How I prick out and pot on my tomato plants.

I have been asked quite a few times recently how I grow my tomato plants, a reminder that there is a  "How to " guide on growing tomatoes, peppers and aubergines on the "How to..." tab up the top and I also talk about this subject on my YouTube channel.

But I realised I haven't discussed what I do with the plants once they have germinated so I thought I would do another  "How to" guide,  on pricking out and potting on Tomato plants.

Seed sown Feb 10th 2013, in porch in heated propagator at ~20 C














 March 2nd 2013 - seeds germinated and seed leaves showing.
 
At the end of March the seedlings were pricked out into individual 2 inch pots, with the soil well up the stem so as to encourage aerial roots to grow.



  

April 14th 2013 Plants well grown and need moving from these 2 inch pots into next size (3 inch) pot.

If you click on the photo above, you can see the tiny hairs on the stem - these will form more soil roots if buried.

Again, the stem is covered with soil to encourage the aerial roots ( the tiny hairs) to turn into soil roots - this gives the plant a better root system and so it can take up more nutrients and water.
 

And so we come to today, where I potted some plants on again, this time into 4 inch pots. These are not the same plants as above ( they are now in 6 inch pots and have their first flower trusses) but I thought it would be useful to show how I do this.

I carefully took the plant out of  the old pot. You can see from the photo below how much extra root system has been produced by earthing up the stem each time.

 This is the way I re fill the pot around the plant.

I put the plant in the pot and tilt it away from me,

then gently pour growing medium into the pot on the side nearest to me.

 I then tilt the pot towards me and pour growing medium into the pot on the side furthest away from me.

This puts the plant upright in the pot, and I add more growing medium until the soil level is up to the next pair of true leaves.

I do the same with peppers and aubergines, but do not bury them so deep. I am careful with all the plants not to overwater them, so as to avoid the soft stems rotting. Once the stems are harder (as they age) this is less of an issue.

I will probably pot the tomatoes into larger (6 inch) pots once more, before they go into their final places in the polytunnel, growing individually in builder's buckets standing in gravel trays.

This is what it looked like last year, at the start of July.

I only have 100 or so more plants to pot on, today!

Hope this helps you to understand how I grow them :-)

Monday in the polytunnel, with Rocket Garden fruit bushes to plant up and more tomatoes and peppers

I have spent a lovely day in the garden and polytunnel, it has been warm and sunny and I wandered around in t shirt and jeans, no fleece, no coat, no gloves!

I have been pricking out more tomato and pepper plants - I have done several hundred now and I have them in the cold frames in the polytunnel or on the window sill in the porch. I have no more space left!

The first batch I did are growing away really quickly and are nearly ready to be potted on again!


As I mentioned  I have become a Rocketeer and I received my first  Constant Garden delivery from them last week.

I should have received  a selection of organic seed potatoes ready to be chitted and planted - these would have been

Early potatoes x 10 tubers. Variety Colleen or similar, Second early seed potatoes x 10 tubers . Variety Maris Peer (or similar) Maincrop seed potatoes x 10 tubers . Variety Isle of Jura (or similar) Salad potatoes x 10 tubers. Variety Charlotte (or similar) Also included a 10 litre sack of wormcast

But as I have already planted out my potatoes (same choice of organic varieties - great minds think alike) , the lovely people at Rocket Gardens very kindly agreed to send  me a Small Fruit Garden, instead. They also sent me the bag of wormcast fertiliser.

So I was very excited to get my box delivered on Wednesday last week.

 Lovely straw packing keeps the bare rooted plants safe and damp

And paper bags to hold the Rhubarb crown and Strawberry runners

A comprehensive set of full instructions on planting the bushes is provided. All the plants are beautiful, lovely, healthy looking plants. The Strawberry runners needed to be soaked in water straight away for a few hours to rehydrate.

The rest of the plants were fine to be left for a few days as they are bare rooted, so I actually planted them up into pots on Friday, along with the now re hydrated Strawberry runners.

 Four bare rooted Autumn fruiting Raspberry canes

I planted up the Gooseberry bush

And the Blackcurrant and Raspberry canes as they were on Friday evening.

I took these photos today when I was working inside the polytunnel. This is the Blackcurrant bush after just 3 days in a pot in the polytunnel Amazing what some soil, water and warmth will do to a good healthy plant :-)

 And these are the Strawberry runners after being in the soil for three days - see how fast they have grown already!

I have yet to plant out the Rhubarb - have to find a larger pot to put it in.

All of the bare rooted plants were in excellent condition and beautifully packaged up and of course I have composted all of the packaging ;-)

Can't wait to get my next delivery in a week or so - this time it will be plants :-) Lots of plants ;-)

In other news, I managed to sow some beans and peas in pots and also the parsnips into cardboard tubes - if you want to know more see the "How to" page at the top of this site for more info.