When to start growing tomatoes in greenhouse
How to grow Greenhouse Tomatoes
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a few weeks ago I didn't think that I
would be making this video I started
this series I'm growing tomorrow from
seed with sowing the seeds back in
February and then putting them out and
at that point what I did was grow the
plants on indoors using grow lights I
potted them on one time because it was
still too cold to be planting them even
out here in the greenhouse and then I
started hardening them off about a month
ago I thought it's time to put them out
it's warming up and I left them outdoors
overnight while they were hardening off
and the plants suffered for it and I
wasn't quite sure it was not but what
happened was that the leaves started
turning brown especially around the
edges and it really looked like it could
have been a disease or over watering or
cold and I think in my case it was cold
what was really interesting about that
is that I asked people on Instagram I
did a quiz through my Instagram stories
asking what do you think is wrong with
my tomatoes and nearly 2/3 of people
said disease
burn it throw it out start from scratch
third of you voted for what I thought it
was cold and fortunately you can see
from my tomato plants they have
recovered they're strong and green and
the new leaves that they've formed both
on the stem and up top they are
completely free of disease so I'm so
glad that I gave them a chance to
recover so if your tomato plants suffer
something similar early on in the season
it's very unlikely to be blight or
another disease it is most likely
over-watering or that they're just too
cold if you put them outside when it's
not warm enough
these subtropical plants will suffer for
it
what we're going to look at in this
video is planting them out here in the
greenhouse in Britain in most places in
Britain at least it is too cold too
grow them outdoors or the risk of flight
so late blight is too risky to grow
these guys outdoors blight is a fungal
disease it settles on the leaves it's
brought in through the air and it
basically decimates the plant and the
fruit and growing them in the cover of a
greenhouse helps to protect them
especially over nights when blight is
spreading in and settling on the leaves
of plants outdoors so got this already
and I'm also going to be planting
tomatoes in a second way so I've got to
grow back behind me and we're gonna look
at the differences over the summer and
growing them here in an organic solution
here in the greenhouse so this is a
combination of compost and manure we'll
get to that in a second and then a more
conventional way of growing tomatoes in
grow bags
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my tomato growing area is quite unique
and I'm gonna go through quite a few
things but first of all let's look at
the varieties
this one is coastal Udo Florentino it's
a beefsteak variety as is this one over
here this is black Russian I'm growing
these for the first time this year
I'm also growing Ailsa Craig red pear
and sungold for the past few years I've
been growing my tomatoes in this wooden
planter in the greenhouse and it's been
filled with garden compost most the time
but since moving to the new house and
having to deal with new zealand flatworm
i didn't want to bring in topsoil and I
didn't have enough compost to fill it so
what I've done is fill it with composted
horse manure which I use a lot in the
allotment garden and what I'll be doing
is planting the tomatoes in holes filled
with compost and then they'll be able to
feed off the compost and also the manure
you might be wondering what these pots
are as well and these are DIY oIA's I
have a video showing how you can make
them so these are the ones I started off
with and this is the one that I filled
with cement at the bottom and then my
other one is down here and a few years
on the blue tack or the white tack is
still holding up at the bottom of that
one so the way that these work is that
you fill them with water and water wicks
through terracotta and so this will help
to keep the plants watered especially in
hot days or if I'm away over the weekend
a lot of people had commented on that
video why don't you just use a cork to
fill the bottom now corks are too big
for the other variety but I got this
bigger pot and I found that a champagne
or Prosecco cork when it was expanded so
after it had been sitting around for I
don't know six months or so it got big
enough to be able to
fit the hole in this one so your
potholes might be different in size so
there's several different methods on how
to plug up the bottom
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around this wooden planter I've also
constructed a support system and this is
just made out of some simple rough
timber that I have screwed together and
put over the planter and I have some
corks here as well so these are going to
help stop the the wood from rubbing too
much against the metal there and what
this is for is for the tomatoes to grow
up so all of the tomatoes and I'm
growing are called
indeterminate tomatoes there's two
different varieties there's the bush
varieties which grow really bushy and
they get to a certain height and then
they stay that Heights and these guys
will actually keep growing taller and
taller and taller and taller until you
stop them basically so they'll grow up
to this area here and then I will
continue to nip the bud the growing
point so that they don't get any taller
than that but this wooden piece will
give them something to grow up that and
a bit of string and we'll come to that
in a second
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I've dug a couple of holes for these
tomato plants over here and they go all
the way down to the bottom you can see
the landscaping fabric that I put down
there and that's just to keep the
compost in this planter and stop it from
eroding out into the greenhouse the hole
that I've dug is much deeper than the
level of the compost here in the pot and
ordinarily you would never do this with
other plants but in the case of tomatoes
if you plant them deeper they'll
actually start forming roots from the
stem here and that will give them a
better support system and they'll have
more roots to be able to make use of all
the nutrients in the compost so the hole
is quite a bit deeper and in fact if you
wanted to you could plant all the way up
to the first set of leaves up here and
the tomato plant will continue growing
up up up and it will not suffer for it
in fact it will be quite beneficial
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I've been still looking forward to
growing this variety postulate so
foreign tea no because the the foods are
supposed to be just absolutely amazing
that could be made into sauces or put
them on burgers they are just a gorgeous
really good flavorful beef tomato type
and I've got two of them that I'm
putting into this planter here they're
big guys and so they're gonna need the
support of that that pull above so
getting started planting this I've made
a hole down here so all the tomatoes now
have holes and I'm just gonna put the
plant tag just at the back here and I'm
just gonna take this guy out put him in
the hole basically turn it upside down
like that and pull the pot off and look
at that really gorgeous root system
there so we're gonna turn this guy back
up side or right side up and put it just
down into the hole now to be able to
grow up to that support there it's gonna
need something and we're gonna use some
string so what to do with this is I tie
it around the base of the plant and then
bring it up to that support and tie it
in and then as the plant grows you wind
the plant around the string and it grows
straight up it's just dead simple you
don't need any fancy contraptions just
string and something to support it from
above now with this string attached all
I need to do is back fill that hole with
compost and give it a good water and
then I'm going to continue and do the
exact same thing for all the plants here
in this blender
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the soil is pretty much saturated now
and I filled these Oilers up right up to
the top now the way that these work and
I think there was some confusion in my
video on how to make these is that you
need to use unglazed pots and what
happens is that that water inside will
wick through this material and into the
soil and compost around and it won't go
very far really about that far from the
pot but what happens is that these
plants sense that water and start
growing their roots towards the water
source and they will actually latch on
to the pot in the end and they will
drink directly from it so keeping these
topped up is a good plan B for keeping
your Tomatoes hydrated and this works
both indoors and outdoors and you want
to actually cover the tops with either
the terracotta base that the pots come
with or better yet use plastic
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my last two greenhouse tomatoes are
going to be planted in a typical grow
bag and to be honest I'm not sure if
they make organic grow bags I've never
seen them personally that doesn't mean
that they don't exist but a lot of
people do use these to grow their
tomatoes and their over genes eggplants
peppers and to be honest you can grow a
lot of other things in these as well
they're a mixture of peat and compost
and basically nutrients that the plants
need and they actually don't even say on
here where the sources of them are from
but they're no doubt a non organic
source saying that these are an easy way
to start growing your own Tomatoes
especially if you don't really
understand what is necessarily needed as
far as the compost and the nutrients you
basically plant them and go there's
instructions which I've removed for this
panel here and basically is shake the
bag up they come brick hard and so you
want to shake it up and that will
redistribute the contents you plant your
plants inside they can take up to three
plants I'm just going to do two and you
just keep it well watered and then it
also has some instructions on feeding it
with their brand of tomato feed as the
as the season progresses I'm really
curious to see how these plants do I'm
sure they're going to do amazingly well
but I think that if you are thinking
about growing it tomatoes and this is
something that you can get a hold of and
it's a little bit easier for you feel
free to use a grow bag there's as I said
before it there's no shame in using this
I think there is quite a bit of shaming
when it comes to gardening or anything
in particular and use what is accessible
the important thing is to grow something
and then as time goes on if you want to
graduate to something that's a more
organic type like my plants are over
here then go for it so let's get
planting the two tomatoes that I'm
putting in here are the Sun golds and
also
another Ailsa Craig so there's an Elsa
Craig over there as well and yeah it'll
be really interesting to see how this
one does in comparison to its sister in
the planter so let's put the cat tag in
there same procedure as the four
although I won't be able to plant this
as deep as I would do in the planter
I've seen other solutions on gardening
tours where you can put a plant pot
inside you just remove the bottom and
then that gives it a little bit more
depth but I'm just gonna try growing it
straight in the grow bag just like the
vast majority of people who use grow
bags to grow their own Tomatoes
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the tomatoes are all planted here in the
greenhouse I have actually quite a few
other Tomatoes as spares so I'm going to
be trialing growing them outdoors this
year I've tried it before in the past
had terrible luck because of the flights
and cold weather but if you get a summer
like we did last year I could have some
luck so I will be showing those in my
normal home garden tours and I'll be
giving updates on how this is
progressing in those videos as well the
next dedicated tomato growing video will
be when they're a little bit further on
and in the meantime I'll be picking out
any side shoots along the stem and then
the next video we'll be looking at
pollination and feeding and we'll be
seeing some of the fruits start to
develop hopefully by that time as well I
hope you enjoyed this video it came a
little bit later than I hoped it would
but the tomatoes are now in the
greenhouse and it's amazing how they've
started off as little tiny seeds back a
few months ago and now they're already
big strong healthy plants and they're
tough as well they took that beating
with a the cold weather and they came
out stronger for it perhaps thank you so
much for watching the video subscribe if
you haven't subscribe to lovely greens
already check out the other videos in
the tomato growing playlist and I will
see you next time for a video back in
the allotment garden I'll see you then
bye for now
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you
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