-line to the house, then along the gutters (I kid you not); &
we were still giving bags away, by Thanksgiving: ripening on the windowsill.

Sometime you just get these DETERMINED-blessings flower

and you are grateful!!

quiltbea 7/22/2011, 9:20 am

I'm not sure about the netting thing. Tomatoes continue to grow and grow and if a branch has gone thru the netting, won't it pull the netting up with it or will the netting impede the tom's growth?

Maybe someone who uses netting can fill us in on how well it works.

I hope by now your tomatoes are in the ground and triving.
Good luck.

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