Moving veg to bigger pots, help please

twiglet98

After a pretty unsuccessful stint at sowing seeds, the few successes are probably outgrowing their cell pots and need more room. I don't know how much of an increase to give them. Does it matter if they go straight from 2 inch cell trays to 4 or 5 inch pots or must they just go up to 3 inch pots now? And should they go into 'young plant compost' at this stage, or the 'organic fruit and veg' compost? Local garden centre has both (by Westland, I think).

The plants are:

Tomatoes (Sungella) are about 6 inches high (sown 29 March and moved from seed trays into 2 inch cells 2-3 weeks later).

Sweetcorn (Lark) - very few germinated, they are in loo roll tubes full of seed compost, standing in 2 inch cells, nearly a foot high and the leaves are going a bit yellow. Do I leave them in the cardboard tubes and move the whole tube to a bigger pot with young plant compost to stand the tube in? I can't imagine how to avoid damaging the roots!

All these are on my bedroom windowsill, moved them from the north to the west window last week to get more sunshine. I'm trying to do without having the heating on now it's May but the birdbath has been frozen every morning this week and I think the house may even be too cold for these baby plants - is it worth covering them in fleece though they are indoors? I got some in the 99p shop so it's bound to be cheaper than using my precious oil!

Sally_A

Tomatoes fill out best in wider and deeper pots, gradually building up to flower bucket size. Normally they would reach the final pot on about the 3rd pot on (No 1 - 12 to a 250g mushroom tray, No 2 to a 3 to 4 inch pot, No 3 final large pot).

Sweetcorn - dislike root disturbance, I tend to plant one seed to a 3 or maybe 3.5 inch pot early April, for final planting in the garden towards end May/early June - don't tease the roots out.

You should be quite warmish in Cambridgeshire - mine are now out of the house and into an unheated greenhouse, and have been for about 3 weeks.

SaverSueG

Hi there. Sounds like both need potting on.

When potting on it's best to use a pot around half to one inch bigger all round ie you can get your fingers in to push down the compost.

You can use ordinary multi-purpose compost for both. The loo rolls can go in whole ie don't disturb the roots if you can help it, the cardboard will degrade naturally.

Your house should be warm enough, tomatoes will stand down to virtually freezing, I would keep sweetcorn at around 10 degrees, if your house is colder than that (brrr...) I'd move them away from the window overnight.
They need as much light as they can get preferable south facing otherwise west if possible while they are indoors.

It is supposed to be getting warmer at nights soon (I hope). Don't plant anything outside until it does, but if you have an unheated greenhouse the tomatoes can probably go out by the middle of next week. Otherwise wait until the forecast gives min night temperatures of around 10 degrees.

Good luck, have fun. Sue.:)

aliasojo

Sally_A wrote: »

Tomatoes fill out best in wider and deeper pots, gradually building up to flower bucket size. Normally they would reach the final pot on about the 3rd pot on (No 1 - 12 to a 250g mushroom tray, No 2 to a 3 to 4 inch pot, No 3 final large pot).

I just took my tomato plug plants and put them straight into a growbag. Will they not grow successfuly since I appear to have missed out several steps?