Tomato plants in grow bags or ground?

milkydrink

We have a cheery tomato plant & a plum tomatoe plant in a grow bag, but they are getting quite big now.
The person who gave them to me says I should leave them in the grow bag rather than planting them in the ground as its better for them & offers them protection from slugs.

Is this true? To me it looks like they are getting a little big for the bag? I have bought bamboo rods to support them, the cherry one is nearly 4 foot:D

Zazen999

Hi

Have you got any flowers/toms on them yet?
I have grown in both there's not much in it - it really depends on the soil, position, weather, fertiliser, and what you do with them - i wouldn't uproot them if they have toms growing on them [personally].
If in doubt, do nowt - just keep feeding them once the toms appear.
However, if they haven't set any fruit yet, your options could be wider...you could plant them in a deep hole, so that any spare stem is underground and can root out [thereby making it more stable as the fruit grows]. I would go so far as to plant them so that the stem is covered up until about 2 inches below the first stem that will grow fruit.

I grew about 20 in a shallow tray last year, it was about the depth of a grow bag and the area of about 2 - just kept staking and tying and pruning back the leaves when they got too bushy [i always prune my toms hard - not a popular activity with some, but i live with it]. I always make my canes into upturned cones as this gives more support [once a civil engineer, always a civil engineer]...
contrary to popular opinions, toms are pretty resilient, they can grow anywhere and everywhere, prefer organic soil, the best thing you can do is to keep them fed and watered, and be there when they ripen [they usually plan this around your summer holiday, and wait until you board the plane before shouting [that's it chaps -NOW]. We try leaving holiday brochures around with dates circled in July hoping for an early harvest, I'll let you know if this has worked this year! I have got one tom on my first plant [found it on Saturday], so here's hoping

milkydrink

Zazen999 wrote: »

Hi

Have you got any flowers/toms on them yet? Small ones
I have grown in both there's not much in it - it really depends on the soil, position, weather, fertiliser, and what you do with them - i wouldn't uproot them if they have toms growing on them [personally]. I was planning on leaving them in the same spot, just transfering them to the ground below.
If in doubt, do nowt - just keep feeding them once the toms appear. Do you mean watering or more than watering, they are in grow bag soil
However, if they haven't set any fruit yet, your options could be wider...you could plant them in a deep hole, so that any spare stem is underground and can root out [thereby making it more stable as the fruit grows]. I would go so far as to plant them so that the stem is covered up until about 2 inches below the first stem that will grow fruit.

I grew about 20 in a shallow tray last year, it was about the depth of a grow bag and the area of about 2 - just kept staking and tying and pruning back the leaves when they got too bushy [i always prune my toms hard - not a popular activity with some, but i live with it]. I always make my canes into upturned cones as this gives more support [once a civil engineer, always a civil engineer]... I have bought bamboo arches
contrary to popular opinions, toms are pretty resilient, they can grow anywhere and everywhere, prefer organic soil, the best thing you can do is to keep them fed and watered, and be there when they ripen [they usually plan this around your summer holiday, and wait until you board the plane before shouting [that's it chaps -NOW]. We try leaving holiday brochures around with dates circled in July hoping for an early harvest, I'll let you know if this has worked this year! I have got one tom on my first plant [found it on Saturday], so here's hoping

I have little green tomatos, we are in the sunny south.

It sounds like I can keep & prune & they will give again next year?
Do I just wait until they look like those in the supermarket & pick them & eat them:o

Thank you so much for that. You have been a mine of info:beer:

beer2006

Tbh (and this is only me talking) I have had no delights with growing toms in grow bags. I know other people have and I think thats great.
If you have a spare patch of soil to grow them on, think about cutting the bottom of the grow bag and letting the roots get into the soil. Big watering problems sorted and they will get extra nutrients from the soil that they wouldn't get from the growbag and you don't have to juggle so much getting the feed and water match right.

I've never had many problems from slugs with tomatoes tbh, I can't see the difference between putting a growbag on the floor and planting a tomato plant into the ground. Take slugs about 5 mins to get around the bag.

Lord_Gardener

You just need to keep the correct frequency and balance of water and nutrients for them to grow away happily where ever you have planted them - Lady G prefers me to use large pots 'cos they are more pleasing to the eye!!! NB Most Tom's are grown in soil free environments by hydroponics.

absfabs

kimevans wrote: »

I have little green tomatos, we are in the sunny south.

It sounds like I can keep & prune & they will give again next year?
Do I just wait until they look like those in the supermarket & pick them & eat them:o

Thank you so much for that. You have been a mine of info:beer:

you are doing well if you already have some little green tomatoes!

Re feeding: they do need regular tomato food, at least once a week now, increasing to 2-3 times a week once you have lots of toms growing.

Personally I have never used growbags, just big pots, and they do well in them. I suppose if you plant them in the ground you will have a bit more leeway with watering, i.e. they don't dry out as quickly if you forget/can't water for a day.

There is a risk that they might drop some of the tomatoes/flowers if you disturb them now, though.

No, they won't come back next year, you would need to sow new ones.

Zazen999

Hi. I would agree, you might risk stuff dropping if you move them now - if you want to extend the harvest buy a pack of seeds and sow some every few weeks - that way you have less over a longer period.
Feeding - water once a day unless it has been raining!, water the soil near the root and not the leaves, and either first thing in the morning or last thing at night; and feed with quality tomato food at least once a week [feeding friday as it is known in my house]; depending on the conditions etc.
I would agree with Beer and cut the bottom of the growbag and let them root on their own; they are ready when red usually, unless you have yellow or other colours [i am growing alot of heirlooms this year, so black and ivory ones as well as yellow and red].
The thing with any of this is there are no real rights or wrongs - you can do everything right and a bad storm can wipe out your whole garden in an instant - or you leave them totally alone and they give you the biggest harvest ever - as long as they get fed and watered, they should be fine.

Every gardener has their opinions but those are the basics for any veg - for example it is best not to water toms just before picking as this reduces the intensity of the flavour, so pick in the day if you water at night [but others might disagree with me!]. It's all in the personal touches that you inherit/learn/try out and share with others etc.
when you do get them, come back to me for a fab tom pasta recipe - you have to use home grown toms for it so i'll post when people have got a harvest.

Zazen999

Oh yeah, the difference [so i am led to believe] is that grow bag soil has a great percentage of manure in it, whereas bags of compost don't...if you do cut the bottom and leave the tom to root, you could do better than to try and mix some surplus grow bag soil into the soil that it is going to root in before you cut the bottom open [just dig underneath if it is possible to do so]. That way the roots get good soil as deep as possible. Manure = top for any veg that fruits; not so good for roots.

~Chameleon~

I still need to re-pot some of my tomatoes (some are in the ground already) and I've been trying to get those free buckets from supermarkets but not had any joy so looks like I'll need to buy some pots.

I've found a seller on ebay but I'm not sure what size pots I need as they list them in litre sizes. They seem to have every size going from 3litres up to 25 litres, so which ones would be best? I was thinking maybe 10 or 15 litres?

Oh, and which compost should I use - ordinary potting compost or growbag compost?

Thanks

sb44

I have a few tomato plants that I think may be ready to go into growbags.

They are about 12" tall and in 6" pots.

I had a 80ltr bag of compost which I have divided into 4 empty compost bags and rolled down the top of the bag.

The depth of compost in each is about 10", will this be deep enough to plant these into and would it be ok to put 2 plants in each bag?

lka200

personally i would only put one plant in each bag, the depth should be fine