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Tomatos In The Greenhouse


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Posted
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man

Looking for info on the ideal conditions for tomatoes in a greenhouse.

I have a few tom plants in the greenhouse, so far they have been put in big pots until bed space was available, and a red pepper along with them.

So far the pepper has shrivelled and just about died so has been dumped and a new one obtained.

The two tomato pots nearest the sunny end have steadily turned yellow and not looking very happy at all, the third one further away and more shaded is doing quite well and today I put that in the ground.

They have all been on a timed dripper system (10 mins 8am and 5pm) and havn't been dry, just moist, and what it seems to me is that they have been getting too hot so have shaded the end with newspaper to cut down the direct heat from the sun. There's an automatic opener on the roof vent.

Any ideas whether this sounds like too much sun or is there another problem (like no heat at night ?) Is 5pm too late for watering ?

(The location of the g/h is such that it is shaded by nearby trees from the main afternoon sun and it's just up to about 1pm that it gets direct sun inside.)

Ideas please ..... help !

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Posted
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL

without heat at the moment its bad news for toms...

i have 6 outdoor gals that need planting out but out door gal doesnt like being out there at the mo... funnily enough.. golden sunrise is loving the current climate and these are greenhouse/sheltered plants??

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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

Certainly low temperatures at night may affect the tomato plants, also different varieties can be affected in different ways by cool/cold conditions, shade, drought etc, some are more resiliant than others. Also feeding the plants cold water straight from the mains supply can 'shock' the plants' roots and affect the plants, bit like us jumping in an ice cold lake.

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Posted
  • Location: Isle of wight
  • Location: Isle of wight

mine are all outside about 50 of them and they are all doing fine..

in grow bags are the best, as the compost heats in the bags which gives the roots the heat they need when the sun isnt about much. i water mine after five each night, so the daytime heat doesnt evaperate the water to quickly allowing the tomatoes to have a good drink..

rain water is also the best to give to them..

hope this helps

kelly f

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Posted
  • Location: Kent
  • Location: Kent

I did plum tomatoes last year in the conservatory and I put them in GrowBags - got loads of tommies from the plants and they kept going right up until September!! I fed them with the tomarite stuff you can get and they seemed fine - also they did not suffer from pests (greenfly etc).

My nextdoor neighbout has particular success growing tommies and he told me not to water them too much - that way you get bigger tomatoes - well it worked - however I did give them a good drink every other day in the evening when the sun was low.

Anyway - good luck with them! :lol:

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Posted
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man

Thanks for the suggestions, I have already cut down the watering a bit from what it was, it was mainly set up to look after the place whilst I was away for a couple of weekends and also had flower baskets planted up and getting going (they usually get blown to bits here if put outside too early).

Next plan is to get a water butt set up which needs some working out how to feed from the roof downpipe where I can put an interceptor to where the butt could go.

I hope I like lettuce, I have hundreds on the way !, pricked out about 50 but loads more still in the seed tray, ... you always sow too many...

will have to find someone with rabbits !

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Posted
  • Location: Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales
  • Location: Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales

I grew toms outside last year and they were stunning, Italian Plum (don't know the variety) and Gardeners Delight (cherry sized). Very sheltered garden though. Haven't put any out yet, they're still waiting on a table by the living room window, desperate to go.

Something that may help for cold nights in a greenhouse, is putting a bale of straw in there and watering it with a 50/50 mix of water and wee :blush: The wee has very high nitrogen and compliments the carbon in the straw. The bale composts, giving out heat and useful CO2. That's also a method of growing toms, growing them in bales - ring culture I think it's called.

Edit: :drunk: Straw bale culture I meant!

Edited by I can't believe it's not better
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Posted
  • Location: NH7256
  • Weather Preferences: where's my vote?
  • Location: NH7256

minimum temp of 10C and maximum temp of 23C for indoor toms. i was letting the temp get too high last year and new growth was very poor and yellow. they like sunlight so ventilation is probably a better temp regulating mechanism than blocking out the light.

outdoor growing season is too short for toms up here, although some folk manage to get a few.

last year was a particularly good year for them - don't expect the same every year!

Edited by Hairy Celt
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Posted
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man

blazing sun this morning, roof and door wide open, it's sheltered from the wind direction. Maybe I need a slatted vent for the side wall as well.

Temps not gone below 10 but have been up around 25 even with the autovent opening the roof vent though (as long at the thermom isn't telling lies, I'll have to hide it under the staging out of any possible sunshine).

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Posted
  • Location: NH7256
  • Weather Preferences: where's my vote?
  • Location: NH7256
blazing sun this morning, roof and door wide open, it's sheltered from the wind direction. Maybe I need a slatted vent for the side wall as well.

Temps not gone below 10 but have been up around 25 even with the autovent opening the roof vent though (as long at the thermom isn't telling lies, I'll have to hide it under the staging out of any possible sunshine).

if you put the thermometer under the staging it won't give you the air temp up at the growing points. i haven't figured out how to get around this one! if it feels hot in there it's probably too hot for the toms, especially if they're in sunlight. reading all your posts, it looks like your newspaper shading should do the job - see what they look like in a few days. some reassurance though - even my plants that got scorched last year provided good numbers of toms!

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Posted
  • Location: Colchester, Essex, UK (33m ASL)
  • Location: Colchester, Essex, UK (33m ASL)

Hiya Verglas

I think I would look more into the reasons why the plants turned yellow.

If it was too cold for them the leaves are more likely to turn blue.

Could you describe the yellowing?

Were they patchy yellow areas? or from the edges of the leaves and between the veins of the leaves?

If patchy, it could be Mosaic Virus or Leaf Mould (brown patches on underside of leaves for Leaf Mould), try to make sure you get a variety which is resistant to virus's, and sterilise all pots, staging and make sure you buy fresh compost every year for raising the seeds, seedlings and planting out in the greenhouse I personally use fresh growbags every year (get quality growbags, is worth it, the cheaper growbags in my experience do not have the "goodness" in them or the quantity of compost), in winter/spring the whole greenhouse is washed down with Jeyes Fluid.

If the leaves are yellowing on the edges, it could be magnesium deficiency, tomato plants are heck hungry plants and can quickly drain the compost/soil they are in of nutrients etc. Use Fisons Tomorite to keep those nutrients topped up in the compost/soil. It needs to be a tomato food though, not any ordinary plant food you would put on other plants, the balance of nutrients is different.

The pepper/capsicum is within the same family as the tomato plants, and I usually treat them and diagnose any ailments as such, so maybe it is a virus which has got to that too. It is a bit cold for peppers right now though.

Help this helps a bit !

:D

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Posted
  • Location: NH7256
  • Weather Preferences: where's my vote?
  • Location: NH7256

snowbear's absolutely right, it could be a deficiency. light and water problems are much commoner though cos feeding is easy - just do what it says on the bottle. not so easy to judge soil moistness, light levels and temp as there are more variables.

i've had peppers growing here happily for the last month, they shouldn't be in temps below 10C but i've yet to find out what they can cope with in high temps, certainly above 25C.

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Posted
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man

Just some more info, the plants were put into bigger pots using gowbag compost, then will go in the ground when I have free space (trying some early spuds in the bed first !)

The three plants which were nearest the sunny end of the house were worst affected, the furthest one is pretty good, and about 2ft high now

here's some pix

(the hanging baskets liked the heat though :blink: )

post-2911-1149330655.jpg

post-2911-1149330688.jpg

post-2911-1149330913.jpg

post-2911-1149331168_thumb.jpg

Edited by Verglas
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Posted
  • Location: NH7256
  • Weather Preferences: where's my vote?
  • Location: NH7256
Just some more info, the plants were put into bigger pots using gowbag compost, then will go in the ground when I have free space (trying some early spuds in the bed first !)

The three plants which were nearest the sunny end of the house were worst affected, the furthest one is pretty good, and about 2ft high now

here's some pix

(the hanging baskets liked the heat though :blink: )

hmmmm... have to say, with some reservation, that the 3rd pic doesn't really look like high temp stress symptoms. see what other folk say too.

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Posted
  • Location: Colchester, Essex, UK (33m ASL)
  • Location: Colchester, Essex, UK (33m ASL)

Hiya Verglas

My opinion would be pic 3 is magesium deficiency (yellowing between veins on the leaves), just get Tomorite and also I think you can get one shot magnesium boost sachets, but to be honest, I have had tom plants in a similar condition on occasion, once planted out, they will grow on as normal even if a little slow at first.

Keep them shaded while in the smaller pot, I usually have a canvas shade on the inside of the roof glass in my greenhouse, is old inner tent canvas from a damaged tent, and the sides, I have old net curtain....it takes that blazing direct sunlight down a little and seems to work well, the sunlight/heat in the greenhouse will set the plant going skyward even with the vent open (this is why the ones in the sun have suffered most), it will make leaf and grow like crazy, but there will not be enough goodness in the pot to sustain the plant, the roots cannot obtain the needed nutrients etc...the compost may very well be good, but just cannot keep up with the growth of the plant. Effectively you are looking to try and "check" the growth until it is planted into the final position outside. You could even now maybe putting the plants outside every day now in a warm spot or cold frame, all depends on your area, temp, wind etc.

Its not high temp stress, just fast growth with not enough available food to keep it going yet. If they were in growbags for a greenhouse crop they would be fine.

Hope this helps!

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Posted
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL

i agree snowbear.. lack of magnesium.. old teabags/cold tea and tomorite should cure it :blink:

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

Everytime I see this thread listed on the main forum index page I think it's tornados in the greenhouse. I guess that would be a bit more exciting than tomatoes but probably less likely.

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Posted
  • Location: Merseyside
  • Location: Merseyside
Everytime I see this thread listed on the main forum index page I think it's tornados in the greenhouse. I guess that would be a bit more exciting than tomatoes but probably less likely.

It depends what the tomatoes are doing though...

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Posted
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man
  • Location: Douglas, Isle of Man

well I ran around the lawns like a tornado with the mower if that's any good :blink:

and a for reading things mistakenly, try these :

www.NewSnow.co.uk New Snow?

www.TeacherStalk.co.uk

Edited by Verglas
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