I cannot believe my tomato crop

morg_monster

How do you know if its an F1 variety? Are most tomato seeds sold F1s? Do they say specifically on the packet?

Farway

morg_monster wrote: »

How do you know if its an F1 variety? Are most tomato seeds sold F1s? Do they say specifically on the packet?

If from a greengrocer or supermarket you will not know if is F1 or not, unless it has a variety name on the pack

All you can do is just do it and hope for the best. As others said, you will get toms, may even be better than the original fruit

Primrose

nibs - I store my tomato seeds, still often stuck to the kitchen paper on which they were dried in a little plastic envelope, preferably in a dark tin, in a dry garage. Stored like this they'll keep for a couple of years. When it comes to sowing time, don't bother to try scraping the seeds off the tissue if it's difficult. It's quite OK to sow the tissue as well unless the seeds are so close together that the seedlings will cramp each other. The tissue will just simple dissolve in the damp compost. As for the time to sow them, mid-late April will be soon enough if they're to be planted outside in pots. If you sow too early, the plants will only grow too leggy on an indoor window sill and it won't be warm enough to put them permanently outside, either in the soil, big pots or growbags, until around mid June. Far better to be patient and not sow before then. You'll end up with stronger plants.

morg monster Most packeted tomato seeds are not F1 varieties but if they are, this info will normally be listed on the packet after the variety name. Most supermarket tomatoes are rarely named so it's difficult to know whether they're F1 or not. However, you should still get reasonable tomatoes - they may just turn out to be a slightly different size or shape.

zarazara

What a great inspirational thread.

rms1

Primrose, you sound as if you know your stuff. I had my plants in pots stood on soil on my small veg patch. I started to move them today to a better place. I was surprised to see that the roots had grown out of the bottom of the pots and into the ground. Will I do any damage by tearing the ends of the roots, if so I will leave the pots where they are.

irishwexford

Good Idea. I will try this out;)

Primrose

rms1 - I'm not really surprised your tomato roots have grown through the base of the pot. I grow mine direct in the soil and am often astonished how far the roots have spread. This may be an indication that your pots are a little on the small side, but if you continue to keep your plants well watered and fed regularly with Tomorite or a similar liquid fertiliser, hopefully the plants will still be OK. If the pots are stored on drip trays the roots will still pick up any spare water/fertilised liquid which drains through the pots. If you're planning to grow them in pots again next year, try to increase the pot size.

rms1

Thanks for the advice. I will grow them in the ground next time.